The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires
1974
The great Peter Cushing stars, once again, as Professor Van Helsing in this fun collaboration from the mighty Hammer Studios and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers combining the vampire and kung fu genres. Fists of fury meet fearsome fangs as the vampire hunter persuades a gang of black belts, in 1904 Chungking, to help him put an end .. Read more
| Starring | Peter Cushing, Peter Cushing, Julie Ege, David Chiang |
|---|---|
| Director | Roy Ward Baker |
| Genres | Horror |
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The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires
The great Peter Cushing stars, once again, as Professor Van Helsing in this fun collaboration from the mighty Hammer Studios and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers combining the vampire and kung fu genres. Fists of fury meet fearsome fangs as the vampire hunter persuades a gang of black belts, in 1904 Chungking, to help him put an end to the bloodthirsty horror of Dracula. The film was butchered by 14 minutes and released as 'The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula' for its US release.
| Starring | Peter Cushing, Peter Cushing, Julie Ege, David Chiang, Robin Stewart, John Forbes-Robertson |
|---|---|
| Director | Roy Ward Baker |
| Studio | WARNER HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 25 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Horror |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 02 Aug 2004 Production year: 1974 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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In its waning years, Hammer tried to make imaginative changes to the old favourites and this east-meets-west tale was one of the studio's better attempts to update the vampire formula. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing treks to China to take on his long-standing enemy Dracula with the help of a martial arts clan, in this highly entertaining and surprisingly thoughtful kung fu horror movie. It sounds ludicrous, but it works, mainly thanks to excellent fight choreography featuring the masked samurai undead and rousing direction from horror veteran Roy Ward Baker.
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Hammer and Shaw Brothers combine to provide a fusion of kung-fu and vampirism in which Cushing's Van Helsen tracks... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Excellent Hammer Entertainment!
This lovely Hammer Horror blending of the traditional vampire tale with martial arts stars Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing. The plot follows Van Helsing, who is drawn into a plot involving a legendary seven golden vampires, the prince of darkness; Dracula himself, the undead and a load of martial artists. Our hero must, along with his son and an escort of kung fu fighters travel to a cursed village somewhere in China to rid it of the vampire curse that holds it. One of the reasons why Hammer horror is so brilliant is that it isn?t afraid to make a film that most other film studios would regard as stupid and then make it work. The main reason why Hammer horror does work is that the films, despite showing many macabre images, are always good natured and made with a lot of heart so they're easy to like; and this one is no different.
The Eastern style makes for a very different vampire film to what we're used to, and Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires seems keen to capitalise on that as it changes many of the traditional vampire rules to suit the east (for example, the traditional cross to ward off vampires is replaced by the image of Budha). As usual with Hammer, the effects are hokey to say the least, the production values are low and everyone except Peter Cushing leaves a lot to be desired acting-wise...but without these traits, this film wouldn?t be Hammer, so these things are not only forgivable, but welcome. Peter Cushing's performance in this movie isn?t his best, but fans of his will still relish it. There's something about Cushing's persona that makes him very watchable, and every film with him in it is worth watching, if only for that reason. He also gets involved in some of the martial arts fights, which is nice to see. The fights themselves are very well staged, much better than I was expecting with this being a horror film with kung fu elements, rather than a full blown fight-fest.
This is the fifth film I've seen by Hammer director Roy Ward Baker and although it's not the best, it's still a very solid offering from the man who was probably Hammer's finest director. This film is a lot of fun, and I don?t doubt that it will delight anyone who sees it, and therefore it comes with the highest recommendations from me. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Underrated!
This is the much-maligned final Hammer Dracula film, which marked a brave marriage between traditional horror and relentless scenes of kung-fu.
Peter Cushing is gaunt but brave as Van Helsing. Dracula himself makes two very brief appearances, but it's John Forbes Robertson labouring under heavy make-up as the Count, not Christopher Lee. Forbes Robertson is actually very good in the role, despite having to re-dub his own voice and having virtually no storyline to speak of.
Apparently, this film endured a troubled production but was actually greeted with some impressive returns on its opening.
Nowhere near as bad as its reputation suggests, this is rather fun. Nowhere near the best thing Hammer has produced, but entertaining nonsense just the same.
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- NAParry from Branston
- Posted 17 Apr 2005 19:20
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The great Peter Cushing stars, once again, as Professor Van Helsing in this fun collaboration from the mighty Hammer Studios and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers combining the vampire and kung fu genres. ... -