Blood Capsule #364

COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE (1970)

Where has this movie been all my life?  I knew of the title; I knew that Robert Quarry played an aristocratic bloodsucker.  I did not know that Count Yorga, Vampire was ten kinds of awesome in a five-pound bag.  Okay, maybe it's a six-pound bag.  Oddly enough, the film starts in slasher mode.  Following a seance sequence in which Yorga necromances the dead mother of partygoer Donna, a young couple is vamped after making love in a van.  This must be one of Jason Voorhees's favorite horror flicks.  The victims are not murdered, however.  Erica is bedridden and requires blood transfusions.  Her boyfriend is suspicious of the...um, suspicious Yorga, a Bulgarian mystic who dated Donna's mother in the weeks leading up to her passing.  It doesn't take long for our main coterie of characters to reach the grave conclusion that their suspect is, in fact, a handsome mosquito.  Paragraph!

Break!  So this should have been one of my go-to vampire romps for years.  Seriously, how has it eluded my eyeballs for so long?  In nearly every Blood Capsule that I've written, I have made it a point to reference pacing.  In my book (my figurative book, that is), it's of paramount importance if you're reading a review of a movie you haven't seen.  Yorga is paced to perfection.  It's never dull, nor does it feed you information in spastic fits of "plot dumping."  It goes without saying that the acting is engaged from all involved.  If it doesn't go without saying, well, that's why I said it.  There are times when I struggle to elucidate why I enjoy a film so much.  Count Yorga, Vampire is simply enjoyable.  Check back with me in a few years, and it's likely that I'll give it a full 5 Z'Dars.  Before you ask, yes, I do own the sequel.  It remains to be seen whether I review it or not.  Nevertheless, I have a brilliant chunk of random trivia for you.  We very nearly received a showdown between Yorga and Vincent Price's Dr. Phibes.  Holy cricket, how cool would that have been???