Grave of the Vampire (1972)

Grave of the Vampire (1972)

A young girl finds herself pregnant but is the father her devoted boyfriend or a nefarious vampire?  Yep, it sounds like an episode of Twilight only this actress manages to be worse than Kristen Stewart.  Grave of the Vampire is a bit uneven but it has several things going for it:  1) The plot is interesting as the aforementioned baby grows up and tracks down its vampire father.  2) Director John Hayes [Garden of the Dead, Dream No Evil] adds some creative flourishes to the film such as the opening scene where cobwebs cover the inside of the coffin as well as the vampire.  The vamp also looks a bit green and crusty and remains so until his first few kills.  This is different from the usual vampire flicks where the coffin as well as the vamp are neat and tidy.  [How does that happen if they've been lying around for a few years?] 3) William Smith i[Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn] s quite good as James, the son of Anne who tracks down his vampire father.  Michael Pataki [ Halloween 4, Easy Rider] also makes a decent vampire by 1970's standards.

The weak points include: 1) Uneven acting.  Lyn Peters is dreadful as Anne.  She truly makes Kristen Stewart look like an Academy Award Actress which we all know is not going to happen in this lifetime.  The other female leads give O.K. performances but no one is outstanding.  2) It has a few "hippy" excesses such as a little free love scenes and a go-go dance party which seems out of place in this film.

Overall, Grave of the Vampire is decent but I can't get too excited about it.  The 1970's wasn't a great era for vampire films.  Thankfully, the 80's would give us a wonderful resurgence of the genre.

RATING: Good.

For more info check out the film's entry in IMDB.

Vintage Horror Films

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