Deathmaster

The Deathmaster (1972)

In a hobby and world that increasingly foists “sparkly” vampires (a true horror indeed) on an unsuspecting horror nerd like myself it is always good to find a movie that gets you back to your roots. For me the Deathmaster fits that bill. This one has a hippie commune being invaded by a charismatic guru (old Count Yorga himself Robert Quarry) that only comes out to preach about love at night. Want to guess why he only comes out at night? Well of course it is because he is a vampire. The guru, Khorda, manages to get all the kids buying into his philosophy on life or unlife actually. That is except for one holdout named Pico. Of course no one but a local outcast and hippy merchant believes Pico. So it ends up just being the pair that go back and try to stop Khorda from his evil plans. Not sure what those are because all they really do is dance around. But hey it is a movie about vampire hippies so I’m down for anything.

I can’t say that the Deathmaster is one of those “holy grails” of collecting that I’ve been waiting ages to watch. I’m a big fan of the Robert Quarry Count Yorga movies and have been hearing about this one for years. But honestly I’ve always heard that it was kind of bad. I totally disagree with that! Hell in the first 5 minutes of the movie we are treated to a coffin washing up on the beach, a random surfer getting killed, bikers, hippies, and some damn Kung Fu! How is that not awesome? Seriously though I’ll admit that the story is silly at times and ends up being a very familiar “vampire has my girl and I have to go save her” movie. But for a low budget drive-in flick it delivers the goods and does so with an evenly paced, never boring plot. Toss in a twist at the end that deviates just a bit from the normal formula and you have a pretty good movie that is very entertaining.

Before I get much farther along I also wanted to mention the performance of Robert Quarry. This is a completely different vampire then he played in the Yorga movies, but it still works. He does vigorously chew up some scenery, but with this script and story that is almost a must. Not only that but he owns every scene that he appears in and manages to carry the movie. If you guys are a fan of Quarry, like I am, then you have to get your hands on a copy of the Deathmaster.

Technically speaking the movie is solid, but nothing special. The camera work, sound, and lighting are all okay and don’t get in the way. The movie does have a cool 70s vibe with the clothes and music. Of course this is only helped by that sort of fuzzy visual feel that seems to be unique to movies shot on film and on a budget. The vampire makeup consists of teeth (obviously) and greasepaint to make the actors pale. This looks pretty good on Quarry, but some of the other teeth noticeably didn’t fit right and seemed to be bulging out of the actors/actresses mouths. But all in all not too shabby.

As a nerd for this sort of silly drive-in and exploitation flicks I have to recommend the Deathmaster. Personally I think that it is a damn shame that the movie has become best known to a lot of fans as the “other” Robert Quarry vampire movie. It is way more than that.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer