The Count Yorga Collection – Review

By Sarah Morgan

Which movie was conceived as a soft-core porn flick but ditched the sleaze to become a cult hit?

That’s right, Count Yorga, Vampire.

Producer Michael Macready (who also takes a supporting acting role) wanted to make a quick buck and felt that a mix of low-budget sex and chills was the right way to go about it. However, actor Robert Quarry told him the only way he’d take part was if it became a straight horror movie.

Macready is probably pleased that Quarry intervened, because the resulting film was a hit.

“Shocking sequences”

Quarry was a steady if unremarkable actor, but he nevertheless delivers a pleasingly enigmatic performance as the Count, a mysterious Hungarian ‘living’ in modern-day California.

Following the death of her mother, who was dating the Count, twenty-something Donna asks him to lead a seance in the hope of contacting her. It turns into a disaster, and soon afterwards, her friend Erica, who was in attendance, begins acting very strangely.

A bizarre series of events – including Erica devouring a kitten in one of the film’s most shocking sequences – leads Donna’s boyfriend Michael and blood specialist Dr Jim Hayes figure out what Yorga really is, and set out to stop him.

In terms of plot, the film is somewhat formulaic – like many a vampire movie before it, it features nubile young women falling under the spell of an older, mysterious man; their menfolk are slow on the uptake, but realise what’s going on shortly before a showdown with the villain.

That being said, it’s an atmospheric offering which perhaps kick-started a trend for more modern-day-set blood-sucking offerings, including Blacula and its sequel, and Hammer’s Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula.

“Well worth a look”

A follow-up, The Return of Count Yorga, followed a year later. This time, the aristocrat has moved close to a San Francisco orphanage, where a variety of odd events begin to occur. He also has his sights set on a new bride…

Although not as strong as its predecessor, the sequel is still well worth a look. Roger Perry, who appeared in the first film, pops up here in as a different character; George Macready, the actor father of producer Michael, who narrated parts of Count Yorga, Vampire, has a role here, as Professor Rightstat.

Quarry is as enigmatic as ever, but thanks to a few decent lines in the script, gets to show off a previously unseen witty side to Yorga, making him less two-dimensional than before.

Both discs also include several special features, including interviews with critics Kim Newman and Maitland McDonagh, and renowned director and self-confessed Yorga fan Frank Darabont.