Pretty Good

hyped garbage

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

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!

I hadn't seen this movie for years until last weekend. Having recently perused Count Yorga, Vampire, which I enjoyed very much, I found this sequel stately and atmospheric, and though perhaps lacking a compelling central plot, to be at least as good, and perhaps marginally better, than the first movie.Robert Quarry is again excellent as the vampire, giving him an old-world nonchalance that makes for a highly effective member of the Undead. This time Count Yorga (mysteriously resurrected after his death in the first movie) infiltrates a local children's orphanage. With his bevy of female vampires and the same comedy manservant from the first film he makes a formidable opponent, indeed. Although this was Yorga's final appearance he nearly made it into Dr. Phibes Rises Again, although ultimately Robert Quarry played a different character.There's some splendid San Franciscan Spanish architecture on display here - notably Yorga's home, which reminded me a little of the building used in Hitchock's Vertigo. And a truly chilling sequence in which Mariette Hartley's character is haunted by the mocking voices of Yorga's vampire menagerie. The pacing is a little slow at times, but regardless this is an extremely effective, well-directed vampire movie. 5.5/10? I think not!

Unlike the original, this was not so easily accessible to me, so I only got to it now (though I had actually owned the film for some time). As often happens, albeit quite serviceable taken on its own merits, the sequel emerges to be a pale shadow of its prototype. Similarly, the script does not bother to explain the titular figure's revivification, his recruitment of a horde of female disciples, or the change in location of his abode (here situated near an orphanage). The movie actually starts off with a mass rise from the graves (usually a prerogative of the zombies – but, as I wrote in my review of the first film, the two often get confused – yet undeniably effective nonetheless), which also sees a young boy being made a pawn of the Count.This one, then, has an in-jokey feel to it: not only does Yorga attend a costume party at the orphanage where he meets a dopey Count Dracula, but he is shown watching Hammer's first "Carmilla" adaptation THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970; co-produced with AIP who were behind the YORGA diptych) on TV (albeit dubbed in Spanish)! While the first entry was commendably self-contained, this incorporates an ample cast of characters which include a priest (the head of the orphanage), a deaf-and-dumb assistant who works there (Yorga amazes everyone by seemingly discerning her condition instantly and being able to communicate with her at the drop of a hat), a couple of bumbling Police officers (especially amusing when having to fend off an entire household of female vampires: by the way, one of them is a young Craig T. Nelson, later co-star of the "Poltergeist" horror franchise), and even a couple of mumbo-jumbo-spouting sorcerers (one advising Yorga himself{!} and the other played – his last role – by George Macready, father of the two films' producer and who had actually lent his services to the original as well, albeit merely vocal in its case)!Indeed, Quarry takes rather a back-seat here (even if his demise is actually more spectacular here), though he is typically imposing at what he has to do (which includes the trademark deranged run towards the camera – albeit repeating it 4 times smacks of overkill to me; with this in mind, the film does tend to reprise elements such as this which seemed to work first time round, others being the long shot boasting expository voice-over and the twist ending where, presumably in the hope of a second follow-up but which was not to be, hero and heroine ultimately succumb themselves to the 'affliction'!). Quarry's leading lady in this case is Mariette Hartley, who actually witnesses her family being attacked by the afore-mentioned vampire women (another definite highlight), but Yorga ostensibly erases her memory of the tragedy and, abducting her, leaves a note to the priest saying the whole family had to leave urgently on a private matter. On the other hand, Roger Perry – the doctor from the first film – graduates to male lead here, but his contribution is otherwise inferior to the original's.The various subplots provide longueurs (most detrimentally, perhaps, the 'possessed' boy and the mute Hispanic maid's butting heads in front of the Police over what really happened to Hartley and her relatives) more readily than the expected added thrills – but the end result is still a worthy horror/vampire effort, not to mention vehicle for Quarry (whose later life was marked by personal misfortune): in fact, on the strength of both YORGA movies, I acquired yet another vampire flick in which he starred i.e. THE DEATHMASTER (1972) but which I did not manage to include in the "Halloween Challenge" for 2011...

First of all, the sets and atmosphere are great. An opening grave yard is truly beautiful and spooky. Perhaps the big-haired living dead women crawl their way out of the dirt with too much ease, but style is more important than being realistic. The Count appears to have no reason to be at the boarding school's halloween bash, but he is there, uninvited, clashing with the other guests. The fact that there is a costumed vampire at the party, leads to amusing tension and the viewer knows that the Count will be teaching these people a thing or two about real vampires as the movie continues.Cameras are placed creatively throughout the film. One strangulation scene on a dock is shot from underwater with screaming whale sound effects. Shots in Yorga's mansion utilize quite a bit of framing through doorways. In fact doors are important to the film, the house is rigged with mechanical gates that open to reveal vampires (or close to trap intruders) numerous times. Also in the house, unexplained baby dolls, but they are creepy and so serve their purpose. Sound effects include whispering voices and laughter, perhaps not original, but fun.You could look at this film as a mess, or you could have a good time watching it as I did. I don't need every phenomenon to make perfect sence or for all elements to be resolved. I like mysterious, bizarre, artistic horror.