Martial Arts Vs. Vampires

 

 (themoviedatabase)

LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES-1974-Transylvania 1804. A guy named Kan (Shen Chan) who once presided over the 7 Golden Vampires visits Dracula's castle to ask the king of vampires to help him resurrect the group. Dracula (John Forbes-Robinson) has a better idea. He possesses Kan's “image” and decides to resurrect the 7 himself. After the credits, in Chung King 100 years later, Prof. Van Helsing (who else but Peter Cushing) lectures on the Seven Vampires and his encounters with Dracula. The “sophisticated” Chinese students ridicule him but one student Hsi Ching (David Chiang) visits the professor at night to apol-ogize. He definitely believes in the legend as his grandfather destroyed one of the vampires. He wants Van Helsing to accompany him and his 6 brothers to the village where the remaining 6 vampires rule. Meanwhile, Van Helsing's son Leland (Robin Stewart) gets into trouble with local gangster Leung Hon, when he agrees to escort widowed world traveler Vanessa Buren (Julie Ege) home. They are saved by 2 of Hsi's brothers. Vanessa agrees to finance their expedition provided she's allowed to go. Under the protests of the elder Van Helsing, she is allowed. 

Right off the bat, they are attacked by Hon's gang. The brothers (each has a specialty) plus their lone sister Mei Kwei (Szu Shih) defeat the gang and Hon gets an arrow through his neck. Later, in the village, the group battles the remaining 6 vampires and their undead army. They destroy 3 more then get ready for a final showdown. There's a big violent martial arts battle that ends tragically for some. After the final vampire is put down, Van Helsing meets his arch enemy. Dracula's disintegration scene seems longer than their actual battle. 

This has a little of everything: martial arts, weapons, vampires, walking dead, nudity, dismemberment. No classic but not the shit show it is sometimes described as. However, this was Hammer co-production with The Shaw Brothers studio and there were a lot of “communication prob-lems” between the two directors on the film, the English Roy Ward Baker and the Chinese Cheh Chang. A sequel was planned but poor box office performance shelved that idea.

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Don't Look A Zombie In The Mouth If He Has A Gift For You

 

 (themoviedb.org)

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS-2016-Some whacko who didn't like children must have come up with the premise for this UK production. A fungus has turned the human race into noisy cannibalistic zombies. Some mad scientists, led by Dr. Caldwell (Glen Close) experiment on children trying to find a cure. Later, some of them escape with a young girl, Melanie (Sennia Nanua), a 10-year-old cannibal child with a high IQ. It seems she may be heralding a new kind of human.

Screenplay writer Mike Carey adapted his own book. Director Colm Mc-Carthy worked mostly on TV in England before this.

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UK Strangeness

THE WHITE BUS-1967-A woman (Patricia Healy) who may be suicidal (or dead?) leaves her boyfriend (“I'll write”) and takes a train ride full of football fans to an unnamed city (some say it's Manchester). She joins a double decker tour bus after witnessing what seems like a kidnapping. On the bus she meets the Mayor (Arthur Lowe) and the Macebearer (John Sharp). They go by factories and apartment complexes and listen to a guy (Anthony Hopkins in his film debut) sing in German. They also see people doing Kendo and a fire fighting demonstration. The film changes from black and white to color and back again several times. It ends with the woman eating in a cafe' while a waitress complains about her work. A good double feature with DILLINGER IS DEAD..

.https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2018/10/are-you-sure.html

Director Lindsey Anderson made this freaky short film (46 minutes) a year before IF... for a trilogy that was never finished. Based on a story by Shelagh Delaney. Also known as RED WHITE AND ZERO.

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The Yeti

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS-1957-Dr. John Rawlinson (Peter Cushing) a botanist doing research in the the Himalayas joins up with a boisterous American climber Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) to find the legendary Yeti. Friend wants to capture one alive and show it on US TV. Rawlinson just wants to prove it exists. There's a lot of climbing and soul searching and Friend turns out to be a cutthroat swindler. After a little Yeti they capture escapes (actually rescued) the group finds some large footprints. Later a big clawed hand appears sticking in their tent. Their guide goes mad when he sees one and runs away (but somehow makes it back to the village) and the head Lama there acts very mysterious. The Yetis seem to have some kind of mental power over the group who hear voices and do crazy things. After Friend is killed in an avalanche Rawlinson meets the snowmen and we get our only view of them too. Rawlinson's wife leads her own expedition and finds hubby nearly frozen to death. Nursed back to health the doctor now admits he was wrong. There is no Yeti waiting for man to die off.

When I was a kid my friends and I were always disappointed by the brief glimpse of the Yeti but today THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN holds up well despite this. The acting is great. Director Val Guest probably took a big chance in not showing too much of the creature in the monster laden age of the late '50's but he still does a good job of story telling. He also made ENEMY FROM SPACE the same year which was also penned by SNOWMAN's screenwriter Nigel Kneale. 

This Hammer production is based on a BBC TV drama entitled THE CREATURE (also written by Kneale).

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Don't Make a Dinosaur (or me either...)

THE DINOSAUR PROJECT-2012-Found footage nonsense depicting a British explorer's trek to a remote part of Africa where dinosaurs are said to dwell. Also along are his assistant (who later on betrays the explorer) and a film crew (plus the explorer's son who stows away). They all seem unprepared for the task and are almost immediately attacked by giant pterodactyl like bats (or vice-versa). Later they are terrorized by a sea monster, T-Rex and other Jurassic Park type nasties but it's mostly the cast talking to the camera and shaky photography. Director Sid Bennett did mostly TV work before this UK production.

 

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