Khorda (Robert Quarry) may look like Count Yorga and use a line from the ads for one of his two movies, but he is not him. I know, he’s even wearing the same prop fangs, but I have been assured that this is not Count Yorga.
This vampire’s coffin floats onto the beach from Invasion of the Crab Monsters and before you can say Manson Family, he has an entire army of impressionable hippies answering his orders like the flute-playing Barbado (LaSesne Hilton) who kills a surfer as simply as I would write about a movie and Bobby Pickett — yes, Boris “Monster Mash” Pickett — playing some folk songs while everyone tunes in and drops out.
There’s also the union of biker couple Monk Reynolds and Esslin (William Jordan and Berry Anne Rees) with hippie kung fu practitioner Pico (Bill Ewing) and his lady Rona (Brenda Dickson) who get help evading the cops from a guy who sells ponchos and other counterculture stuff, Pop (John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet). When Pop’s puppy gets bit by a vampire, it’s time to breach the walls of Khorda’s castle.
All the Yorga movies — yes, I know, I said this wasn’t one — have bummer endings and this is no different. I guess I respect that it has counterculture cults with the least nudity one of those gatherings ever had. The hero is also a complete moron so you’ll probably cheer on Khorda.
Count Yorga and his servant Brudah have been revived by the supernatural Santa Ana winds. Sure, I mean, whatever it takes to get more of Yorga facing off with early 70s hippies, right?
This time around, Yorga is going after not just adults, but the children of an orphanage and their teacher Cynthia Nelson (Mariette Hartley). One of the students, Tommy, even watches as the brides of Yorga rise from a graveyard.
How bad does Yorga want her for his bride? Well, he sens is undead army after her entire family, tearing them apart and hypnotizing her into thinking they’ve left her in his care. Also, Yorga now doesn’t just have the disigured Brudah helping him, he also has a witch who can tell the future. And she believes that unless Cynthia isn’t killed or turned soon, she’ll be the death of her master.
This one is, if possible, even more bleak than the first film but still finds moments of humor, like Yorga watching The Vampire Lovers.
The ads for this film refer to Yorga as the Deathmaster. That would be the name of another Quarry-starring vampire movie, The Deathmaster, but it is not a Yorga sequel. There was a plan to make a third film in which Yorga would live in Los Angeles’s sewers with an army of undead homeless people.
American-International Pictures also considered a movie that would have had Count Yorga face Dr. Phibes. Instead, Quarry would play Phibes’ adversary in Dr. Phibes Rises Again. As it was, Quarry was pretty much Price’s enemy nearly every time they were in a movie together, just as much off-screen as on-screen. It was mainly because Quarry was AIP’s new horror star and Price’s contract was nearly up.
I love that this movie ends with nearly every character either dead or turned into a vampire; the hero has become the villain, the children are about to be consumed and Yorga’s curse keeps unliving.
Arrow Video’s The Count Yorga Collection has brand new 2K restorations of Count Yorga, Vampire and The Return of Count Yorga from new 4K scans of the original 35mm camera negatives. Plus, you get an illustrated perfect bound collector’s book featuring new writing by film critic Kat Ellinger and horror author Stephen Laws, plus archive contributions by critic Frank Collins and filmmaker Tim Sullivan. The limited edition packaging has reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan, fold-out double-sided posters for both films featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan, twelve double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards and a reproduction pressbook for Count Yorga, Vampire.
The Return of Count Yorga has new audio commentary by film critic Stephen R. Bissette; audio commentary by David Del Valle and C. Courtney Joyner; The Count and the Counterculture, a brand new interview with film critic Maitland McDonagh; Chamber-music of Horrors, a brand new interview with David Huckvale about the scores for both films; an archival interview with film critic Kim Newman; the trailer; radio spots and an image gallery.
Directed and written by Bob Kelljan, Count Yorga, Vampire was originally going to be soft core porn movie, The Loves of Count Iorga. In fact, some prints have that title. Robert Quarry, the man who would be Yorga, told producer Michael Macready that he would play the vampire if they turned the story into a non-sexual horror movie.
