FAQ

Before Yorga completely turns Erica were shown two other girls that Yorga has laying in his manor's throne room, a blonde and a red-head. The blonde is revealed to be Donna's mother whom Yorga was said to be dating before her "death" (You can pretty much surmise how she died the first time). The redhead however isn't named or given any backstory. Its implied she's just be another L.A resident whom was unlucky enough to come across Yorga, be fed on, and become one of his undead brides.

A number of reasons: She was nice to him during the seance, naive to his creepy ways (she was more then willing to take Yorga up on his offer to come into his manor after Paul and she drop him off), had that spunk of the decade (the 70's in this case) that he wanted to corrupt, susceptible to his power, thought she was going to waste on a guy like Paul and just figured she be a perfect person to both feed on and join his brides.

Near the end of the film, Erica has fully been turned into a vampire and now under Yorga's control. After helping to kill Baldwin with the other brides, the red headed bride and she attack Micheal when he comes into the throne room and speaks with the dying Baldwin. Micheal fends them off and the red head runs off but Erica doesn't run and gives Micheal the chance to stake her, but he can't bring himself to do it.

Likely the reason why is because he's still new to vampire slaying and didn't expect to see her former friend now a vampire, so he's hesitant in doing so despite the fact that the person he knows is virtually dead and corrupted into a walking corpse. As for Erica, its likely the last few bits of her humanity stopped herself to give Micheal the opportunity to kill her. When he doesn't and walks off, she let's him go but hisses at him. A sign she's completely given into the vampirism.

Erica is bitten at the start of the film by Count Yorga. Not only does she lose blood, but is inflicted with vampirism and slowly turns into one herself. This starts as her being listless and stoic, a high contrast to her spunky personality the night before. After Hayes suggest she get some rest to regain her blood, the vampiric curse kicks in and makes her crave blood.

She trashes her house as a result, seemingly unaware of her surrounding. When her boyfriend, Paul, calls her. She drops the phone off the table and doesn't respond when he calls out to her. By the time Paul and their friend Micheal reach her house, the bloodlust has made her kill a kitten (likely her pet) and she screams at the two when she notices them. At first she warns them not to come back, then suddenly becomes more seductive and stretches out her arms to Paul, inviting him to embrace her. A sign of her vampire side growing.

It then she comes back to her senses and realizes what she's done before breaking down in Paul's arms.

In the the middle of the film, the vampirisim Yorga inflicted her with after biting her started to surface and made her act erratic to the point she killed and fed on her pet kitten and acted uncharacteristically seductive to her boyfriend Paul after Micheal and he walked in on her before coming to her senses and breaking down crying after she realized what happened.

When she's given a blood transfusion by her doctor friend, Hayes, she mutters in her delirium how she loves Paul and asking his forgiveness. Then suddenly begs the men to "not let it happen" to the three's confusion. Hayes tries to ask her what she's afraid of but she can't say what exactly. But it's implied she feels she's losing her humanity and becoming a monster but can't really comprehend what's happening to her to tell the men what in detail. This also could be Yorga using his power to keep her from relaying this information to her until he comes to claim her and completely turn her into a vampire.

The film leans on a heavy "no" when it comes to this subject. Vampirisim in the movie takes after the Dracula rules in that one becomes a vampire if they are drained of their blood by one. The victim can be saved if they manage to stop the curse while the victim is still human via keeping them away from the vampire and medical treatment, albeit the victim will still show symptoms of vamprisim as shown when Erica fed on he kitten when the vamprisim surfaced in her.

The protagonists at first don't believe Erica is under vamprisim until the kitten incident and only consider it when they piece her condition wasn't long after they met Yorga. However Yorga goes to claim Erica before they can take precautions and completely drains her. By the time Hayes and Micheal go to Yorga's manor. Erica has been completely turned into a vampire and beyond saving. This is proven when Yorga lures Hayes down into his lair. Hayes spots Erica among Yorga's vampire women and checks her pulse and heartbeat, finding none indicating that Erica is now truly undead.

More proof is that Erica helps to kill Hayes not shortly after with the other two vampire women and is warded off by stakes and later a cross.

Yorga is a the main antagonist of the film and, as stated in the title, he is a vampire. The film doesn't dwell too much on where he came from, only that he hails from Bulgaria and has dabbled in the mystic dark arts. The film seems to imply heavily it was through these dark art that he became a vampire.

Yorga comes from a medieval era and still carries the distinction of such. He doesn't bother to really adapt himself in the modern era of the 70s, often sneering at the laidback standards of the decade which he only sees as a way to exploit and corrupt through his vampirism. From a human perspective it makes him come off as a bit stuffy when he isn't showcasing his true nature but still charming due to his manner of speech. His true nature however is one that lacks empathy and willing to kill to achieve what he wishes. He completely commands his vampires to do whatever he wishes be it going after his targets or to have sex for his amusement. Though he does draw the line at rape as seen when he discovers Brudah's actions when Yorga called Donna to the manor.

