THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA (aka YORGA RETURNS, THE CURSE OF COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE STORY, 1971)

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Directed by Bob Kelljan
Written by Bob Kelljan (screenplay), Yvonne Wilder(screenplay)
Starring Robert Quarry, Mariette Hartley, Roger Perry, George Macready, Walter Brooke, Philip Frame, Yvonne Wilder, Tom Toner, Rudy De Luca, Edward Walsh, Craig T. Nelson, David Lampson, Karen Ericson, Helen Baron, Jesse Welles

Call me crazy, but I never felt Robert Quarry was one of the better screen vampires. His pudgy face and rather hammy delivery of his lines made it feel like he just wasn’t taking it all very seriously. That said, THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA is a pretty damn awesome movie despite my lack of faith in Quarry as a bloodsucker.

Count Yorga (Robert Quarry) just sort of rises from the grave and appears in the modern day near an orphanage where Cynthia Nelson (Mariette Hartley) works. Nelson’s family lives nearby and after Yorga spots her, he immediately wants to take her as his new bride and attacks the entire family with his bevy of female vampires. This leaves Cynthia’s boyfriend Dr. David Baldwin (Roger Perry) searching high and low for the Nelson family and enlisting a couple of bumbling cops (including character actor Rudy De Luca and COACH himself, Craig T. Nelson) to believe the unbelievable–that a vampire has taken them.

Maybe I missed something having not seen COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE in ages, but Yorga’s return seems to be due to the Santa Ana winds. I don’t know why, though they try to relate the two a few times early on. Also carrying over from the original film, other than Quarry in the title role, is his manservant Brudah (a mute brute played by Edward Walsh) and Roger Perry, returning as a completely different character in this sequel. There really isn’t time wasted linking the first to the second film, which was helpful for me given I remember next to nothing about the original.

As I wrote earlier, Yorga himself is not really that impressive here. Paunchy, stiff, and adorned in what looks like a cheap Dracula outfit, it’s hard to take him seriously as a threat. What makes up for all of that is the absolutely brutal and unpredictable story that unfolds. The attack on the Nelson home is something I haven’t seen before in vamp movies as the entire family is massacred early on. This killing of established characters so soon in the story really makes this film feel dangerous, as if any character could perish at the end of a sharp fang. This makes the final assault on Yorga’s castle all the more thrilling, right up to the unconventional ending which took me by complete surprise.

Still, THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA is cursed with following the Bram Stoker storyline, giving us a romantic vampire longing for the love of a living woman. Maybe this wasn’t as tired as it is now back when this film was released, but the film really lost my attention during the sappy melodramatic moments between the vamp attacks. Call me callous, but I just can’t take vamps with bleeding hearts anymore.

Still, THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA is worth checking out for the crazy narrative and thrilling turns the film takes. Sure, Yorga looks like a school principal in a drug store vampire costume, but for the compelling story and for seeing Craig T. Nelson in his acting debut the film is definitely a unique little vampire movie. The film does utilize sound–especially the horrific wails of the vampires—well, and actually is quite scary when Quarry bares his fake fangs and charges down hallways at his victims.