The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires

Fellow sojourners, I bring you today a film that I can guarantee has not been viewed in its entirety by anyone reading this post. It is a true classic of 70’s horror, and would surely provide an interesting talking point among your horror-inclined friends…assuming you have any (Hey, guess what movie I just saw?) Without further ado, I present to you the 1974 classic, “The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires”.
What I learned from the Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires:

1) Chinese vampires constantly hop up and down (in the film, the vampires never move in natural ways, jumping up and down, and moving in slow motion. They are in many ways similar to zombies)
2) The broken down ancient Gothic castle motif cannot be done in rural China. (Instead, the vampires live in a multi-story Chinese hall of death!)
3) Scandinavian billionaire heiresses are pretty good vampire hunters
4) Chinese vampires die pretty easy
5) Dracula lives in a stone tomb with a gigantic “D” on the front (in case he forgot who he was)
6) Just because a vampire glitters, does not mean that it is Gold (however, all vampires featured herein are indeed Golden)
But you must watch the film to learn more pearls of wisdom from this classic film.

If the title wasn’t good enough for you, then the premise is sure to catch your attention. It is a conceptual home run, being the first (and only) collaboration between the British B Horror giant Hammer Films and the Hong Kong Kung Fu Shaw Brothers studios. The film revolves around the following ideas: A Chinese vampire, one of the titular 7 Golden Vampires, traveled to Transylvania in the 19th century to seek help from Dracula in maintaining their desperate hold over a small rural province in central China. Seeing an opportunity to free himself from the curse laid upon him by the Van Helsing family (it is too late to catch you up on the Hammer Dracula chronology), Dracula possessed the body of this poor Chinese vampire, and traveled to China to start a completely new empire! 100 years later, Professor Van Helsing gives a lecture at a college in Hong Kong about the cursed vampire village of Pang Kwei (yes, the same village Dracula took over). He tells of a brave man who gave up his life to seal the vampires in their tombs, but could not forever end the vampire curse. Van Helsing then is approached by a man claiming to be the grandson of this brave vampire hunter. Together, Van Helsing and the brave Hsi Ching journey to the Cursed Village to rid China of vampires once and for all.




So, in short: An English professor, his son, a rich Scandinavian heiress with cash to burn, and seven kung Fu experts travel to a cursed Chinese Village to kill the Chinese Dracula. Before you stop reading this post to find the film, just listen for a little while anyway…

HERE BE SPOILERS




This merry band of misfits travel to the mysterious village of Pang Kwei to destroy the vampire curse, but they are discovered by the 7 Golden Vampires, who are waking out of their 100 year sleep to feed and terrorize once again. The Vampires attack unsuspecting neighboring villages (in search of authentic Chinese take-out) and begin to increase their ranks, in anticipation of the vampire hunters’ attack.
The hunters, dangerously close the village, decide to spend the night in an abandoned cave, seeking to stay out of sight.





(Perhaps dark caves adjacent to vampire infested villages are not the best sleeping arrangements…) Sensing trouble, Van Helsing warns the group of an impending attack. And sure enough, a massive horde of vampires attack! Three of the 7 golden vampires lead the group of undead against our heroes, and they are soundly defeated. There are some really nice novelty Kung Fu vampire deaths here, including head severing, being shot through the heart with a wood tip arrow, and the classic immolation by torch.
The climax of the film comes when the group of hunters (headed by Van Helsing and Ching) make it into the village, which they soon outfit with an inventive series of vampire traps (stakes, oil trenches, etc) and brace for the final assault of the remaining Golden Vampires. Led by more of the Golden Vampires, a second wave of zombie Renfields engage the hunters. Vanessa (the heiress, and love interest of Ching) is killed when she is bitten by one of the Golden Vampires, and she is killed by Ching, who is mortally wounded by the vampire Vanessa. All but the Van Helsings and Ching’s sister are killed in the battle.
I know it is getting a little plodding at this point in the review, so I will hurry the plot summary.
The last of the 7 Golden Vampires captures Ching’s sister, who was romantically involved with Van Helsing’s son. Van Helsing and his father storm the castle, killing the last of the 7 Golden Vampires, and rescuing Ching’s sister….. but all is not well. The vampires have been killed, but evil remains.
Enter Dracula.
Still in the form of the Chinese vampire he possessed, Dracula rises from his tomb to kill his mortal enemies, the Van Helsings. After using a spell to revert Dracula back to his original form (it is just more believable to have an imposing British stage actor to play Dracula instead of a Kung Fu master…) Van Helsing quickly, and disappointingly stabs him in the heart with a stake, presumably killing him forever. The film ends with Dracula turning to dust, while the Van Helsing’s (with Ching’s sister) walk off safely into the sunset.




There are several notable elements in the film, including a genuine atmosphere of horror. The scene in the beginning of the film recounting the 7 Golden Vampires terrorizing the village showed many gruesome scenes, but also much darkness and fog to highlight the dangerous environment.
However, the most obvious elements of the film are comedic in nature, including bad zombie makeup, ludicrous dialogue sequences (as when Van Helsing is delivering his lecture, where he constantly refers to the curse of vampires, and the reality of Dracula… I suppose professor will say anything if you give them tenure) and the general plot structure itself begs for laughter.
Noel Carroll would definitely classify this as horror, as it features gruesome, threatening, and disgusting monsters. As a narrative, it would most likely fall into a sort of onset/discovery/confrontation plot structure.
The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires is a must-see for all connoisseurs and potential practitioners of horror. Historically, it marks the first time Christopher Lee seems to have turned down a script… so is must be good…


Robert



For those who are interested, I have attached the film in its entirety (no worries, it is in the Public Domain, as far as Google can tell..)