Article 2197 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-22-2007
Posting Date: 8-18-2007
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Featuring Peter Cushing, David Chiang, Julie Ege
Dracula takes the form of a Chinese warlord in order to resurrect the seven golden vampires, and then proceeds to terrorize a small Chinese village. Dr. Van Helsing comes to China and combines forces with a family of martial arts experts to do battle with the vampires.
This was the last of Hammer's vampire movies, and the sheer novelty value of the concept helps put it over. Hammer combined with Shaw Brothers to produce this martial arts vampire movie, and the kung fu action combined with vampire thrills was enough to hold my interest. Some of it is quite eerie indeed; I love the shots of the undead minions rising out of the ground during the monster attacks, and the attack sequences are pretty exciting. My main disappointments here were minor ones; the bats are utterly unconvincing, and the final battle with Dracula is brief and anticlimactic. Nonetheless, there's a decent amount of fun in this one, and I quite enjoyed it.
