"Grave of the Vampire" is a surprisingly violent and cruel film, creating a visceral horror in its ability to shock and disturb. It doesn't quite stick to traditional vampire lore, but it works on a very generic level, even though the script has some real problems and is generally absurd.
For instance, the opening features a scene where the vampire villain rises from the grave (in a surprisingly well-lit cemetery) while the obligatory couple propose marriage and make love in the back seat of a car. The vampire Croft's resurrection scene is traditionally spooky, with cobwebs and dust galore (although the vampire was only supposed to be entombed for three years), yet when Croft attacks the couple, the horror turns shockingly violent, and he brutally kills the man and rapes the woman.
OK, so once you get past the questions of "Why would a vampire want to rape a woman?" and "Why wouldn't he kill her too?", we have the idea that Croft has fathered a child through this woman, and the film takes forever to get to the one-joke idea of this segment: the baby drinks blood, both from his mother's breast and from a baby bottle that she fills with her own blood through use of a hypodermic needle.
After this aimless and meandering beginning, we arrive at the real plot of the film, which involves Croft's son seeking him out to destroy him. The son, played by Michael Pataki, is presented as a weird individual without much of a past or future, although he does try to get something going with a few groovy chicks. Meanwhile, vampire dad has assumed a false identity as a college professor (back when going to college was really radical, man) and teaches his students about the occult, in between attacking women and drinking their blood.
The vampire attacks in the film provide most of the goods, and there are some truly frightening sequences, one involving a silly woman who falls for the old "what-was-that-noise-in-the-basement" trick. Croft is not content to simply bite his victims on the neck, often ripping out peoples throats with broken bottles, crushing peoples heads, and breaking necks when necessary.
The movie has a great 70s look and feel--don't miss the "party" scene where a group of swingin individuals gets down to some jazzy music in someone's living room (one of the characters admits "Gee, I'm really sorry about all of this, we just called some people and played some records and now we've got this thing happening"). This sequence also manages to horrify, mostly because of the alarming sideburns that some of the men are sporting. I think the reason the movie works at all is because it takes the viewer by surprise. The dialgoue and story are very juvenile, and then the movie shocks you with violence. The downbeat conclusion adds to the doomy tone of the whole thing.
I suppose one of the reasons I have an affection for this movie is that I can remember being disturbed by it when I used to watch it on late-night TV in the late 70s & early 80s. I was way into vampire films back then, so of course I sought this one out on TV & watched it, and I was very surprised and creeped out by what I saw. Anyone with an interest in 70s horror should get ahold of this one.
For instance, the opening features a scene where the vampire villain rises from the grave (in a surprisingly well-lit cemetery) while the obligatory couple propose marriage and make love in the back seat of a car. The vampire Croft's resurrection scene is traditionally spooky, with cobwebs and dust galore (although the vampire was only supposed to be entombed for three years), yet when Croft attacks the couple, the horror turns shockingly violent, and he brutally kills the man and rapes the woman.
OK, so once you get past the questions of "Why would a vampire want to rape a woman?" and "Why wouldn't he kill her too?", we have the idea that Croft has fathered a child through this woman, and the film takes forever to get to the one-joke idea of this segment: the baby drinks blood, both from his mother's breast and from a baby bottle that she fills with her own blood through use of a hypodermic needle.
After this aimless and meandering beginning, we arrive at the real plot of the film, which involves Croft's son seeking him out to destroy him. The son, played by Michael Pataki, is presented as a weird individual without much of a past or future, although he does try to get something going with a few groovy chicks. Meanwhile, vampire dad has assumed a false identity as a college professor (back when going to college was really radical, man) and teaches his students about the occult, in between attacking women and drinking their blood.
The vampire attacks in the film provide most of the goods, and there are some truly frightening sequences, one involving a silly woman who falls for the old "what-was-that-noise-in-the-basement" trick. Croft is not content to simply bite his victims on the neck, often ripping out peoples throats with broken bottles, crushing peoples heads, and breaking necks when necessary.
The movie has a great 70s look and feel--don't miss the "party" scene where a group of swingin individuals gets down to some jazzy music in someone's living room (one of the characters admits "Gee, I'm really sorry about all of this, we just called some people and played some records and now we've got this thing happening"). This sequence also manages to horrify, mostly because of the alarming sideburns that some of the men are sporting. I think the reason the movie works at all is because it takes the viewer by surprise. The dialgoue and story are very juvenile, and then the movie shocks you with violence. The downbeat conclusion adds to the doomy tone of the whole thing.
I suppose one of the reasons I have an affection for this movie is that I can remember being disturbed by it when I used to watch it on late-night TV in the late 70s & early 80s. I was way into vampire films back then, so of course I sought this one out on TV & watched it, and I was very surprised and creeped out by what I saw. Anyone with an interest in 70s horror should get ahold of this one.