By the early 70s, England's Hammer Film was going downhill with their horror film series which started back in 1958 with “Dracula” starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. On the other hand, Shaw Brothers Studio was riding high on their kung fu boom and for their last “Dracula” film series, Hammer decided to join forces with Shaw Brothers to film in Hong Kong and thereby introducing martial arts components into the horror genre.
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Nonetheless, the story starts off in Transylvania in 1908 with a Chinese High Priest Kah (Chan Shen) who's seeking the help of Count Dracula to regenerate his golden vampires back in China to their former glory. He arrives at Dracula's castle, casually strolls into the crypt and kneels in front of a lone coffin marked with the letter “D”. Awaken from his slumber, the Prince of Darkness who somehow understands Mandarin, agrees to help Kah. However, in order to leave his castle which has bizarrely held him prisoner, Dracula kills him, takes over his body and surrounded by a puff of white smoke, he laughs and vanishes, heading to China no doubt.
Fast forward a century later in Chunking, China 1904, Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is giving lectures at the university regarding a group of seven golden vampires who're causing havoc in Pang Kwe, a remote rural village. Evidently, killing one of the vampires was a farmer named Hsi Tien En. In any case, no one in the audience believes him except for one young man Hsi Ching (David Chiang) who seems totally engrossed in the Professor's ramblings. It turns out that Hsi is actually from that same village and the farmer was his grandfather, in fact he's in town to recruit Helsing to destroy those vampires along with his six brothers and sister who're all highly skilled kung fu masters. Of course they have no idea that Dracula has migrated to China and is now the boss of those undead. Accordingly, Helsing must be at least over one hundred years old if he had fought Dracula before during the 1800s and now he's about to fight him again in 1904.
Joining their quest is his son Leyland Helsing (Robin Stewart) and a rich window, the adventurous, curvaceous Vernessa Buren (Julie Ege) who also finances the whole trip. Along the way, the ragtag avengers survive attacks from both the local thugs and the undead before they finally reach the village where they engage in a bloody battle with the remaining golden vampires and the ultimate face off with Dracula, who's still in Kah's body.
There must have been some cultural clashes while making this movie. For a start, Shaw Brothers don't film in sync sound which is evident in the numerous fight scenes. Nonetheless, speaking in good English, David Chiang is reasonably impressive as the leader of a family of vampire killers, although his skill with weapons is not fully displayed here as he mostly fights bare handed. Moreover, he shares good chemistry with main lead Peter Cushing who's outstanding and mesmerizing and both are definitely the driving force of the film. Conversely, Robin Stewart is a rather weak character who seems to be there just to engage in a subplot of interracial romance. Besides, his encounters with the zombies are more like a dodging affair than actually fighting them. The sensual Julie Ege has nothing much to offer here although she does provide plenty of eye candy moments.
Unfortunately for the rest of the six Hsi brothers, no dialogue is written for them, they're just faceless kung fu experts wielding different weapons whose sole purposes are to kill the vampires and thus we never get to know them. However, Hsi's sister, Mei Kwei, played by the lovely Shih Szu flares much better, being deadly with her kicks and daggers, but also a great cook who steals the heart of Leyland. Arranged by Lau Kar Leung and Tang Chia, the fight choreography is plentiful but basic, though the bloody and brutal outdoor battle between the brothers and some local thugs stands out the most. Moreover, uncredited though landing a hand as the second unit action team is director Chang Cheh.
Dressed in their colorful robes and wearing lots of gold, those golden vampires sure look good, even more so while riding on horses in slow motion as they attack the poor village people. However, those rotten corpses they summon from the graves as their helpers move in a peculiar way, they sort of just skip along and they're not as menacing. It's a pity that Christopher Lee doesn't return as Dracula, he's replaced by John Forbes-Robertson, a pale substitute indeed and Hammer even has his voice dubbed over. In a brief role but with intense piercing eyes, Chan Shen is memorable playing the high priest Kah.
Though hardly a perfect mix of martial arts and horror, this co-production still has a goofy charm of its own, besides it moves at a fast pace to give viewers a unique but entertaining experience full of action, gore and even romance.