Donna (Donna Anders) is trying to contact her recently deceased mother via séance by Count Yorga, a mystic who has recently moved to America. Donna becomes hysterical and needs to be calmed by Yorga; afterward she reveals to her friends that Yorga was her mother’s last over and when she died, he demanded that she be buried and not creamated.
Yorga then conducts a campaign of terror, biting Erica (Judy Lang), who goes from party girl to vampire eating her own kitten — don’t worry, it’s just a kitten covered in lasagna — in a matter of hours. Oh yeah — Donna’s mom (Marsa Jordan) is now one of Yorga’s brides and it’s the swinging seventies, so he commands her to make love to one of his other undead women on a cold cemetery slab.
By the end of the film, Yorga and his brides have wiped out just about every one of Donna’s friends and strengthened his hold over her, which extends potentially beyond the grave. Again, it’s the seventies and life is cruel and cheap and happy endings aren’t often found after the New Hollywood. The count is also self aware and watches Countess Dracula.
Arrow Video’s The Count Yorga Collection has brand new 2K restorations of Count Yorga, Vampire and The Return of Count Yorga from new 4K scans of the original 35mm camera negatives. Plus, you get an illustrated perfect bound collector’s book featuring new writing by film critic Kat Ellinger and horror author Stephen Laws, plus archive contributions by critic Frank Collins and filmmaker Tim Sullivan. The limited edition packaging has reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan, fold-out double-sided posters for both films featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan, twelve double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards and a reproduction pressbook for Count Yorga, Vampire.
Count Yorga, Vampire has new audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas; archival audio commentary by film critics David Del Valle and C. Courtney Joyner; The Count in California, a brand new appreciation by Heather Drain and Chris O’Neill; I Remember Yorga, a brand new interview with Frank Darabont in which the award-winning filmmaker talks about his love for Count Yorga, Vampire, a new interview with Michael Murphy; Fangirl Radio Tribute to Robert Quarry, which has host Jessica Dwyer in conversation with Tim Sullivan, who is a filmmaker, Yorga fan and friend of Robert Quarry; the trailer, radio spots and an image gallery.
Directed and co-written by John Drimmer, who wrote it with Geoffrey Loftus from a story by Donald Olson, this stars Jessica Harper — who must wonder why she keeps being in cult shows that only I care about. I mean, yes, everyone loves Suspiria, but also Phantom of the Paradise, Shock Treatmentand Pennies from Heaven? — as Prudence, a depressed woman who can’t stop crying and her relationship with Ambrose Cavender (Victor Garber, one of those actors who is just about everything and you can never place them), a man who collects her tears.
So many of the reviews online hate this episode because it’s not really horror. That’s why I liked it, as beyond being well-filmed, it’s also a meditation on the true darkest side of life, being all about depression and loneliness.
Dom (director and co-writer Josh Stifter) is about to give up on his chase to find cryptozoological phenomena and maybe move out of his mom’s basement, but when he gets a video that shows a real chupacabra, he gets Miles (Keith Radichel) and they head out in the woods to have strange dreams and find whatever that skeleton they trip over out there in the darkness on the land that belongs to Doug Greywood (co-writer Daniel Degnan).
When this movie ramps up — and it does — it gets dark and gory while remembering that it’s also a combination black and white creature feature and a buddy comedy about two friends trying to fix their ruined relationship while finding a living and breathing actual goat sucker.
There’s not much else out there like this movies, shot on the smallest of budgets yet having the biggest of hearts. It’s absolute fun and you should do whatever you can to check it out.
In case you never read the site, you may not know how much I love Bruno Mattei. Well, Severin seemingly feels the same as they’re releasing a bundle of three of the Italian maniac’s movies!
These blu rays will have the best-looking versions of these movies yet along with bonus features from Claudio Fragauso and Rossella Drudi. You can get each movie by itself or in a big fancy bundle.
