Dracula is visited in his Transylvanian lair by a Chinese man hoping to resurrect his vampires. Instead, Dracula possesses and takes over his visitor (you really cant trust these evil types, can you?) and travels to a small village in China to escape his exile. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is given a lead to Dracs whereabouts by Hsi Ching (David Chiang) and they embark on a trek across China to rid the world of Dracula and his 7 unholy brothers.
By 1974, the once proud Hammer studio was ailing quite badly. In an obvious effort to latch on to the martial arts craze started when ENTER THE DRAGON made it big, they decided to join their usual horror/mild gore stylings with that of the new-fangled eastern type of action. To their credit, at least they went to the Shaw Brothers and tried to do it properly.
Unfortunately, it doesnt really work. The action scenes seem bolted on, and the horror scenes are pretty laughable. Theres a fair amount of talent on the Hong Kong end of the production - Lau Kar-Wing has a very visible role, Si Si is lovely as Hsi Chings sister, and Fong Haak-On is apparently in there somewhere as well, but I didnt spot him. But its David Chiang thats supposed to drive the film.
Its a bit of a shock to hear his real voice, I have to say. He sounds rather higher-pitched than Id imagined. Although not able to speak English, he learned his lines phonetically, and doesnt come off as badly as you might imagine (although I strongly suspect he says destroyded at one point). Its quite a novelty to hear him speak in English, and one that doesnt wear off. Unfortunately, he is given very little to do on the action front, and whats there isnt all that thrilling.
Arguably, the horror aspect is even worse. You have some unknown actor in the role of Dracula for a start. And I must admit I find the whole Dracula thing really passé anyway.
Its such a shame that the only UK/Hong Kong collaboration didnt work out, and the mixing of the genres could have produced a real cult classic. Instead, this vampire movie just sucks and not in a good way.
Reviewer Score: 3
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