The New Vampire on the Block
Count Yorga, VampireSo far, our examination of old fashioned vampires in modern day settings has covered Dracula, in the Hammer Studios films Dracula AD 1972 and Satanic Rites of Dracula, and some guy named Count Sinistre, from the previously obscure British horror film Devils of Darkness. But this trend of placing traditional vampires in a modern (well, 1970s) setting actually started in America, with a low-key film called Count Yorga, Vampire. At the time of Yorga’s release, there were very few people making vampire movies. Hammer was pretty much the only game in town, and they were still setting their vampire films in the Victorian era. Devils of Darkness was one of the first vampire films to transport a vampire into the current era, at least since the 1932 Tod Browning production of Dracula, which was set in what was then modern-day London. However, one can argue that the differences between the London of 1870 and 1932 is markedly less than the difference between 1870 and 1970, and so for our purposes here, Devils of Darkness is more substantial to our little foray than Dracula. It’s also less substantial because almost no one saw Devils of Darkness, Which means that Count Yorga, Vampire, is really where we can say this short-lived trend began.
Keith Allison is the ruthless overlord of Teleport City. Month Monks of the Living Dead »
Comments
Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: October 21, 2007, 1:52 pm
Hey, I read in Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide years ago about a movie called “Return of Dracula”, made in the 50s, about Dracula killing a man and using his papers to get into the U.S.A. Can someone confirm whether or not this was set in modern times?
Comment from lyzard
Time: October 21, 2007, 2:10 pm
Ah, Francis Lederer! I love Francis Lederer. Yes, it’s set in 50s California. Bronson Canyon co-stars.
There’s also Bela’s own Return Of The Vampire, which has the people who find his body thinking he’s been a victim of the Blitz, and pulling the stake out of his chest.
I don’t think either of those particularly do the ‘ancient survival in the modern world’ thing that Keith is looking at, though; maybe RoD. A better example is probably Son Of Dracula, where the vampire deliberately tries to revitalise himself by exposure to “The New World”.
Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: October 21, 2007, 2:20 pm
Funny story: When I was learning about the beautiful world of B-cinema through the Leonard Maltin Film Guide, my brother one day started talking about a film where Dracula went the United States. He said it was really funny. The film he was talking about was “Love At First Bite.” But I’d never seen it and he didn’t remember the name, so I investigated it and came up with “Return of Dracula.” So for a while I thought “Return of Dracula” and “Love at First Bite” were one and the same.
Comment from HP
Time: October 21, 2007, 8:59 pm
a low-key film called Count Yorga, Vampire.
Really, a “low-key” film? Based on my personal recollections, it was pretty intense for its time.
I was never old enough to see these classic late 60s/early 70s horror films when they came out, but I had an older sister who was. Her breathless accounts of the latest B-movie she saw in the theater was what got me excited to see them when they finally showed up on late-nite TV.*
In her opinion, Count Yorga was second only to Dr. Phibes in terms of being the Greatest. Movie. Ever. And I remember surreptitiously seeing the stills in her personal, private copies (that I was never to look at) of Famous Monsters, et al, that proclaimed the same thing. Yorga was a big deal when it came out. And it was, for its time, a thriller.
* Historical footnote: When I was young, my big sister used to call me “Frodo” and ridicule my interest in SF/F. Now, in middle age, she’s the SF/F fan, and I’m the horror fan. Funny old world, ain’t it?
Comment from lyzard
Time: October 21, 2007, 9:45 pm
There must be something about older sisters. Mine used to go off to films that scared the whatsis out of her and that she didn’t want to see (anything to be part of the crowd) and then she’d come home and scare the whatsis out of me by telling me about them - and they rarely lost anything in translation. (At the time she would have been 15 and I would have been 7.) And she told Count Yorga so well that she frightened us both out of a night’s sleep. And while we’re lying there awake, suddenly she whispers, “I can see eyes at the window.” Me [whimpering] “Do-oo-on’t.” “No, no, I can. There are eyes outside the window.” And I couldn’t take it any more, and I looked. And there were.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Bloody cat.
Comment from KeithA
Time: October 22, 2007, 10:09 am
I call it low-key because a lot of the film is talking and just sort of lurking about. Plus, the color palette of the film is really subdued. However, you are right that when the scares come, they are rather gruesome.
I was looking specifically at the 70s for “updated vampire” mostly because 1) it’s markedly different even from the 50s in terms of modernization stretching from cities and into rural communities, and 2) I remember the 70s. I spent them watching old vampire movies, so it was always cool to me to think about what it would be like if one of those things ended up in my part of town. But then, that would be a movie about a vampire in Lee jeans driving a rusty pick up truck.
Comment from El Santo
Time: October 22, 2007, 12:34 pm
“But then, that would be a movie about a vampire in Lee jeans driving a rusty pick up truck.”
Of course, when they actually got around to making that movie (maybe you’ve seen it– it was called Near Dark), it ended up being easily the best vampire movie made since the early 1970’s.
Comment from KeithA
Time: October 22, 2007, 1:00 pm
Yeah, that did occur to me, and man I do love that movie. What I’d love more is if that movie drove around and killed all the other, lamer vampire movies. Not because they were a half-vampire vampire killer fueled by a need for vengeance and protecting the innocent, but because…Jeez, those other vampires are goofy.
Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: October 21, 2007, 11:16 am
I just saw this news item and I thought of you… http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7055342.stm