Movie Review: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

This movie’s pretty out there. As the final film in the Hammer Dracula series, it doesn’t really belong. Not only were the last couple of films set in the modern day while this goes back to the 19th century.

This is essentially a mashup movie of Hong Kong martial arts cinema and British gothic horror. It’s probably more interesting than it is entertaining. The movie was shot entirely in Hong Kong, and I’ll give the filmmakers some credit. They got Peter Cushing out to Hong Kong.

Dr. Van Helsing is talking Chinese history over at the University of Hong Kong, and he tells of the titular legend, which he fully believes in, and he’s surprised to see that a lot of the Chinese people don’t believe. I was sort of expecting his to present Chinese culture in an upsetting light, and i didn’t really do that. It’s all written in a way that makes Van Helsing aware that he’s the outsider. He’s not there to lead, he’s there to learn. He ends up leading, but that makes sense, because it ends up being his old pal Dracula (John Forbes-Robertson).

And that’s certainly one of the biggest problems — it’s not Christopher Lee. They also make this Dracula take up the appearance of a Chinese man in order to blend in, but it really seems like they did that just so you wouldn’t realize it’s not Christopher Lee.

The martial arts action is pretty forgettable, and this is where the movie probably could have been saved. Because it is pure schlock. It’s very, very dumb, and it would have been far more entertaining if this stuff was more fun.

Rating: 3/10