A couple had secluded themselves in a cemetery to flirt, but meanwhile, a vampire wakes up from his sleep, comes out of the tomb, and attacks the two, killing him and raping her. The girl became pregnant and nine months later gives birth to James, a baby she is forced to feed with her blood. Upon the woman's death, when her son is now an adult, James is overcome by the desire to avenge his mother, tracking down and killing his vampire father. Having identified the monster in Professor Lockwood, James enrolls in his university course to find the right moment to set a trap for him.
Distributed in Italy by Avo Film on VHS with the title "La bara del vampiro", "Grave of the Vampire" is now known as "La tomba del vampiro", an alternative translation provided by Jubal Classic Video that distributed it on DVD.
Based on the novel "The Still Life" by David Chase, "La tomba del vampiro" is a very poor film about vampirism directed in 1974 by the hard film specialist John Hayes. Very poor, which is not synonymous with a bad film, since Hayes brings to the screen some good ideas also proposed in recent times, unfortunately not developing them properly. The intro with the vampire's awakening that attacks the couple is pure 60s B-movie, the classic scene missing in every American drive-in horror film. Then the plot shows some very sharp arrows in its quiver showing a monstrous pregnancy, with a fetus that drains the mother from the womb (probably Stephenie Meyer never saw this film or read the novel it is inspired by, but "Breaking Dawn" comes much later) and a baby vampire fed by the mother with blood instead of milk (and here "Grace" by Paul Solet owes something...). The premises are really good and make up for the embarrassingly poor look of the entire operation. James, the baby vampire, grows up and his desire for revenge becomes the primary focus of the narration. But the premise is too brief and from this point on, the film bogs down in a series of long-windedness that tend to highlight only the macroscopic flaws of the film.
Stagnant plot, errors of "consecutio temporum" narrative and unsuitable and overly canine actors are the stains that most evidently sully "La tomba del vampiro". From a certain point onwards - that is, when James arrives at university - the narration slows down until it stops in a series of scenes that do not actually advance the development of the narration, with the inevitable consequence of provoking mostly yawns. Some turns, then, like that of the seance, arrive a bit unmotivated and without a precise logic, betraying the succession of events up to that point.
But perhaps the most painful note are the actors. With the exception of the good Michael Pataki ("Rocky IV"; "Halloween IV"), who plays the vampire, the others display admirable acting doggish qualities, starting with the muscular protagonist William Smith ("Apocalypse in Frogtown"; "Maniac Cop - Sadistic Cop"), inexpressive to the highest levels and too little credible (with his visible 40 years) as a college student.
Sparingly violent, but with a very lively ending with a lot of free-style wrestling, Hayes' film can be appreciated in some ways but very negligible in others.
Watch a clip from LA TOMBA DEL VAMPIRO
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