Born to Fight (1989): The third time Brent Huff would work with Bruno Mattei — there’s also Strike Commando 2 and Cop Game— this time finds the actor playing Sam Wood, a survivor of a vicious Vietnamese prison camp who is talked into going back into hell with reporter Maryline Kane (Mary Stavin, the 1977 Miss World who is also in Mattei’s Born to Fight, as well as Open House, House, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, Caddyshack II, Top Line and Howling V: The Rebirth, proving that I have seen many of her movies), who really just wants our hero to help her free her father from the prison camp.
Things get more complicated when Wood learns that Duan Loc (Werner Pochath, Colonel Magnum from Thunder 3) is still in charge. Yet instead of being a film that explores the root causes and treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, Mattei and writer Claudio Fragasso give everyone watching what they really want: violence, glorious violence.
The beauty of this film is that Mattei references Casablanca while featuring a hero who is so bored with life that he mixes snake venom into the beer he drinks all day long to escape the pain of his past.
Made pretty much hours after pretty much the same crew finished Strike Commando 2, Born to FIght has everything I look for in a Mattei Philippines war movie, which is totally a genre, thank you for asking. There’s nothing quite like a slow-motion Brent Huff unloading millions of rounds of ammunition into bamboo huts while screaming and repeatedly saying his catchphrase, “It can be done.” Maybe he was a Bud Spencer fan?
As for Ms. Stavin, she also dated Manchester United football hero George Best, who was voted the sixth for the FIFA Player of the Century and one of GQ’s fifty most stylish men of the last fifty years in 2007. One of the first celebrity football players, he was nicknamed El Beatle and owned restaurants, fashion boutiques and a nightclub called Slack Alice. Of his life, he said, “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars – the rest I just squandered.”
Between 1982 and 1984, the fitness craze swept the UK. Lifestyle Records released a series of celebrity albums in which different somewhat famous folks sang cover songs and discussed what working out meant to them. The first two albums, which featured Felicity Kendal and Angela Rippon, sold well. Later releases, well…not so much. Beyond Isla St. Clair, Suzanne Danielle, Christina Brookes, Jay Aston, Suzanna Dando and Patti Boulaye, Stavin and Best released their album, which even had their cover of “It Takes Two” cut as a single. They also covered The Eurythmics’ “Love Is a Stranger!”
Cop Game (1988): An elite group of commando assassins — Cobra Squad! — are murdering high-ranking U.S. soldiers in the closing days of Vietnam. To stop them, Morgan (Brent Huff, Gwendoline, Nine Deaths of the Ninja) and Hawk (Max Laurel, who played Zuma in two films and Quang in Robowar) must have one another’s back against a massive conspiracy.
Yes, Bruno Mattei — Bob Hunter! — has united with Rossella Drudi and Claudio Fragrasso, headed to the Philippines and made a movie that makes little to no sense whatsoever. I don’t say this as an insult. Few of the man’s movies have anything approaching a coherent plot. Yet every single one of them wants to entertain you to the point that you are rolling on the floor in incredulity and laughter. They are everything you want them to be.
This is the kind of movie with dialogue like “When you go home, you will forget about me. But I will still be here, drowning in a sea of shit.” and “Ah, Jesus Christ, cocksucker motherfucking sonofabitch.” Nearly every line is screamed as loudly as possible, as if a twelve-year-old boy has just been allowed to stay home by himself while his parents go out and he takes advantage of the freedom by repeatedly saying combinations of swear words and never getting tired of using them until he’s hoarse by the time mom and dad come back.
It’s also the kind of film that says that it takes place in 1975 Vietnam but also has plenty of Miami Vice and 80’s buddy cop vibes, along with stolen footage from The Ark of the Sun God, both StrikeCommando movies and Double Target. I guess since Mattei made most of those, he’s really just cutting and pasting. You can’t steal from yourself, right? This isn’t a John Fogerty getting sued because his song “The Old Man Down the Road” sounds exactly like a Creedence Clearwater Revival situation!