He doesn't really have much motive in the film other then to just be a vampire and turn others into vampires as well or kill them if they are in his way. He moved to Los Angeles for a new feeding ground, having used his wealth (likely gained during his long lived existence) to purchase a manor on the outskirts of the city and hunt at his leisure, aided by his deformed human servant Brudah (who may or may not be a monster).

No. Count Yorga: Vampire began life as The Loves of Count Iorga, Vampire and was supposed to be soft-core erotic film, but it was eventually changed to a straight horror flick in order to star Robert Quarry as Count Yorga and to get a GP rating. The movie was written and directed by Bob Kelljan. A sequel, The Return of Count Yorga (1971), followed in 1971.

Though the first film is likely inspired by the Dracula novel as it has many of the same beats as that story.

Donna's (Donna Anderson) mother (Marsha Jordan) has recently died of pernicious anemia, and her loving Bulgarian boyfriend Count Yorga is leading a séance to get in touch with her. After the unsuccessful séance, during which Donna has a panic attack and Yorga hypnotically calms her, Donna's friends Paul (Michael Murphy) and Erica (Judy Lang) give the Count a lift home and end up with car trouble outside his mansion. During the night, Paul is attacked, and Erica suffers a loss of blood. Dr Jim Hayes (Roger Perry) gives Erica a transfusion then sets out to destroy the vampire he is sure is loose in Los Angeles.

The opening scenes show Count Yorga's coffin being unloaded from a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles and into the bed of a truck then driven to a gated mansion in the California hills. The narrator is George Macready, father of Michael Macready, who produced the film and plays the role of Donna's boyfriend Mike Thompson. The narrator says: A vampire, in ancient belief, was a spirit who, when the earth lost its sunlight, rose nightly from its dark grave to suck blood from throats of the living. Its powers are many. It could see in the dark, which was no small ability in a world half veiled from light. Its hypnotic skills baffled the domain of science. It was of a cunning more than mortal, for its cunning was a growth of ages, since it could not die by the mere passing of time. It had to have been by a wooden stake driven deep into its heart or exposure to the rays of the sun, which would instantly decompose its body into a miasma of putrid decay. The believers of this superstition referred to vampires as "the living dead". I seem to be making use of the past tense. Perhaps the present will be more precise for it stands to reason that, if one is superstitious, even at a small, seemingly-insignificant level, one must be vulnerable to all superstitions conceivably even those of vampires.

Although Bram Stoker his 1897 novel Dracula says that vampires can control the weather, there has never been anything in the vampire mythology to suggest that they could make puddles of mud appear out of nowhere. The best guess is that Yorga's servant Brudah (Edward Walsh) watered the road while Paul was driving Yorga to his front door so that the road was muddy by the time he headed back out.

Another explanation is that Yorga has full supernatural power over the estate and just used his powers to soften the road after Paul refused to allow Erica to come into his mansion. Either to get the couple to come into manor for help and turn/kill them there or (as shown) keep them there long enough to attack on feed on Erica.

It doesn't specifically say in the movie that Brudah is a werewolf, but there are hints...his generally hairy appearance and long teeth, for one. Another is the wolf heard howling on the grounds of Yorga's estate the night that Paul and Erica sre attacked. In yet another scene, Dr Hayes asks Yorga if he believes werewolves exist, and the camera immediately brings Brudah's face into focus as Yorga replies, "Yes."

Dr Hayes and Mike return to Yorga's house just after sunset, due to them both oversleeping.Armed with stakes and crosses made from an old chair, they split up, Mike going to look for Donna and Hayes going to confront Yorga. Unfortunately, Yorga finds Hayes first and leads him to the basement where he finds Erica, Donna's mother, and a third vampiress lying on slabs. Yorga admits that he is a vampire and, while Hayes holds him back with his cross and stake, the vampiresses awaken, sneak up behind him, and drain his blood while Hayes can do nothing but call out for Mike. Meanwhile, Mike has stumbled upon Paul, who is ashen-white, having been drained of his blood, and is dying. He then meets up with Brudah, whom he manages to stab several times in the abdomen. He finally finds Hayes lying on the floor in the basement. With his dying breath, Hayes tells him that Donna is upstairs, where she has been reunited with her mother. As Mike turns to go upstairs, he is rushed by Erica and the other vampiress. Mike waves his stake at them, and the unnamed vampiress flees, but Erica remains, looking as though she welcomes the stake. Unable to actually stake her, Mike continues on upstairs where he confronts Yorga and Donna's mother with his stake. Yorga pushes Donna's mother onto Mike's stake and rushes from the room. Mike breaks the stake in half and follows Yorga, who rushes at Mike and accidentally impales himself. In the final scene, Mike helps Donna downstairs, passing Yorga's body (which has turned to dust) on the way. They are rushed by Erica and the other vampiress, but Mike holds them at bay and backs them into a room, locking them inside. He then collapses against the wall and turns to see Donna lunging at him, her fangs bared.