The Count Yorga Collection

Released when vampire films with a contemporary setting were still a novelty, Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) and its sequel, The Return of Count Yorga (1972), beat Hammer's Dracula A.D. 1972 to the punch by two years, playing up the conflict between superstition and the "what's your sign" generation.  It's a bit raw and amateurish, but this surprise drive-in success from AIP, originally conceived as a porno entitled The Loves of Count Iorga, gets a big boost from star Robert Quarry, whose aristocratic performance as the titular Bulgarian royal with a taste for bleeding heart hippies classes up what would have been an otherwise casually generic film.

Set in Los Angeles, with a hint of Mason murder uneasiness still in the air, the film opens with a séance led by Count Yorga, passing himself off as expert in the "mystic arts,” and attended by a pair of hipster couples looking to contact one of their recently deceased relatives...who also happened to have been dating the Count (hint, hint).   While the guys don't buy into all this hocus-pocus, Yorga soon has both women under his spell, and even ravages one by the side of the road right next to her VW van!

 

Enter Dr. Jim Hayes (Roger Perry), a modern-day Van Helsing who recognizes the signs of vampirism immediately and tries to convince the others - and the police - that Yorga is an imminent threat.  The big showdown doesn't look too different from a Hammer film after all, with Hayes pitting his limited research and a broken broomstick up against the over-confident vampire, his new brides and a disfigured assistant named Brudah.

 

While Count Yorga, Vampire can be a longwinded affair, particularly an extended overdubbed exposition where our heroes walk along the same streets "Scooby-Doo style" for nearly 10-minutes, anytime Quarry is speaking the film commands your attention.  His tête-à-tête with Dr. Hayes about the supernatural, a ploy to keep the vampire talking until dawn, is just about as good as any scene between Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.  And the brief flashes of violence, including one very disturbing image of a kitten used as an afternoon snack (immortalized on page 124 of Alan Frank's Horror Films), are surprisingly effective.

 

The Return of Count Yorga – whose resurrection is completely unexplained – finds the Count sniffing around an isolated orphanage and falling in love with a kind-hearted employee, played by Mariette Hartley (future Coach star Craig T. Nelson also has a sizable role as a skeptical cop).   The film even features the same leading man, TV stalwart Roger Perry, his identity (barely) hidden behind a van dyke beard.

 

Introducing a creepy kid and doubling the size of the previous film’s undead harem, returning director Bob Kelljan doesn’t venture far from what worked the first time around, replaying the Count’s signature move – an offscreen, arms outstretched jump scare – whenever the story needs a jolt.  But the cinematography by Bill Butler, who would hit the big time with Jaws a few years later, is a big upgrade, making this Yorga adventure more professional…if not quite as powerful.

 

 

The film still relies on a gothic setting to house its horrors - Yorga will be waiting a long time for his castle-chic decor to come back in style - but introduces a new generation of willing victims into traditional vampire lore.  It might not be high art, or even total camp.  Yet Yorga is its own unique cut-rate creation that proves vampires can adapt to any era...or production budget.  

 

Back in print after a limited release from Twilight Time, the first film is finally paired up with the sequel for The Count Yorga Collection, a two-disc limited edition set that adds a slew of new extras to those already ported over, along with new 2K transfers.  Both get a new audio commentary (four in total), video appreciations, interviews with the cast, film historians and filmmakers (namely Frank Darabont) who count the film among their favorites.  Plus special perks like posters and a reproduction pressbook.