Count Yorga, Vampire

source: Count Yorga, Vampire

This picture may hold its share of interest for those who have managed to avoid the huge number of prototypical vampire films produced during past decades. Anyone who has seen his or her share of them, however, may be left wondering why some production outfit saw a need to offer the familiar story and characters yet one more time. There is virtually nothing original here: the bloodthirsty vampire, true to the classic legend; the grotesque assistant; the simple-minded skeptics; the doctor who dismisses nothing as mere superstition. The limited budget shows. Instead of special effects, there are cutaways when transformations and acts of bloodletting occur. Aside from the leading man, the cast is distinctly amateurish. The modern setting (Los Angeles, in the present time) is of no significance whatsoever. And yet, it was a commercial success. Go figure.

Lesson to be learned: If your girlfriend or fiancée happens to develop sudden listlessness after attending a seance conducted by a smooth-talking count from Bulgaria, or perhaps develops a yen for consuming dead house cats, you may want to heed the advice of your doctor friend when he tells you that the count in question may be nothing less than...a vampire! Anyway, that's the setup in Bob Kelljan's surprisingly shocking, intelligent and believable horror film from 1970, "Count Yorga, Vampire." Several ingredients really help to lift this modern-day tale above the raft of similar competitors. It is extremely well acted by every cast member; Robert Quarry makes for an exceptionally sinister neck nosher indeed, and he is well matched by Roger Perry as Dr. Hayes. The film contains some truly startling moments (such as the count's toothy grimace as seen through a van's window), restrained but effective use of gore, a deliciously downbeat ending, and even a nice little shocker as a final capper. Perhaps best of all is the wholly credible reaction of the guys (Michael Murphy and Michael Macready, the latter also serving as producer, and whose father, hissable character actor George Macready, provides the wonderfully dreary intro narration to the film) to the horror that has entered their lives. First they are dismissive, then skeptical, and finally stunned and frightened when faced with the realization of what they must do to rescue their women. As I said, an entirely realistic series of responses that really aids the viewer in buying in to the story. Oh...how could I forget to mention the count's brides; possibly the scariest-looking, fastest-moving bunch you've ever seen! Yes, this little horror flick, despite an underlit fight scene with the count's lupine manservant Brudah, is a pretty perfect outing. And from what I hear, the 1971 sequel, "The Return of Count Yorga," is even better....

A bucket of turds or perhaps a bouquet of turds. Some of the scenes have the camera placed a parking lot away from the actors delivering dialog. I presume the actors are also emoting in these across the parking lot scenes but I can't be certain because they are very far away. The horror scenes never materialize, at best they are murky thanks to bad lighting. The love scenes tease but never pay out, like nudity would be considered tasteless but the acting and direction during these love scenes is so bad, gratuitous nudity would be a real step up. I guess my real problem with this movie is that even by 70's film standards, its shot like a made-for-TV movie. Every choice from casting to editing to make up so on and so forth, predetermined by a trusted formula. Nothing ever appears real, not people, words, or place.

Another Dracula film in all but name, "Count Yorga, Vampire" was one of quite a few early-1970s reworkings of Bram Stoker's novel. 1970 alone includes two Dracula sequels from Hammer Films, a Jesús Franco Dracula and a Dracula-esque picture called "Jonathan." "Count Yorga" doesn't distinguish itself in any interesting ways from this pack. A low-budget production, it updates its bare-bones reworking of Stoker's story to the then-present of about 1970 and resets the action in Southern California. That's preferable compared to Franco's pitiful attempt to remain faithful to the source despite a lack of funds. Although made and set during the Sexual Revolution, the film is more misogynistic than Stoker's Victorian-age novel, as the film treats women as victims, and men perform the action and do most of the talking. One of the women goes on for a while about how much she likes the Count and is defensive about the size of her posterior. Another one becomes hysterical during a séance, and then she's hypnotized by the Count into submission. The producers also submitted the film to several cuts to receive a more favorable MPAA rating, and the result is a film that is tame in blood and sex compared to its contemporaries, including the Hammer series and Franco's films, especially, as for sex, his tellingly-titled "Vapyros Lesbos" (1971). The dead cat scene, however, has been restored, and it may be the best part here. Erica is essentially the Lucy character from Stoker's novel, in which Lucy, after turning into a vampire, feasted on children. A cat gets the same point across, and it's one of the more disturbing depictions of Lucy's vampiric behavior ever filmed. The lesbian scene while the Count watches and the implied rape by Yorga's servant are cut too short to be as shocking. A blood transfusion, like in the novel, is also performed. The doctor here plays both Stoker's Seward and Van Helsing types. Roger Perry's performance is off-putting. He plays with Erica's hair in her medical appointment with him, but he's not otherwise presented as creepy or perverted in the way, say, Anthony Hopkins's Van Helsing is in the 1992 Dracula movie. And, he's otherwise conceited and stupid. When arguing for the possibility of the existence of vampires, he haughtily shouts, "But can you prove that vampires don't exist?" I don't care if he smokes a lot and has some naked, randomly-introduced and quickly-forgotten clingy chick in his bed, he's not cool. Meanwhile, Robert Quarry's Count is almost too suave in the tradition of Bela Lugosi (as opposed to the more anti-social Dracula from Stoker's book); his disdain for rudeness nearly prevents him from avoiding the sunrise in one scene. Instead of any wolves, there's Rin Tin Tin, although it's not laughable as with the use of German Shepherds in the more faithful adaptations of Franco's 1970 film and the 1974 TV movie by Dan Curtis. The audio includes some bad ADR, including an extensive sequence of long shots where two of the guys walk the streets talking. Worst of all is the candle-lit, non-explicit erotica in a van. It's even worse than the love scene in the 1979 dime-romance-novel "Dracula." The ending isn't bad, though. Although the Count isn't as smart as he pretends, and he's weak for a vampire, at least crosses are less effective here than in the Hammer series; the Count laughs maniacally when the Doctor tries to hold him off with one.

