capkronos Director / writer Bob Kelljan, producer Michael Macready and star Robert Quarry as well as some of the supporting cast all return for this immediate follow-up to the very successful COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE from the previous year. If you recall at the end of the first, Yorga had been staked through the heart and his manservant Brudah had been stabbed in the chest. This sequel pretty much asks us to forget about all that and just concentrate on what's essentially a brand new story where the vampire is somehow resurrected by the "Santa Ana Wind" (don't ask - it didn't make much sense to me either). Yorga takes up residence in the nearby Gateway Mansion along with his facially-scarred half wit sidekick Brudah (again played by Edward Walsh) and a stable of lethal vampire brides dressed in nightgowns, who all miraculously rise from a nearby cemetery to do his bidding. I suppose the wind did that, too. The mansion is near the Westwood Orphanage, so there's a lot of female flesh for the evil Count to sink his fangs into.Pretty orphanage worker Cynthia Nelson (Mariette Hartley) is tops on the love-struck vampire's list. Yorga sends his brides to massacre her parents and transform her sister Ellen (Karen Ericson) into a vamp. He then kidnaps Cynthia and uses his mesmeric powers to hypnotize her into forgetting the event and believing she's had a car accident (though she still frequently has flashbacks that threaten to knock her out of her trance). After several other ladies disappear and a few dead bodies turn up, Cynthia's psychiatrist fiancé (Roger Perry, in a role similar to the one he played in the first film) attempts to convince the police (Rudy De Luca and a young Craig T. Nelson in his film debut) to accept the possibility there's a vampire on the loose.In many ways, this is exactly the type of sequel one would expect to a modestly-produced original film that went on to become a hit. The budget is clearly larger, the photography is cleaner, the camera-work is more imaginative and fluid, the sound design is more intricate, there are a few more recognizable names in the cast and the film delivers 'more' in nearly every regard. There's more Quarry (always a good thing), more victims, more bloodshed (enough to earn it an R rating as opposed to the original's PG-13), more vampires and slightly more plot this time out. There are also many more characters added to the works to complicate matters. The most interesting of these is a little orphan boy named Tommy (Philip Frame), who is put under the count's spell early on and from then on helps to cover up his activities and even lures people to their deaths (or just kills them himself).Other characters of note are a witch consultant of sorts living inside Yorga's mansion, a priest who runs the orphanage and is later tricked into a quicksand bog and Cynthia's mute sister (played by Yvonne Wilder, who also co-scripted the film), who hauls off and slaps the s*** out of little Tommy after he lies to the police. In addition to them, Michael Pataki (who went on to play an excellent bloodsucker himself in the following year's GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE) shows up long enough to get strangled and there are special guest appearances from character actors Walter Brooke and George Macready (father of producer Michael); the latter getting to ham it up as a half-senile vampire expert in his final film appearance.The debonair Quarry does about as well here as he did in the first film, gets plenty of amusingly pompous dialogue and is especially creepy wearing white makeup and rushing toward the camera in slow motion, though the character is not quite as intriguing and mysterious this time out. Though the plot meanders a bit in the middle, the lively finale - featuring numerous characters trapped inside Yorga's manor where they face off against the count and numerous other vampires while doors automatically close or open to either reveal the vampires or trap victims - really comes through. While less direct and focused than the first, "Return" still does what any worthwhile sequel SHOULD do by retaining the best qualities of the first film while also giving audiences something new. At one point there were even plans for a third "Yorga" film, which would have paired up the vampire with Vincent Price's "Dr. Phibes" character. Unfortunately, that idea got scrapped after the second "Phibes" outing disappointed at the box office. Too bad. I for one would have liked to have seen more!

