This was the ninth and final Hammer Horror film based around Dracula, the swan song for the studios cult classic blood-sucking series. Not only is this final entry famous for not starring Christopher Lee as Dracula, its also quite infamous for the various edits and movie titles. In the US a heavily cut version was known as 'The 7 Brothers meet Dracula'. Whilst at the same time on trailers it was called 'The 7 Brothers and their One Sister Meet Dracula'. And in Asia the film was known as 'Dracula and the 7 Golden Vampires'.
So the story goes thusly. In 1804 A Taoist monk ventures to Dracula's castle in order to ask him for help in restoring power and dominance to the Seven Golden Vampires in the rural area of China that he hails from. The Count is not too bothered at first but then decides to help the monk in exchange for his mortal body so he can leave the confines of Castle Dracula. The monk does not like this aspect of the Count's deal but the Count gives zero shits and takes his body anyway. Not too sure why Dracula would even consider this deal knowing he couldn't actually accept it without a mortal body to inhabit.
So Dracula goes off to rural China (despite not showing us how he goes about getting there or how the Count knows where to actually go in China). It's now 1904 (why? I dunno) and the Count has taken control of the Seven Golden Vampires in the rural area and is draining the local women on a regular basis (in the monk's form). Meanwhile at the local University Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is trying to teach the locals about local Chinese vampiric legends but no one believes him (so why do they take his class?).
One of his students Hsi Ching (David Chiang) informs Van Helsing that the legends are actually true (his grandfather was involved in one of the local stories or vampire myths) and asks him to come to a small village to destroy the vampire threat. Naturally Van Helsing agrees and ventures off with his son Leyland (Robin Stewart), Hsi and his seven siblings who are highly skilled in martial arts and combat, and Vanessa Buren; a wealthy widow they saved from a rival Chinese gang not long before. From here on the movie is literally Kung Fu vs vampires...and it's hella awesome.
OK so if you've seen any of the other Hammer horror movies then you know what you're in for here. The visuals are generally a mixed bag truth be told ranging from obvious campy sets to obvious cheap little villages where all the vampire fodder lives. Admittedly there is some solid detail in the sets but they can't help but look fake; tis all part of the charm. I love how in one scene the goodies set up camp in a cave which is of course your typical perfectly sized cave for a large group of people and a riotous battle. But much like the classic 60's Batman series with Adam West many interior sets, and exterior night shots, are bathed with ugly green or red lighting and much smoke. Sometimes even the odd Dutch tilt. This is obviously to give off a nice supernatural vibe but let's be honest it always looks a bit kooky. That's not to say it all looks obvious, they did utilise locations too, although not the most inspired Hong Kong landscapes.
Natuarally a lot of this movie takes place at night because it's a horror and also probably to hide the lack of realism and bare-bones sets. But this does also help with the rather shoddy makeup effects too which are again a mixed bag. The first real taste of the undead we get is John Forbes-Robertson as Dracula who is literally caped (ahem) in makeup. They really slathered the stuff on with a trowl because it looks pretty awful and terribly obvious. Like you can clearly see where they have tried to bring out his bone structure. The actual golden vampires are slightly better with their full latex looking masks but again it's a bit shoddy lookin'. They all look like Leatherface from that 1974 horror film...but with Tina Turner style wigs on and ridiculous fangs stuck in their mouths. But I understand they are supposed to be Chinese vampires and thusly the team maybe went for a more demon-esque look.
Movie highlight has to be the few sequences of the undead rising from their graves in the depths of the night. It's not scary or anything but it is pleasantly creepy and extremely well done. Obviously the darkness will have hidden a lot but watching the earth slowly part as a skull-faced undead zombie begins to poke through is most entertaining. The nice wide shots of the scruffy shadowy graveyard and gravestones with numerous undead zombies popping up and stumbling about was nicely atmospheric. Again it's nothing original by today's standards and even at the time I'm sure it had probably already been done; but it certainly looks like it may have influenced many future horror movies.
So whilst the makeup and sets are somewhat lacking, the crazy kung-fu hijinks makes up for it. You want kung-fu vs vampires? You got it. There is no let up as we get one large battle after another. Van Helsing and his plucky band of ninja warriors (all of whom have special fighting skills with knives, axes, spears, bow and arrows, swords etc...) take down the golden vampires one at a time until they themselves eventually succumb to the undead hordes. The action is indeed pretty sweet I have to say. Sure all the weapons look fake as feck. Clearly no one is making contact with anyone. The extras in the backgrounds of fight scenes wait patiently in line for their time to fight a hero. There is blood but its sooo fake looking, far too red. And some of the death throes of the vampires are quite comical. On the plus side, I loved how the vampires all crumbled, melted, and decomposed before our very eyes once finally put down. The effects are naturally basic for sure but still highly enjoyable.
I did find it odd how these Chinese vampires didn't really attempt to bite anyone though, they are vampires after all. I should also point out that they seemed to get killed like any normal mortal when struck with a weapon anywhere. I'm gonna assume they were struck in the heart each time but it didn't look like it. But you shouldn't really look into this much seeing as this entire movie is basically an excuse to have kung-fu in a vampire flick.
I think the main problem with this movie is the fact that its only really engaging when the vampires and their undead army fight the kung-fu dirty dozen (not actually a dozen). Sure it's amusing to watch Cushing pretend to fight. Sure it's amusing to see Cushing in his exploring attire (that helmet and scarf!). And yes, it is always a joy to simply watch and listen to Cushing in full flow. But there are a lot of flashback scenes here, all chocked full of mythical exposition. And Dracula himself is hardly in the film and when he does turn up Van Helsing kills him off quickly (but with the best decomposing sequence). Really you didn't need Dracula, you could have just had Van Helsing going to China to fight Chinese vampires. Dracula was clearly only used for brand recognition but restricted because Lee was no longer involved. I'm not really even sure what Dracula's longterm plan was. Take over the monks body. Go to China and take control of the 7 golden vampires. And then...? Take over China? Take over that specific region? Was he simply trading Transylvania for China?
So yeah the entire basis of this flick is based on Hammer desperately trying to inject new blood (ahem) into their failing horror franchise. They tried it before (and failed) dragging Drac into the modern world of the 60's (at the time), and this time they were aiming for the younger generation and the new martial arts craze thanks mainly to Bruce Lee. Did it work? Umm...kinda. Despite the total absurdity of the concept the movie isn't the disaster you'd expect. Overall it looks fine, the action is solid, and Cushing helps keep things grounded which is quite the achievement really. If you think about it this is one hell of a cross-over, classic vampires and Bruce Lee action essentially. That alone should draw attention and it rightly deserves some. It lacks that classic Hammer vampire atmosphere but the star of this show was always the martial arts.
6.5/10
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