The Return of Count Yorga

As far as I can tell, Count Yorga was created to cash in on the then-popular monster frenzy created by DARK SHADOWS. In fact, the actor who plays Count Yorga must think he's in an episode of DARK SHADOWS, delivering his lines with pompous seriousness("I have the power to destroy you (dramatic pause)or let you go," he tells a petrified Mariette Hartley)There isn't much of a plot here: Count Yorga terrorized the faculty and students of a school for hearing impaired children, including teacher Hartley, whom Count Yorga has a yen for. Plots holes are covered by lots of early seventies-era quick cuts and camera angles, which serve more to make the narrative flow unintelligible. As bad as that is, the real horror is seeing Yorga's coterie of female vampires, as low-rent a bunch as you'll come across(which is saying something, since AIP, ultimate purveyors of the quickie horror film, put this out). With their dime store lingerie, plastic Halloween vampire fangs, and hideously teased hair, you fully believe the victims they chase aren't have as much concerned with becoming unwilling members of the undead as they are being seen in the company of these fashion disasters. Flicks like this make me mourn the demise of Mystery Science Theater 3000. So many bad movies like this left to diss, so little time . . .

The Count is back, without any apparent explanation of how he survived the events of the first film. But who cares, eh? All that matters is that, mere minutes into "The Return of Count Yorga," vampire women emerge from their graves to stalk a poor little boy. The action starts quick in this one, folks! It's a bit scary…it's a bit erotic…and it's even a bit good. In fact, "Return of Count Yorga" is almost good enough to eclipse its predecessor, but the middle act unfortunately sags and the conclusion feels too much like a retread. Still, there is plenty of great material here, including a harrowing attack segment on a house full of people and a memorable final chase through the narrow corridors of Yorga's mansion. Quarry is again smooth and super-cool as the Count; I love the way he effortlessly mingles with, and insults, the stupid townspeople at their costume party. The film takes a stab at philosophy by allowing Yorga to have a "romance" with Cynthia (played by the lovely Mariette Hartley – what a nice voice she has), but this storyline basically reaches a dead end. They have one interesting conversation about their world views over punch at the party, and that's it. The notion of a vampire in love was explored more deeply (and more to my satisfaction) in "Subspecies II," one of my favorite horror movies of recent times. Nevertheless, "Return of Count Yorga" should be applauded for being experimental, as this kind of movie goes. In many respects, it's a more thoughtful and engaging film than the first Yorga, but it's also more uneven. Anyway, fans of classic movies/actors should watch out for George Sanders in a cameo role as a loopy vampire expert who expounds upon the inherent difficulties of assuming yoga positions. Like the movie as a whole, Sanders' lone scene is very strange, but certainly worth seeing.

Despite being slain at the end of the first film, Count Yorga is back for more bloodthirsty mayhem! This is a sequel to the first film, but it's effectively the same story, only a little bit different. It isn't really any better or worse than it's predecessor, but the fact that it doesn't do anything new either prompts me to give it a lower rating. The film seems suspiciously like another excuse to launch the dapper vampire on the box office again. Anyway, Robert Quarry returns in the role that made him, and once again has fun and does well with it. This time, the count has relocated to a place near to an orphanage. The vampire continues to prey on the local population, while also looking for a new bride whom he can spend eternity with. Despite a very silly vampire conversation at the start, this may even be a slightly better film than the first; but the fact that no effort has been made to make it a real sequel, it becomes boring rather quickly and it's really hard to rate it much above average. The lack of invention is shown best by the way that a bumbling police force has been thrown in. Bumbling police forces are often funny, but the one here is making too much of a big deal out of trying to be funny; and it never really works. The plot is also quite slow, thus making the film overlong – which is very annoying. Really, there isn't much to recommend this film on; but if you really liked the original, I suppose it's worth a look.

Robert Quarry is back as Count Yorga, a ruthless vampire who takes up residence with his many brides near an orphanage, only he seems determined to add one more(played by Mariette Hartley) to his harem. Once again, some local men decide he must be stopped, only they underestimate the evil they have to face... Incoherent, nihilistic film inexplicably brings back Yorga(despite having turned to dust!) and his brides, resulting in some violent attack scenes and yet another downbeat end that seems to wallow in futility. No point to this sequel whatsoever, except to cash in on the name. At least there wasn't a third film!

