Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
Blend of Gothic Horror and Martial Arts from the unlikely team of Hammer and Shaw. Starts with a Chinese fellow wandering around in Transylvania in 1804 after what must have been one heck of a long walk. He finds Dracula's castle. The infamous vampire (played by somebody who is not Christopher Lee) rises from his coffin. It seems the Chinese guy is the un-vampiric head (or something) of the temple of the 7 Golden Vampires, who are no longer in action for some reason. He wants Dracula's help restoring the status quo. Dracula being an arrogant so-and-so, he instead takes over the body of the Chinese man and heads to China to run the temple himself. Fast forward to 1904. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is lecturing students in China. He relates the Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires to the class, further confusing the timeline by sending us into a flashback. It seems a farmer went to the temple where the bloodsuckers were holding women captive to drain their blood. These vampires wear gold masks and gold bat symbols, ride horses, and fight with swords. They can also call up huge numbers of their dead victims as zombies to battle their enemies. The farmer, just before he gets killed, places one of the golden bats (apparently holding the vampire's life force or some such) on a statue of Buddha. The vampire tries to grab the bat, touches the statue, gets destroyed. Back in 1904, a young man tells Van Helsing that he's the grandson of the farmer. He, his six brothers, and his one sister, all masters of martial arts, each one with a different weapon gimmick, set out with Van Helsing, Van Helsing's pretty boy son, and a pretty young Swedish widow who is paying for the expedition. Tons of martial arts battles ensue, both with huge numbers of bandits, the 6 vampires (remember, one got destroyed in the flashback), and the army of zombies. Some of the good guys get killed, the remaining vampires get destroyed, Van Helsing confronts Dracula at the end. It's all ridiculous, and quite fun. It's interesting to note that the timeline wipes out everything that happened in Bram Stoker's novel, since Dracula has, apparently, been in China in another body from 1804 to 1904. Which raises the interesting question: Why does this film's Van Helsing say that he's battled Dracula before?
Blend of Gothic Horror and Martial Arts from the unlikely team of Hammer and Shaw. Starts with a Chinese fellow wandering around in Transylvania in 1804 after what must have been one heck of a long walk. He finds Dracula's castle. The infamous vampire (played by somebody who is not Christopher Lee) rises from his coffin. It seems the Chinese guy is the un-vampiric head (or something) of the temple of the 7 Golden Vampires, who are no longer in action for some reason. He wants Dracula's help restoring the status quo. Dracula being an arrogant so-and-so, he instead takes over the body of the Chinese man and heads to China to run the temple himself. Fast forward to 1904. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is lecturing students in China. He relates the Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires to the class, further confusing the timeline by sending us into a flashback. It seems a farmer went to the temple where the bloodsuckers were holding women captive to drain their blood. These vampires wear gold masks and gold bat symbols, ride horses, and fight with swords. They can also call up huge numbers of their dead victims as zombies to battle their enemies. The farmer, just before he gets killed, places one of the golden bats (apparently holding the vampire's life force or some such) on a statue of Buddha. The vampire tries to grab the bat, touches the statue, gets destroyed. Back in 1904, a young man tells Van Helsing that he's the grandson of the farmer. He, his six brothers, and his one sister, all masters of martial arts, each one with a different weapon gimmick, set out with Van Helsing, Van Helsing's pretty boy son, and a pretty young Swedish widow who is paying for the expedition. Tons of martial arts battles ensue, both with huge numbers of bandits, the 6 vampires (remember, one got destroyed in the flashback), and the army of zombies. Some of the good guys get killed, the remaining vampires get destroyed, Van Helsing confronts Dracula at the end. It's all ridiculous, and quite fun. It's interesting to note that the timeline wipes out everything that happened in Bram Stoker's novel, since Dracula has, apparently, been in China in another body from 1804 to 1904. Which raises the interesting question: Why does this film's Van Helsing say that he's battled Dracula before?