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Grave of the Vampire
Seed of Terror
USA 1974
produced by Daniel Cadey
directed by John Hayes
starring William Smith, Michael Pataki, Lyn Peters, Diane Holden, Lieux Dressler, Eric Mason, Jay Adler, Jay Scott, William Guhl, Margaret Fairchild, Carmen Argenziano, Frank Whiteman, Abbi Henderson, Inga Neilsen, Lindis Guiness, Kitty Vallacher
screenplay by David Chase, screen treatment by John Hayes, based on the novel The Still Life by David Chase, music by Jaime Mendoza-Nava
review by Mike Haberfelner
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For years, James (William Smith) has been trying to track down his
father, vampire Caleb Croft (Michael Pataki), who has impregnated his
mother during a rape, with the sole intention of killing him. Now, James
is attending an evening class held by professor Lockwood, and it's not
quite clear whether James notices Lockwood is actually Croft or not.
However, one of James's co-eds, Anita (Diane Holden), recognizes Lockwood
as Croft the vampire, and urges him to vampirize her as well. Instead
though, Lockwood slaughters her in cold blood. James has meanwhile gotten
quite friendly with Anita's roommate Anne (Lyn Peters), much to Croft's
dismay, because Anne reminds him of his own wife. Switch to a seance
held by Croft with Anne serving as medium. Anne channels Anita's spirit,
and Anita tells everyone that Croft is a vampire, upon which Croft
slaughters everyone but Anne and James, then he and James get into a fight
at the end of which James manages to stake Croft ... but with his father
the vampire gone, he inexplicably turns into a vampire himself. Pretty
much typical drive-in fare - You kind of like it for its trashy ways, but
in all fairness, it's a pretty bad film: The story is at the same time
disappointingly formulaic and pretty confusing, the direction delivers one
of the most un-atmospheric vampire films in the history of the sub-genre
that even ends in a (disappointingly staged) fistfight instead of anything
more fitting, and neither Michael Pataki's caricature-like vampire
performance nor William Smith's wooden turn as hero manage to impress -
and they are not helped by the fact that their characters are quite so
poorly written, either. That said, the film is still good for a handful of
chuckles, but nothing more.
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