Even in the world of vampire movies, the story here is pretty ridiculous. If these vampires have been terrorizing this village for generations, why didn't the residents just move? And why would a group of talented martial artists that can take on dozens of people (or vampires) at a time need the aid of an old white guy. Also, the vampires themselves don't seem to be all that threatening, not having the powers exhibited by most filmic representations of the creatures. Even Dracula himself goes down with barely any sweat raised on Van Helsing's deeply-wrinkled and disheveled brow.

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires was an interesting idea for the time, but it never quite succeeds. The horror elements are almost laughably bad now, with the Hammer version of fake blood being only slightly more realistic than the Shaws' ketchupy recipe. And, even with Lau Kar-Leung working as the martial arts director, the kung fu scenes feel fairly flat and uninspired -- perhaps it was shot and edited by a European crew. Still, despite its' flaws, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires has a sort of kitschy charm that makes it hard to actually hate it for very long, with the good outweighing the bad, albeit sometimes just barely.