Chase_Witherspoon Equally scary revision of the Count Yorga story finds the debonair Count (Quarry) and his henchman Bruder (Walsh) up to no good at a children's orphanage where the lovely Cynthia (Hartley) works as a carer. Enchanted by the impressionable Hartley, the Count offers her eternal life, risking his longevity for the frail human emotion of love. But, Roger Perry returns as the proverbial fly in Yorga's ointment, and another tense stand-off ensues.Director Kelljan returns for the revision, bringing his highly visual sense of haunting romance, and employing a more experienced cast that includes Walter Brooke in a brief but memorable role as Cynthia's ill-fated dad, and George MacReady as a hard-of-hearing expert in the occult. Film buffs will also relish early performances by Mike Pataki, Jesse Wells and future "Poltergeist" leading man, Craig T. Nelson. Special mention must also go to comedian Rudy DeLuca for his comic timing as the police chief. The dialogue is once again poetically bent with subtle, dry humour, and the sometimes hand-held cinematography adds that element of realism that gets the pulse racing.While it's essentially much of the same (the scene in which Lampson and Perry postulate the implausibility of vampires is almost identical in both structure and content to Perry and Michael MacReady's discussion in the first film), "Return" doesn't diminish the Count Yorga character or its cult status. Quarry plays his role straight, and with the conviction of a consummate professional, which in spite of its relative obscurity, elevates Count Yorga beyond most of its more commercial peers.

Matt Moses It comes as no surprise that by the early 70's sequels were being made from movies in which the protagonist of the second film dies in the first. I do wonder, however, what sequel did this first - I'd hesitate to suggest the Dracula or Frankenstein series as those characters were more concepts than distinct personae. Yorga, however, was a clear case of capitalistic resurrection. Count Yorga, Vampire left him decidedly dead, yet he shows up here with little explanation. But, when push comes to shove, who really cares? I care more about the fact that despite the presence of many of the same names, including director Kelljan, from the first highly entertaining installment, Return fails on any number of accounts. Robert Quarry, back as Yorga, makes his reappearance at a masquerade at the local orphanage put together by kind-hearted if unimpressive Mariette Hartley. He likes what he sees, so he has his harem of decaying ladies abduct her and bite many members of her good-natured family. Mute coworker Yvonne Wilder finds the bodies; when the police arrive, however, they've mysteriously disappeared and frustrated Wilder can't locate a pen to inscribe what she witnessed. Roger Perry, back in his role as vampire investigator and apparently in the process of establishing himself as a modern Van Helsing, spearheads an investigation that apparently involves quite a bit of conversations shown in unexciting long shot. While Quarry's out on the town, Hartley has some pretty intense vampire hallucinations that provide some distraction from the mundane story. Three beers and two mojitos into the film, my notes and memory are illegible, but the conclusion involves a lot of vampire converts. Return is nowhere near as frightening as its predecessor, nor does it boast a clever story, suggestive acting and passable dialogue. With a story like this enacted by a cast like this, it's difficult to determine where the bad screenplay ends and where the bad acting begins. Regardless of where to place blame, Hartley has some horrible lines, many of which she lolls out like so much porridge. One of the only attributes similar to the first film is Kelljan's clever use of color. While Yorga featured a symphony of shades of brown contrasted with the occasional burst of red, Return's understated color scheme includes some extremely well placed shots, including a sequence with some striking purple. I found the video in the Horror Comedy section of the video store but did no laughing with, only at. The funniest part of the movie to me is that the co-writer Wilder didn't give herself any lines in the movie, preferring instead to hop around, point and gesture than to pronounce any of her clunky dialogue. Mel Brooks actor/writer Rudy De Luca has a role as a police investigator; Craig T. Nelson, the dad from Poltergeist, also plays a detective. George Macready returns from the previous film (which he narrated) for his last film role, as does ugly Edward Walsh in the same role as Quarry's gatekeeper.

preppy-3 Count Yorga, "alive" and well (quite a feat considering he was killed off at the end of the first film), inexplicably falls in love with Mariette Hartley, a worker at an isolated orphanage. After his coven attacks and destroys her family (a very scary, brutal sequence) he locks her in his nearby estate and tries to make her love him. Meanwhile, some policeman figure out what's going on and go to save her. But are they any match for Yorga and his female vampires? The vampire makeup here is lousy (like the first film), the FANGS are done wrong, the dialogue is pathetic and there is LOTS of padding--there are endless sequences of people running or walking through Yorga's estate. However, the film isn't a total washout--director Robert Kelljan adds some nice directorial touches, there are a few creepy scenes and it's fun to see Hartley so young and beautiful (her acting is bad but that's more because of the dialogue). Also Craig T. Nelson is on hand as a cop. Robert Quarry as Yorga tries, but (while he was good in the first film), he looks tired and more than a little silly with the fangs. Basically, a sequel that was rushed into production...and it shows. Unless you're a vampire completist, there's really no reason to see this film.