Cop Game also has an all-star cast and by that, I mean actors that ony I care about like Romano Puppo (Trash’s dad in Escape from the Bronx), Candice Daly (After Death), Werner Pochath (Colonel Magnum in Thunder III), Robert Marius (Mad Warrior), Massimo Vanni (Robowar), Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (who is the “We are going to eat you” undead face on the poster for Zombie), Roberto Dell’Acqua (Nightmare City), Jim Gaines (Zombies: The Beginning) and a Brett Halsey cameo.
Mattei made movies in nearly every junk film genre. I can honestly say that I have loved every single one of them and if you want to hear me ramble on about something, ask me about them.
Double Target (1987): You know, if John Rambo hadn’t gone back to Vietnam and gotten the chance to win that time, we wouldn’t be blessed with an entire video store section of films from around the world. Rambosploitation?
My mother told me that after he came home from working late in the mill, my grandfather would watch war movies at ear-shattering volumes, loudly laughing and enjoying himself while the entire family would be awakened by the cinematic combat echoing through the paper-thin walls.
Forty or so years later, I realize that I have inherited his vice.
After several American and British military personnel are killed in suicide attacks throughout southeast Asia, the U.S. government starts thinking that perhaps — just perhaps — the Vietnamese government isn’t the ally they thought they were.
There’s only one man to call when you need the truth.
Bob Ross.
No, not that Bob Ross. I’m talking Miles O’Keefe, the very same man who was Ator, now transplanted to the ninth circle of Southeast Asia, seeking the son he has never known, going up against the most sinister of all Russians and backed up by exactly no one.
Seeing as how this is a Bruno Mattei film, you just know that all manner of absolute celluloid cutting and pasting is going to happen. Well, it goes both ways, because Mr. Mattei was an early adopter of recycling, doing his part to keep his scummy cinema carbon footprint small. That shark that shows up? Yep, it’s taken directly from The Last Shark. And since he went to the trouble to lens all this jungle footage, it also shows up in Cop Game, Robowar and Shocking Dark, while the musical score ends up coming back in Interzone.
This movie unites so many of my film favorites, like Donald Pleasence as the incredibly named Senator Blaster, a man who is either coughing or screaming at everyone around him. And look! There’s Bo Svenson as the nasty Russian Colonel Galckin, a man so evil that he puts a gun into Ross’ son’s hands and explains to him exactly how to blow his dad’s brains out.
Kristine Erlandson kind of made a name for herself — well, with video store weirdos — by being in movies like this, Trident Force, Saigon Commandos, Vengeance Squad, Warriors of the Apocalypse and American Commando. She’s joined by Ottaviano Dell’Acqua*, the rotting zombie from the infamous “We are going to eat you!” Zombi poster, Massimo Vanni** from Zombi 3 and Luciano Pigozzi*** (Pag from Yor Hunter from the Future).
Man, this movie tugs at the heartstrings. Ross had a kid over in ‘Nam and never knew his wife, who was taken into a re-education camp, where she died and his kid ended up hating him. Or course, this was filmed in the Philippines, but let’s not argue.
Mattei used his Vincent Dawn name on this one and co-conspirator and potential co-director Claudio Fragasso went as Clyde Anderson in the credits. Speaking of American names for Italians, let’s answer those little footnotes:
*Richard Raymond
** Alex McBride
***Alan Collins
You know, this movie entertained me beyond belief, but I’m beyond a Mattei apologist. If he was still alive and needed a place to live, I would move him into my basement and cook every meal for him.
María José’s (an incredible performance by Macarena Gómez) life has fallen apart. Nearly everyone in the small town of Leon, Spain could care less about the suicide of her bullied son years before. As she prepares to jump off a ridge, Lucía appears. She’s a strange little girl who might just be the prophecy of a local legend about stopping an impending apocalypse come true. Whoever she is, she holds hope for María José, who is now savoring the chance to be a mother again and, well, take horrific revenge on everyone that hurt her or her son.
