The Legend of The 7 Golden Vampires

Greetings Groovy Ghoulies!

I wasn't sure if this weekend's first feature was going to make it on the air this week!I had seen the DVD of this last week at one of the book chains here in the area (not my favorite one, I'm more of a Barnes and Noble guy!). I knew I wasn't going to get paid for another week. So, I asked the young zombie-ish girl if she would hold it for me. She told me they only hold them for 24 hours. Shite!

So, I put it back on the shelf and waited. Yesterday morning, I went onto this chain's website and they have a thing where you ask the store to hold something for you. I found the DVD and entered my request. A few hours later, I received an email telling me they were out of this product. Well, tonight for the heck of it, I decided to take a ride over there, and sure enough on the shelf....The Legend of The 7 Golden Vampires. So, the drive-in will go on...I'm going to start having to come up with back-up plans!

Anyway, this is going to be my first viewing of this classic. And at the time this was made, Hammer Films was in trouble. It was 1974, and the horror from Hammer had it's day some ten or so years before. Peter Cushing played Professor Van Helsing for one of the last times, and John Forbes-Robertson was playing the role of Count Dracula after Christopher Lee had stated he would never play the role again. He had said the material had gotten too far away from Bram Stoker's original novel.

I think this was one of only two movies produced by Hammer that year, along with another movie also shot in China. This mixes Horror with the Kung Fu craze that had taken the Eastern World by storm. It tells the tale of a rural village in China attacked by vampires and Van Helsing to the rescue! With today's special effects, this could be a cool sequel to Van Helsing. Anyway, here's the trailer. I am really looking forward to watching this one!