As if Los Angeles in 1970 didn't already have enough problems.
Count Yorga (Robert Quarry), a Bulgarian vampire, lands in 1970 Los Angeles and begins preying upon the populace. Acting as a mystic and hypnotist, Yorga conducts a seance for Donna (Donna Anders), a woman who wishes to communicate with her recently-deceased mother, and it is noted that Yorga dated Donna's mother weeks before she suddenly died, and he insisted that she be buried rather than cremated. When contact is made with a disembodied presence, Donna goes into hysterics, so Yorga sets about calming her via hypnosis while actually placing her under his mental subjugation. In the days following the seance party, Donna is visited at night by the Count, who feeds on her and initiates her transformation into the latest member of his undead harem (some of whom engage in sapphic shenanigans while Yorga watches).
The Count watches as his girls put on a "show."
When the other members of the party note Donna's debilitated state, they call in Dr. Jim Hayes (Roger Perry) to examine her, and he immediately realizes that she is being vampirized. Meanwhile, Yorga begins systematically killing the male attendees of the party and enslaving the women, so Dr. Hayes and Donna's boyfriend Mike (Michael Macready) launch a half-assed invasion of Count Yorga's mansion in an attempt to save Donna. There they confront the Count directly and face off against the vampire brides, one of whom is Donna's resurrected mother. It does not go well for our heroes...
COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE is a humble effort, but it's a lot of fun and would serve as a perfect entry-level vampire movie for budding horror kids. Not as sexy or brutally gory as a Hammer effort (though reportedly originally intended as a softcore porno film, which I can totally see), its collision of 20th Century America and a supernatural menace from the old country can be seen as a dry run for what came two years after and was refined to a fine edge with the made-for-TV film THE NIGHT STALKER, the success of which spawned the tragically short-lived series KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER. Many a monster kid of my vintage cut their teeth on that show (I never missed an episode), and the tale of Count Yorga would have fit on that series like a hand in a glove.
Not quite a classic but definitely a worthy entry, COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE satisfies, and it earned a sequel a year later, but we'll get to that one...
Poster for the theatrical release.
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