Count Yorga Vampire (1970)
R1 / NTSC DVD
MGM / 2005
Director: Bob Kelljan
Writer: Bob Kelljan
Cast: Robert Quarry, Roger Perry, Michael Murphy, Michael Macready, Donna Anderson
Review by Ted Phipps

Count Yorga is a suave Bulgarian vampire who has recently moved to Los Angeles. He meets a group of friends when he holds a séance for one woman, trying to contact her recently deceased mother. The rest of the movie becomes a race between the guys trying to kill the Count before the Count turns all of the ladies into his female vampire harem.

You’re not going to find anything original here, but it’s evident that the writers attempted to write a coherent and logically consistent movie. Even so, a few of the standard horror movie rules are still followed:

1. Always go to the bad guy’s hideout by yourself.
2. Never miss an opportunity to leave a live enemy behind you.
3. At the end, the bad guy must do something mind-bogglingly stupid that allows the good guy to win.

I really hate that these three concepts seem to be written in stone when it comes to scripting a horror movie.

In style, Count Yorga looks a lot like one of England’s Hammer films, and like a Hammer flick there are plenty of good looking women on display. Unlike Hammer, there’s no nudity.

• Screen Format: 1.85:1 Widescreen
• Audio: English & French (Dubbed) / 2.0 Mono
• Subtitles: French, Spanish (removable)
• Runtime: 93 mins.

• Theatrical Trailer

This is a solid, run-of-the-mill vampire movie. Not bad, but nothing special either. It’s part of a double feature on a double-sided disk with the much inferior sequel, The Return of Count Yorga.

“Stylish and mind-boggling!”