The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

Directed by

Roy Ward Baker, Chang Cheh

Genre

horror film, martial arts film, vampire film, film based on a novel, fantasy film

Country

British Hong Kong, United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 33m

Rated

R

Rating

5.8 of 10 from 148 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A vampire hunter is recruited to help a Chinese man and his siblings defeat seven golden masked vampires that have been resurrected by Dracula. They use martial arts and traditional vampire fighting methods to stop the undead threat.

campyfast-pacedaction-packedgothicspookyb-moviekitschyadventurous

What happens

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (Chinese: 七金屍) is a 1974 martial arts horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker. The film opens in 1804, when seven vampires clad in gold masks are resurrected by Count Dracula (played by John Forbes-Robertson). A century later, Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), known in the world for his exploits with Dracula, is recruited by Hsi Ching (David Chiang) and his seven siblings after giving a lecture at a Chinese university to take on the vampires. The film is a British-Hong Kong co-production between Hammer Film Productions and Shaw Brothers Studio. The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires was shot between 22 October and 11 December 1973, at Shaw Brothers Studios in Hong Kong, where Chang Cheh was hired to direct further martial arts scenes for the film's release in the East. The film was first released in Hong Kong and then in the United Kingdom with a shorter runtime. On its release in the United States, the film was truncated further and titled The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula. The film was a financial failure. Baker said that The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires was a "Terrible picture, but some of the Chinese were very nice. The leading man was David Chang, a nice man. The kung-fu people were alright. They went a bit berserk but I left that alone. The understanding was that they would do the kung-fu stuff and I would do the rest of it, which suited me no end I can tell you." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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