Count Yorga, Vampire is one of my little guilty pleasures that is a hidden horror treasure that not too many people have seen. It had great suspense, scary make up and a chilling performance by Robert Quarry. They killed him off with pretty much no way of bringing him back, yet somehow they did. In The Return of Count Yorga, there is no explanation, he's just back. I guess he was so bad that he just brought himself back, or just saw the check from beyond the grave and said "sure, we can do a sequel!" We are given an alright sequel with some corny moments, cheesy acting with a young Craig T. Nelson, bad make up effects but an effective atmosphere, we could go for one more ride with the count and his bordello of ladies. Count Yorga is buying property next to an orphanage where he and his brides begin to feed on the children and the local vixens. The vampire falls in love with one of the orphanage's teachers, Cynthia. Yorga sends his undead brides to her house to kill her family. The brides then bring Cynthia to Yorga's residence, where he makes her believe that her parents & sister were in a car accident and she was left in his care while their recovering. Yorga then tries to charm the young woman into willingly becoming his bride. Meanwhile Jennifer, the Nelson's mute maid, happens upon the massacre scene the next morning and calls the police. By the time the police arrive though, all of the evidence has mysteriously been cleared away, and Tommy lies, claiming nothing has happened but are they prepared to handle the truth? Count Yorga is ready for them this time. This is definitely not the first film with a young group of teens. Count Yorga must have been very busy before we see him come back, because he has 40 ladies in his basement all wearing the same dress which caught my eye. I guess he's not that picky, you just have to be a looker. There is a scene I nearly died laughing at even though it's supposed to be scary, but he chases after one of his lady's boyfriends and it's done in incredible slow motion and it reminded me more of Baywatch with the way he was running after this guy. The music is also very random and just awful with a kid's choir singing "la la la" literally. The acting is horrible and the whole story just doesn't make sense without knowing how or why the count came back. However, for some reason I still did enjoy the film. I'm a freak however who likes a fun horror movie even if it doesn't make sense at times. I think this was just meant for fun and for the fans of the first film. Robert is still a smooth count who could never be taken down, too bad we couldn't get more sequels out of it but I'm sure that Robert just looked at these films with the same look of disgust the count gave when he was about to bite his lady and heard her boyfriend's voice calling him out. 5/10

It's been like a decade or so since I watched the original "Count Yorga, Vampire", and in all honesty I don't remember too much about the plot. What I do recall, however, and quite vividly even, is that the film benefited from a particularly sinister and hypnotizing atmosphere that made it creepy even though not a whole lot was happening. The titular character is quite unique and intriguing as well. Even though he's a vampire count dressed in a typical black and red cloak and surrounded by a coven of white-faced vampire brides, Yorga isn't anything like the legendary Count Vlad Dracula. "The Return of Count Yorga" is a very entertaining and reasonably well-made horror sequel with a very straightforward but solid plot, engaging performances from the ensemble cast and – most of all – many moments of truly tense and unsettling horror! Seriously, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a handful of sequences were genuinely macabre and dark! Early in the beginning, for instance, a little boy drives his bike through the woods and suddenly the brides start emerging from the dirt, guided by the sound of eerie winds. This is quite a scary sight even for experienced genre fanatics. There are many more frightening parts, including the disposal of corpses in sandpits and the crude and relentless butchering of an entire happy family. Count Yorga takes an interest in a beautiful blond teacher who works as a volunteer in a remote orphanage. He does what every avid romanticist would do, namely murder her entire family and take her back to his castle. Yorga tells her that her loved ones died in a horrible car accident and assumes that she will gradually fall for his charms, but he didn't take into account that she also had a boyfriend and he's not planning to let her go that easily. There are few fascinating supportive characters, notably the residents of the orphanage like the deaf-mute girl and the strange boy who appears to be under Yorga's spell, and there's even room for comic relief as well. The count watches Hammer vampire movies on TV and reacts slightly offended when not he but another guy dressed as a vampire wins the price for most original costume at a dress-up party. In case you're a fan of cinematic bloodsuckers, but need a change from the average Dracula adaptation or the Twilight fairies (God forbid…), then I wholeheartedly recommend getting acquainted with Robert Quarry and his vile alter ego Count Yorga!