Count Yorga (1970) was one of my childhood favorites. Like most of the films that I saw when I was younger I watched it on a small black and white T.V. My dad was also a fan of this one as well. It was one of the first movies I saw on videotape. This movie is a culture clash flick. An old school vampire living in the early seventies. The Count comes to California and starts up a harem of sexy vampires. Their angry boyfriends decide to team up together to try and put an end to the Count's midnight snacks. Total 70's action her folks. Count Yorga is one who's not to be trifled with. So grab some garlic and a crucifix 'cause Count Yorga might be in your neighborhood. Robert Quarry is the man as Count Yorga, and what's up with the coffin movers? Time capsule material. Recommended

Once again, as in Vampire Lovers, the traditionally based vampire legend comes back from the grave containing the permissive sexual standards of the times. The end result is Count Yorga, Vampire, a wonderfully fast-moving, edge of your seat scare ride that keeps you taunt until the shocking end. We first meet Count Yorga at a seance he holds for a group of friends, one of which has just lost her mother. During the seance, Count Yorga builds a strong bond between Donna, the grieving daughter, and himself. Everyone at the seance agrees that the Count is refined, well-mannered, and eloquent. We soon find out that Count Yorga is one of the most blood-thirsty and ruthless vampires we've seen on screen in years. He eliminates each of the friends one by one until it's up to two remaining friends to become reluctant vampire hunters to save Donna from an existence of living death. Count Yorga Vampire was made on a very small budget. However, nothing was spared as far as creativity and skill. Robert Quarry makes your blood run cold as the modern day Count Dracula, and Roger Perry is driven and pretty funny as Dr. Hayes, the modern day Dr. Van Helsing. This genuinely frightening movie contains scenes that you won't forget easily. There was a sequel called Return of Count Yorga, but after seeing this movie, you'll wish for a remake of this one instead of a pretty mediocre sequel.

Bob Kelljan's "Count Yorga,Vampire" is an effective horror film which has plenty of suspense and atmosphere.Robert Quarry("Madhouse")is simply outstanding as a deadly vampire Count Yorga and there are some sexy vampiresses.The film may be a little too tame for some people's tastes,but there is enough thrills to satisfy horror fans.Highly recommended.

Count Yorga (Robert Quarry), a vampire, comes from Bulgaria to 1970 Los Angeles and starts making a coven of beautiful female vampires. Will their boyfriends be able to stop him? This was a huge hit in 1970 because it was the first modern vampire film. Up until then all vampire films had been set in Europe in the 1800s or early 1900s. This was the first vampire film set in modern day. Still it isn't a great film. It was originally shot with soft core sex scenes which were (pretty obviously) edited out and it was turned into a sleazy PG rated film. It was made on a very low budget (it shows) and suffers from some horrible 1970s fashions and dialogue. Also the makeup on the female vampires is pretty poor. Still this isn't a total disaster either. The script is actually pretty intelligent considering this was a fairly rushed production. The acting is good--especially by Quarry who makes an imposing vampire. Very subtle performance but he handles the violent scenes quite well too. It moves at a fairly quick pace and has a great bloody climax--pretty extreme for a PG film. This won't impress audiences like it did in 1970 but it's still not that bad. The 2000 video version I have has "Yorga" spelled as "Iorga".

The film begins by showing us a coffin being removed from a ship, then trucked out to an estate in modern day (circa 1970) Los Angeles. On top of this, we hear narration telling us a bit about vampire legends. Soon after, we meet Count Yorga (Robert Quarry), as he conducts a séance to try to contact Donna's (Donna Anders) deceased mother. The séance turns slightly chaotic, and Donna's friends begin to suspect that there's something odd about the Count, especially when they learn that he had been dating Donna's mother, requested that she not be cremated, as her earlier wishes had it, but didn't turn up at the funeral. The film consists of Donna's friends trying to learn more about, and subsequently finding themselves further and further into trouble with, Count Yorga. It is no mystery, due to the title of the film, that he is a vampire. Although Count Yorga, Vampire is a bit talky in the beginning, the dialogue is good, and it gets even better as the film progresses. For viewers eager for more action than dialogue, they do not have to wait long. By the end of the séance scene, which comes maybe 10 minutes into the film, they should be interested, and by the end of the van scene, maybe 15 minutes in, they should be satisfied. The rest of the film is a very effective mixture of action and clever, dialogue-heavy scenes. Count Yorga, Vampire is one of the earlier attempts to place a Dracula-like figure in a modern setting. We certainly couldn't say that the film has no flaws, but for many viewers, including me, there are qualities to this film that enable it to rise above the flaws, and it ends up as a 10 out of 10 for me. One of the most effective elements of the film is the extensive hand-held camera work, which in combination with early 1970s film stocks and processing techniques gives Count Yorga, Vampire an atmosphere akin to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). The difference is that the focus here is a suave, debonair vampire living in a beautiful mansion, surrounded by beautiful vampire-women. For my money, Quarry is as good a "Dracula" as anyone who has played the role, including Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. There is also a Renfield-like character here in Brudah (Edward Walsh). Although I love Dwight Frye (Renfield in the 1931 Dracula) as much as anyone else, Brudah may be the creepiest henchman in any vampire film. Writer/director Bob Kelljan seemed to be aware that there was a campy element to the film, and it is acknowledged, but it remains very understated. For most of the film, Kelljan is going for creepiness and shocks, and he gets them. A 10 out of 10 from me.