(1971)
Dir - Bob Kelljan
Overall: MEH
While Bob Kelljan's Count Yorga, Vampire was an OK entry for such a film, his immediate and final follow-up The Return of Count Yorga improves upon some of the aspects of its predecessor while essentially being the exact same movie. The humor is more deliberate, yet it is also incredibly dry at times, bleeding into a number of genuinely creepy segments as well. Kelljan balances the entire movie this way, equally riding the line of silliness and straight, horror movie atmosphere. Large portions play out to no musical accompaniment, making for stark, chilling sequences where comatose-moving vampires advance on/toy with their prey and Robert Quarry's title character spouts pretentious platitudes only to comically lunge at his victims while hissing. No explanation is given to the Count's return by the way; it is just another movie where he charms some people, has a horde of undead minions, and the cops laugh at the possibility of vampirism. Redundant to an extent then, it also suffers from sluggish pacing. Again, the lackadaisical, quiet flow does enhance some of the macabre mood and makes for one or two effectively startling scenes, but coupled with the identical story, one Yorga movie is likely all you really need.
(1976)
Dir - Joel M. Reed
Overall: WOOF
Overall: WOOF
The infamous exploitation film Blood Sucking Freaks, (Sadu: Master of the Screaming Virgins, The Incredible Torture Show), is basically what you would get if you fused Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom with the splatter-ridden, filmmaking incompetence of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Featuring all of the weaknesses and none of the strengths of the aforementioned works, (if you can consider Lewis' films to have any "strengths"), Freaks is well-deserving of its lousy reputation. Deliberately tasteless, its groan-worthy gags are occasionally funny in an embarrassing sense, with most of the laughs stemming from the unflinchingly amatuerish production values. The performances are pure nonsense, the story is a pathetic social satire on sadism and misogyny, and the endless barrage of nudity and clever-less torture sequences grow more lackluster as things progress. It is too stupid to be disturbing, certainly by contemporary standards and the movie says nothing about anything; it is just lame, juvenile shock-tactics for the mere sake of it. An over-the-top cult film in the truest sense. Well, at least that is what it tells itself it is.
(1978)
Dir - Gus Trikonis
Overall: MEH
Contemporary, haunted house cliches run an absolute muck in Gus Trikonis' The Evil, (Cry Demon, House of Evil). Characters see things and forget to tell anyone, windows and doors slam shut to trap people inside, men argue with women that there must be some rational explanation to everything, a locked gate to hell is easily found and opened, hysterical women get smacked across the face by men, the Devil shows up in a white suite, etc. As is also commonly the case, the demonic, supernatural forces at play only adhere to the rules of the script. They routinely appear all knowing and ever present, yet they can get in someone's head and make them saw their own hand off just as easily as they cannot see someone running at them with an iron cross. The contradictions are numerous and the incredibly straight tone makes them more jarringly silly than not. Performance wise, the entire cast is committed and save for Victor Buono as an appropriately hammy Satan, all of them play things deadly serious. Trikonis throws in a boatload of horror set pieces and keeps the pace running smoothly, but it is all so uninspired and textbook that you are likely to easily confuse it with any other such movie.
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