It comes as no surprise that by the early 70's sequels were being made from movies in which the protagonist of the second film dies in the first. I do wonder, however, what sequel did this first - I'd hesitate to suggest the Dracula or Frankenstein series as those characters were more concepts than distinct personae. Yorga, however, was a clear case of capitalistic resurrection. Count Yorga, Vampire left him decidedly dead, yet he shows up here with little explanation. But, when push comes to shove, who really cares? I care more about the fact that despite the presence of many of the same names, including director Kelljan, from the first highly entertaining installment, Return fails on any number of accounts. Robert Quarry, back as Yorga, makes his reappearance at a masquerade at the local orphanage put together by kind-hearted if unimpressive Mariette Hartley. He likes what he sees, so he has his harem of decaying ladies abduct her and bite many members of her good-natured family. Mute coworker Yvonne Wilder finds the bodies; when the police arrive, however, they've mysteriously disappeared and frustrated Wilder can't locate a pen to inscribe what she witnessed. Roger Perry, back in his role as vampire investigator and apparently in the process of establishing himself as a modern Van Helsing, spearheads an investigation that apparently involves quite a bit of conversations shown in unexciting long shot. While Quarry's out on the town, Hartley has some pretty intense vampire hallucinations that provide some distraction from the mundane story. Three beers and two mojitos into the film, my notes and memory are illegible, but the conclusion involves a lot of vampire converts. Return is nowhere near as frightening as its predecessor, nor does it boast a clever story, suggestive acting and passable dialogue. With a story like this enacted by a cast like this, it's difficult to determine where the bad screenplay ends and where the bad acting begins. Regardless of where to place blame, Hartley has some horrible lines, many of which she lolls out like so much porridge. One of the only attributes similar to the first film is Kelljan's clever use of color. While Yorga featured a symphony of shades of brown contrasted with the occasional burst of red, Return's understated color scheme includes some extremely well placed shots, including a sequence with some striking purple. I found the video in the Horror Comedy section of the video store but did no laughing with, only at. The funniest part of the movie to me is that the co-writer Wilder didn't give herself any lines in the movie, preferring instead to hop around, point and gesture than to pronounce any of her clunky dialogue. Mel Brooks actor/writer Rudy De Luca has a role as a police investigator; Craig T. Nelson, the dad from Poltergeist, also plays a detective. George Macready returns from the previous film (which he narrated) for his last film role, as does ugly Edward Walsh in the same role as Quarry's gatekeeper.

I saw this movie at my Junior High School in the '70's....halfway through it my buddy grabbed a teacher and she screamed her head off. This one caused a few sleepless nights for me as a kid. It is reminiscent of "Night Of The Living Dead" in the scene where all the female vamps break in and kill all inside, but it was somehow more scary in that this family was "at home", where we are supposed to feel safe. The opener with the kid running through the graveyard and the hands coming up out of the ground also creeped me out. Best line has to be when Count Yorga is at the costume party and the cheesy looking guy dressed as Dracula asks him "Where are your fangs?" Yorga replies "Where are your manners?" Classic.

Equally scary revision of the Count Yorga story finds the debonair Count (Quarry) and his henchman Bruder (Walsh) up to no good at a children's orphanage where the lovely Cynthia (Hartley) works as a carer. Enchanted by the impressionable Hartley, the Count offers her eternal life, risking his longevity for the frail human emotion of love. But, Roger Perry returns as the proverbial fly in Yorga's ointment, and another tense stand-off ensues. Director Kelljan returns for the revision, bringing his highly visual sense of haunting romance, and employing a more experienced cast that includes Walter Brooke in a brief but memorable role as Cynthia's ill-fated dad, and George MacReady as a hard-of-hearing expert in the occult. Film buffs will also relish early performances by Mike Pataki, Jesse Wells and future "Poltergeist" leading man, Craig T. Nelson. Special mention must also go to comedian Rudy DeLuca for his comic timing as the police chief. The dialogue is once again poetically bent with subtle, dry humour, and the sometimes hand-held cinematography adds that element of realism that gets the pulse racing. While it's essentially much of the same (the scene in which Lampson and Perry postulate the implausibility of vampires is almost identical in both structure and content to Perry and Michael MacReady's discussion in the first film), "Return" doesn't diminish the Count Yorga character or its cult status. Quarry plays his role straight, and with the conviction of a consummate professional, which in spite of its relative obscurity, elevates Count Yorga beyond most of its more commercial peers.

Ah, the seventies. Don't you miss 'em? Even the trash had class. This sequel is even jocular than the original but any laughter soon becomes forced as director Kelljan seems to have an unnerving understanding of evil, creating a disquieting atmosphere which borders on verite and never relaxes it's disturbing grip. Great photography of swamplands. There is one really distressing scene with a mute housekeeper who is unable to scream upon discovery of multiple murder. She is also unable to articulate the evil of a boy she knows is lying about the death of his parents. It's a great performance. The film also features Mariette Hartley, an actress who was once tipped for the top but never quite managed it, through no fault of her own. The scenes where this women of a sweet Christian nature is stalked by a harem of taunting vampires and trapped by Yorga himself are strongly performed. Hard to know what this film's attitude to life and religion is though, although an early speech by Yorga gives hints (being a predator is not morally pernicious), it just has this odd atmosphere. Quarry is great and has the best line in dry wit. While attending an orphanage party he finds himself by a piano with a kid banging away on the keys. "Do you like Beethoven, mister?" he asks. "When played well", Yorga disdainfully replies. Great stuff. How Yorga's man servant continues to do his job so well in this film is something of a mystery. He was killed in the first one.