Imagine if everyone that was wrong in a small town finally had to confront the wrath of God — or Satan — and the corrupt cops were set ablaze, the ineffectual church was decimated and the gossips were torn asunder. Imagine no longer, because this film is a delirious blast of red-hued style and violence.
Director David Hebrero, who wrote this film with Javier Kiran, this movie may not be set in America, but it reminds me of the small-town hypocrisy that I grew up in and takes things beyond that into its own out-of-reality world. This is Hebero’s second movie, which is quite frankly mind-blowing because this movie is absolutely overloaded with style, substance and just plain greatness.
Lucía (Sofía García) is Damian Thorn as protagonist instead of antagonist. That’s a bold step to take and this movie just keeps making bigger leaps throughout, starting with an astounding “Wish You Were Here” inspired visual and then just getting even stranger from there. Consider this my highest recommendation.
Don’t leave at the end. Sure, we’re all conditioned to stay through the credits for surprises, but this time the wait pays off.
If you’re attending Fantastic Fest in person, Everyone Will Burn will play at the following times:
Originally titled The Bride, The Invitation does a good job of retelling Dracula without telegraphing where it’s heaing.
Evelyn “Evie” Jackson (Nathalie Emmanuel) may be a struggling artist but she sees that she’s meant for more. By struggling, I mean she’s less an artist and more a waitress for a catering company. At one of the parties she serves, she takes a DNA kit and tests herself.
A week later, she learns that she’s from a rich family from England and meets her cousin Oliver Alexander (Hugh Skinner) and hears the story of her great-grandmother, Emmaline Alexander and the secret child she jad with a black footman/ Oliver invites Evie to an upcoming family wedding in England and meet her secret family tree.
When she arrives at the Carfax Estate, she learns that all of the upper crust are quite snooty and outright abusive to the hired help when just days ago, Evie would have been one of the people serving them. She gets to know the two bridesmaids, Lucy (Alana Boden) and Viktoria (Stephanie Corneliussen), and the lord of all this, Walter De Ville (Thomas Doherty), even better.
Of course, what with all the young female hired help getting killed all over the house, it turns out that Viktoria and Lucy are Walter’s vampire brides and Evie is the one that will complete the set, as at one point, hergreat-grandmother had married Walter, lived as a vampire and killed herself over her self-hatred over needing to drink the blood of human beings. Meanwhile, three rich families have kept Walter. known as “The Son of the Dragon” and maybe Dracula, in power.
Directed by Jessica M. Thompson and written by Blair Butler, The Invitation is a fine modern vampire movie. I’d love to see the R-rated cut as well as the two alternate endings, but that’s why physical media is still so important.
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the US, specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world. The festival is dedicated to championing challenging and thought-provoking cinema, celebrating new voices and new stories from around the world and supporting new filmmakers.
I’m so excited to be given the opportunity to watch and share so many of the films that are playing this year. Over the next week, look for movies from Fantastic Fest. My goal is to watch as many movies as I can and report back to you. Here are some of the films I’m most excited about:
Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle: James Nguyen is back and Severin paid for this movie. That’s really all I needed to know.
Chop and Steele: Growing up in suburban Wisconsin, Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher didn’t have all that much to do. To bide their time, they started collecting castaway VHS tapes from thrift stores and playing increasingly elaborate pranks, eventually parlaying their passion for cringeworthy absurdity into The Found Footage Festival, a curated roadshow of bonkers obscurities from the annals of discarded VHS collections across the United States. Fueled by a desire to push the envelope of discomfort, they started pranking unsuspecting regional morning show hosts as Chop and Steele, a couple of schlubby strongmen whose specialty workouts include wicker basket stomping and bareback stick snapping. Unamused by their antics, a media conglomerate slaps them with a lawsuit, presenting a fork in the road for the best pals. Do they grow up and get real jobs, or do they double down and go all-in on their most elaborate prank yet?
