The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula is an odd combination of "East meets West" that mostly works - mostly. With the Shaw Brothers in the East, and Hammer Studios in the West proliferating genre cinema in the 1960s and '70s, it is a wonder that there weren’t more cross over productions. But as it stands, this film represents a single anomaly, where two powerhouse genre studios banded together to produce a film that is a fun, and for the most part, a successful venture.
7 Brothers (a.k.a. Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires) is an attempt to marry the Western legends of Dracula, and his arch rival Professor Van Hellsing, with kung fu, and small doses of Chinese mythology, and Taosim. In the film, Peter Cushing, as Van Hellsing, teams up with Shaw Brothers super star David Chiang, playing a descendent of a peasant who fought Dracula many years ago. Dracula has since possessed the body of a Chinese sorcerer, and commands the control of skull-faced kung fu zombies who are a mix between the blind-dead in the Tomb of the Blind Dead films, and the more common Chinese hopping vampires.
Although the film maintains more of the western vampire mythology, there are small references to their eastern cousins. In China, Vampires are not suave, or smooth talking womanizers, nor are they drama-class dropouts. Chinese vampires are actually zombie-like creatures that have escaped the spiritual clutches of the Taoist priest charged to look after them before burial ceremonies. Chinese vampires cannot turn into bats, or mist, nor do they suck blood with fangs. Chinese vampires hop around, pogo-style, on two feet because their ankles are tied together for burial purposes, hence the "hopping vampire" title. They use their supernatural sense of smell to track down their victims, and once captured, the vampires devour their flesh, ghoul-style.
In 7 Brothers, the vampires may look more like the Chinese-hopping variety, but they still have fangs, and they kind of run-skip rather than hop after their victims. The vampires in this film are especially adept at removing the shirts of nubile young Chinese woman, as the girls scream running amuck in pandemonium trying to escape the clutches of the ghoulish fiends. As a matter of fact, I was quite surprised at the amount of nudity and blood in the film – two most welcome additions to any exploitative horror film.
The film is actually quite entertaining, and moves along at a breakneck pace. As a matter of fact, the story is kept to a bare minimum, and the film focuses more on the action with some pretty dang good kung fu choreography, especially for a Western co-production. The narrative of 7 Brothers really just seems like an excuse to feature a bunch of kung fu, and vampire-zombie killing action, which again is a most welcome surprise.
Although I was pleased with the amount of action and gore, I must be honest and say I was disappointed with the lack of coverage given to the legends of the vampires themselves. With the differences between the Eastern and Western myths, given the right script, this idea could have been molded into an interesting narrative. I couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities, and wonder what might have been had such an interesting idea not gone to waste. If only the filmmakers would have paid more attention to the narrative, and the differences between the two cultures' vampire mythologies, we could have had an excellent story to go along with the great action.
With this said though, I cannot fault the film for anything it does contain. The film definitely feels more "Hammer" than "Shaw," but there is respect given to the Chinese heroes, their mysticism, and their kung fu. David Chiang is given a good heroic roll, and even has a small romantic connection with the western starlette Julie Ege, adding the always-appreciated Hammer-hotness. The action is filmed a bit on the safe side, but the choreography is fun, and the battles, of which there are many, feel frantic, and dangerous with a variety of weapons being used. The sets are nicely put together, and it is great to see the famous Shaw Studios' Pagoda doubling as Dracula’s Eastern haven.
This film had been on my short list, or long list I suppose, for many years, and once I finally got around to seeing it I was not disappointed. I was surprised in my reaction though – I actually wanted more narrative and less kung fu. I am beginning to wonder if something is wrong with me – am I getting dull in my old age? Will I soon be craving the dull and introspective films of a Tarrence Malick or a Lars Von Trier? No, I highly doubt it; I just know that given the proper attention to the story, this film could have been a real classic. As it stands though, it’s merely entertaining - and how can you go wrong with a kung fu film with zombies, and vampires, Peter Cushing, nudity, and gore?
