The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
| The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires | |
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UK film poster by Arnaldo Putzu
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| Written by | Don Houghton |
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| Music by | James Bernard |
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| Edited by | Chris Barnes |
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83 minutes |
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| Language | English Mandarin |
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is a 1974 horror film produced by Hammer Studios and Shaw Brothers Studio. It is the ninth and final film in the Hammer Dracula series. It was released in North America in an edited version as The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula, and alternatively known as The Seven Brothers and Their One Sister Meet Dracula. The film is notable for having an actor other than Christopher Lee portray Count Dracula in the Hammer Dracula series; before this film was made, Lee left the role of the Count. The role of Dracula is played by John Forbes-Robertson (though the actor's voice is dubbed by David de Keyser).
In Transylvania in 1804, a lone shaman figure makes his way through the countryside and into the towering Castle Dracula. He heads over to the tomb of the legendary vampire before summoning him. Soon, Count Dracula appears from his crypt and demands who has disturbed him. The figure announces, in his own language, that his name is Kah, a Taoist monk and High Priest of the Seven Golden Vampires in rural China. He goes on to tell the Count that the Golden Vampires' power is fading and he needs him to restore their former glory. Dracula considers the offer and accepts on one condition: that he takes on Kah's body and image to escape his castle, which has become his prison.
Despite pleas for mercy, the vampire takes hold of Kah in a cloud of unearthly mist and they are both subdued. When the mist clears, Kah speaks with the voice of Count Dracula, who then triumphantly leaves the tomb, bound for China...
In 1904, Professor Lawrence Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) gives a lecture at a Chungking university on Chinese vampire legend. He speaks of an unknown rural village that has been terrorised by a cult of seven known as 'Golden Vampires' for many years. He goes on to explain that a simple farmer, armed with a pitch-fork and who had lost his wife to the vampires, trekked his way to the temple of the vampires, where he saw many other unfortunate women strapped to tables, waiting for their blood to be drained. The farmer burst in and battled the vampires. He is unsuccessful as his wife is killed in the fight, but in the chaos, he grabbed a bat-like medallion from around one of the vampire's necks, which he sees as the vampires' life source. Defeated, the farmer flees the temple, but the High Priest orders the vampires after him. After they leave on horseback, the High Priest summons the vampire's former victims: the 'Undead' from their graves to aid the seven vampires. Still carrying the medallion, the farmer places it around a small model of a Jade Buddha. He knocks desperately on the locked village gates, but it is in vain. The vampires and their undead catch up with him and kill him. One of the vampires spies the medallion around the Buddha and goes over to collect it. The moment the vampire touched the Buddha, the creature is destroyed in flames.
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