Everyone Will Burn: Unable to get over the death of her son, María José’s life has fallen apart. She lives in a small town where everyone knows and sees everything, and holds a grudge against the villagers who she feels are responsible for her son’s death. Little Lucía appears just as she’s about to step off a bridge, triggering strange events and a series of horrific deaths among the local population. The villagers immediately blame Lucía, who is busy putting her supernatural powers to good (or is it evil?) use. Meanwhile, María José finds new joy in motherhood and decides to protect her adopted daughter come what may, with the side perk that she can finally get a chance to take revenge on her son’s murderers.
Shin Ultraman: Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s Shin franchise began with Shin Godzilla, which updated the lizard’s nuclear metaphor for the 21st century. Now they’re making Ultraman new for 2022! Higuchi directs while Anno takes on the daunting task of writer, editor, and embodying Japan’s large silver protector as Ultraman’s motion capture performer.
The Stairway to Stardom Mixtape: Speaking of the Found Footage Festival, that’s where I learned of this show, which was filmed on video in a Staten Island basement. Hosted by lounge singer Frank Masi and his wife Tillie from 1979 to the early 1990s, this show had everything from homemade R&B party hits to aggro stand-up comics, from interpretive dance by zombified children to amateur magicians. This is presented by AGFA and I cannot wait to watch it.
Unidentified Objects: Wow this movie is great. Spoiler warning, obviously. But this story of two mismatched neighbors on a roadtrip to be picked up by a UFO — and that’s a very simplified explanation — is something special.
Plus shorts, special secret showings and all sorts of other movie craziness. If you want to watch it for yourself, get your badge today!
I often remark that Lamberto Bava isn’t very good. If he had made more movies like this, I wouldn’t say that. There are definitely some startling moments in this.
Imagine a movie as hard to explain as Phantasm with — amazingly — less of a budget. That’s what you’ve got here. And it’s exactly as great as you’d hope.
Harrison Harrison (Billy Morrissette) is a scientist who loses his arm in a regeneration experiment that leads to the limb becoming a reptilian force of evil, but he’s also a mother’s boy — his mom Helena is played by Elke Sommer! — and she has him and Doctor Hans Vaughan (Oliver Reed) wrapped around her finger, so our protagonist visits the homeless church led by Preacher (Johnny Legend) and recruits amputee veteran Stripes (Garrett Morris) and an army of the homeless.
After some mysterious disappearances in Fort Worth, Texas, Sandra Curtis — the sister of one of the victims — hires Nick Berkley to find her lost sibling. They soon learn that a cult that worships Moloch — so they’re going to Bohemian Grove? — is behind everything and that there’s an amulet that can stop them.
This Spanish film has no ravens — its title translates as The Swamp of the Ravens— but instead black vultures. It’s about Dr. Frosta, who believes that life can continue after death and will do anything to take that hypothesis and transform it into a theory. There’s also a guy singing to mannequins and the doctor trying to use blood to keep his girlfriend alive but he continues to take her to 6th base, as they say.
When you’re trying to rescue a nuclear trigger hidden inside a jade statue, it’s totally smart to just slow down and do squat thrusts in the cucumber patch with your fellow agent. Saving the world can wait. Making love in the sand can’t.
See that shirtless Lorenzo Lamas playing kickboxing champion Nick Taylor? Well, Nick is a drunken mess who never recovered from losing his title and his wife. A Vegas kickboxing championship is the goal for the whole movie, but then Nick gets the idea that he can still beat Jake, who beats him to the point that he dies in a hospital bed and yeah, you realize that you rented this for Lorenzo Lamas and now he’s dead and having Danny beat Jake is kind of anticlimatic especially when you realize that he’s probably going to end up horizontally dancing with his hero’s common law widow, but direct to video films are wild and you just roll with the punches. Or kicks.
The girls of Vice Academy are back again. Linnea Quigley’s Didi gets may be gone and Ginger Lynn’s Holly is in prison, but there’s a whole new environmental issue to deal with and the threat of Malathion (Julia Parton, who did many an adult magazine photoshoot and is the cousin of Dolly), who is out to ruin Earth Day — a holiday created by a murderer (for real).
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