The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires was a co-production between Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers and England's Hammer Studios in an attempt to cross Hammer's popular Dracula series with classic Shaw style Kung Fu. The film opens with Kah (Chan Shen), the high priest of the 7 Golden Vampires paying a visit to Count Dracula (played tolerably by Christopher Lee substitute John Forbes-Robertson). Kah asks Dracula for assistance with resurrecting his currently departed comrades. Dracula declines, but seizes the opportunity to leave his dreary mausoleum by taking over Kah's body and giving him the power to dub himself into English. Dracula then resurrects the 7 golden vampires and becomes their leader.
     Flash forward to turn of the century Mainland China where Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) joins forces with Hsi Ching (Shaw star David Chiang) to rid Ching's ancestral village of the marauding vampires. From here the movie takes on a road picture quality with lots of east vs. west vampire exposition, quirky humor and three big fight scenes.
     The first battle leaves something to be desired, as it uses poor camera angles which expose the fact that none of the hits are connecting. However, since Lau Kar-Leung (billed here as Chia-Liang Liu) handled the fight choreography, it isn't long before some top notch vampire kung fu action ensues. There are also some very sweet romantic subplots involving Van Helsing's son Leyland (Robin Stewart), who falls in love with Ching's sister Mai Kwei (Chang Cheh regular Szu Shih), and Hsi Ching, who makes eyes at millionaire benefactor Vanessa (Julie Ege).
     The conclusion of The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is a satisfying but somber ending which is typical of many of the Hammer films of the period. It's a pity there wasn't a sequel, because this is quite an enjoyable film, with great characters that are worthy of more development. The acting is above par, as well. David Chiang is very charming and displays very good chemistry with Peter Cushing and Julie Ege.
     Also, the crossing of cultures is handled very well and people familiar with both the Hammer gothic Dracula films and HK hopping vampire genre will be especially pleased. A great deal of attention is paid to specific cultural details, and it's obvious that the filmmakers were careful to respect the Chinese. This isn't the best of the Shaw Brothers Kung Fu films, nor is it the best of the Hammer horror films, but The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires is a very good mix between the two. (Magicvoice 2002)