Count Yorga, Vampire Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Count Yorga, Vampire Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 3, 2015

Fans of Count Yorga, Vampire are aware that the film actually began life as what was planned to be a soft core porn enterprise, something that may strike some as at least a little humorous. There are evidently a lot of vampire themed porn movies out there (of both the hardcore and soft core varieties), some with delicious titles like Buffy the Vampire Layer, From Lust Till Dawn and my own personal favorite Ejacula. The title card of this new Blu-ray release actually sports the film’s original title, The Loves of Count Iorga, Vampire, and one of the still galleries included as a supplement shows a few scenes that feature various actresses (and even one actor) in a state of undress, but evidently fairly early on in the production process, the film was transformed from a salacious send up of films like Dracula into a modern dress reboot of films like—well, Dracula. With the continuing trend of former major studios licensing out their catalogs to various home video labels (niche and/or otherwise), fans of this 1970s era bloodsucker have had a Halloween-ish treat of both Yorga films being released in high definition, albeit by different outfits. The Return of Count Yorga recently came out courtesy of Shout! Factory’s horror imprint Scream Factory, and now the first Yorga film is out courtesy of Twilight Time. While neither of the Yorga films is particularly innovative (despite the suggestion by some that the first film is one of the first modern dress vampire outings), but each offers a few requisite chills along the way, and both benefit from a dashing and courtly performance by Robert Quarry as that sharp fanged titular Count Yorga.

While the most obvious antecedent to Count Yorga, Vampire may well be the likes of Bela Lugosi or even Christopher Lee, commentators David Del Valle and Tim Sullivan actually point to a then more recent vampire phenomenon which may have colored the good Count’s rise to film fame: namely one Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows . The two mention that Jonathan Frid’s lovelorn blood sucker had actually matriculated to the big screen in House of Dark Shadows, the first cinematic adaptation of the Dan Curtis franchise, though it appears that Count Yorga, Vampire actually beat House of Dark Shadows to cineplexes by a couple of months or so. Be that as it may, Del Valle and Sullivan aver that there’s a somewhat similar psychological subtext at play in both of these characters, something that may have at least something to do with both Frid and Quarry feeling like “outsiders” due to their (gay) sexual preferences.

Count Yorga seems merely to be a suave continental as the film begins, a mystically inclined guy who is giving a bit of ether-eal help at a seance put together by Donna (Donna Anders), a woman who goes a little batty during the proceedings, whereupon the Count proves that he’s rather adept at hypnotism (or at least something awfully close). Already there’s a kind of creepy underpinning to the film, despite the fact that there’s no overt vampire element (aside from an establishing sequence up top which shows a coffin making its way into the port of Los Angeles).

Evidently not wanting to give up the ghost (so to speak) by transmogrifying into a bat, Count Yorga accepts a ride home (in a hilarious circa 70s van), courtesy of seance attendees Paul (Michael Murphy) and Erica (Judy Lang). The Count seems to want them to come inside, but Paul demurs, though he soon finds that his van is weirdly stuck in the muck outside of the Count’s mansion. In what still comes perhaps uncomfortably close to soft porn, Paul and Erica decide to get the van a rockin’ (again, so to speak), at which point the Count comes a knockin’, beginning his desanguination of Erica. The next day Erica has two rather large puncture wounds on her neck, but neither she nor Paul knows exactly what happened to them the night before.

While Count Yorga, Vampire never really takes itself too seriously, the film never trips completely over into camp (as Del Valle and Sullivan mention), though at least some elements in the film may strike modern day viewers as unintentionally funny, as when Erica goes to see Dr. Jim Hayes (Roger Perry) about her neck wounds, and the doctor pulls out a good old cigarette and begins smoking it as he examines his patient (even blowing smoke in her face—weren’t the Surgeon General reports out by 1970?).

In other ways, though, Count Yorga, Vampire hews at least fairly closely to established vampire tropes, with the Count trying to turn Erica and Michael investigating whether or not his girlfriend may be the victim of vampirism. There are a couple of neat plot machinations at play (including one that serves as a callback of sorts to the opening seance scene), and the film is rather handsomely mounted, at least within the often lo-fi confines of American International Pictures. Quarry makes for a really convincing vampire, by turns incredibly suave and ferocious.

Count Yorga, Vampire Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Count Yorga, Vampire is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. The appearance of this release is somewhat similar to that of Shout! Factory's release of The Return of Count Yorga, though this transfer has a heavier looking grain field than the sequel, something that tends to add a crosshatched, occasionally slight splotchy, appearance to some of the darker scenes. Detail is quite good, especially in some of the more brightly lit moments, where the palette pops very vividly. Like the sequel, reds are especially impressive here, with some good Hammer-esque blood tones on display. While not sharp by contemporary standards (and this first Yorga is probably just slightly softer looking than the sequel), the transfer is organic and natural in appearance, and elements have no undue age related wear and tear.

Count Yorga, Vampire Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Count Yorga, Vampire features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix which capably support the film's dialogue, occasional sound effects and score by Bill Marx. This film only rarely gets into a florid sensibility where the sound mix has the opportunity to stretch its wings (as in a gruesome scene where Erica has been snacking on a family pet), but in those moments, the mono track may be narrow, but it provides good midrange and low end vibrancy. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, and there are no issues of any kind to address in this review.

Count Yorga, Vampire Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary features David Del Valle and Tim Sullivan.


• My Dinner With Yorga: The Robert Quarry "Rue Morgue" Interview - A Reading by David Del Valle and Tim Sullivan (13:04) is an audio supplement that offers Sullivan's interview with Quarry, albeit as "acted out" by Sullivan and Del Valle since the original audio no longer exists. Del Valle does a great Quarry impersonation.


• Fangirl Radio Tribute to Robert Quarry with Tim Sullivan (45:59) is another audio supplement, this time with Fangirl's Jessica Dwyer.


• Still Gallery: The MGM Archives (1080p)


• Still Gallery: The Tim Sullivan Archives (1080p)


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480i; 00:59)


• MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (1080p; 2:06)


• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.

Count Yorga, Vampire Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Count Yorga, Vampire's humor may have missed the typical vampire target of the neck, by being "cheeky" instead, but it's one of the elements that makes this modern day reboot of vampire lore so enjoyable. Quarry is a lot of fun as the eternally thirsty Count, and the supporting cast is generally okay to very good. The film may not reinvent the wheel (and/or the fang), but it's good, goofy fun most of the time. Technical merits are generally very good to excellent, and some of the supplements are quite enjoyable. Recommended.