Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

soulexpress A vampire, Caleb Croft (Michael Pataki), rises from the grave, only to find a young couple making out in the graveyard. He kills the boyfriend and rapes the girlfriend, who becomes pregnant. When the baby is born, it eschews milk for blood. (Like father, like son.) The boy, James, grows up into William Smith, who hates what he is and blames it on his father. James is determined to find Croft and kill him.The first 35 of the film's 90 minutes are prologue. First, the murder and rape are investigated by an oddly credulous police detective. Since the boyfriend's body was drained of blood, he reasons, the killer must be a vampire. Well, sure! What other possible explanation could there be? After Croft murders the detective, the focus switches to Leslie, the rape victim—first her pregnancy, then the raising of her vampire child. Suddenly, it's 30 years later, Leslie has died of old age, and we finally to get to the real story.Despite the large number of vampires murders, there's very little by way of violence. Instead, the film opts for slow-moving scenes of contrived dialogue delivered by a cast so bad, they must have paid to be in the film. The sole exception is Michael Pataki, who makes a fairly imposing vampire. The opening scene, in which Croft opens his coffin and leaves the grave, is genuinely creepy. If only the remaining 85 minutes were even half as watchable.But no. What we have here is typical grindhouse fare: a lame script, horrendous acting, cut-rate sets, ludicrous props, humdrum camera work, a grating (though occasionally effective) score, machete- styled editing, riotously bad sound effects, and one of the most predictable "surprise" endings I've ever seen.Item: At a library, Croft tells a woman she has lovely hair. She replies that she was once a photographer's model. Neither character moves their lips during this exchange.Item: During his showdown with Croft, James is pushed into a fireplace and his back set ablaze. He puts the flames out with a classic stop-drop-and-roll move, then continues to fight as if he's not now covered with third-degree burns. Also, his shirt sustains no fire damage.Item: James defeats Croft in the regular way—by jamming a wooden stake into the vampire's, uh, stomach. It's damned sure not his heart, unless Croft is a Vulcan.Item: At the film's end, James morphs into a vampire. To call William Smith's acting in this scene "histrionic" is a gross understatement. And going by their size, his fangs must have been stolen from a dinosaur museum.I give it three stars out of 10 for Michael Pataki. The film has nothing else going for it.

Scott LeBrun None other than David Chase, future creator of 'The Sopranos', is screenwriter of this not bad vampire tale, directed by John Hayes ("Dream No Evil", "End of the World"). Overall it has a good atmosphere going for it, an amusing story that throws a couple of twists into the mix, and the entertaining combo of tough guy William Smith as the hero and fellow B movie veteran Michael Pataki as his nemesis.The movie begins with vampire Caleb Croft (Pataki) crawling out of his grave and attacking two college students. He kills the boy and then goes on to rape the girl! While she is pregnant, the doctor warns her of the nature of her fetus, but she delivers the baby anyway. A few decades later, and the baby grows up to be James Eastman (Smith), who's all too aware of what his father was and vows revenge. He tracks Croft down, and finds him working as a night school professor named Lockwood. Eastman soon has to keep Croft / Lockwood from sinking his teeth into the lady he loves, Anne Arthur (Lyn Peters)."Grave of the Vampire" won't knock schlock movie lovers out of their socks, but it's still reasonably enjoyable. It's one thing to have a vampire character with raping on his mind, but the advertising also makes a big deal out of the fact that James as a baby sucks blood instead of milk, advising the viewer ahead of time that the movie isn't for the faint of heart. "Grave of the Vampire" is actually rather low key throughout, but it comes to life for a decent final fight between father and son. The acting from the principals is passable; Smith is certainly interestingly cast in the lead (he really is at his best when playing various bad guys) and Pataki delivers a decidedly aloof performance as the vampire. Things begin well with the opening credits sequence and the creepy prologue, and there are some fine moments along the way, especially when one unfortunate young woman discovers Croft in her basement. The tone is very serious, and Hayes's direction is efficient all the way to the kind of ending that was prevalent in 1970s cinema. There's no nudity, and use of gore is limited.All in all, this is worth a look for those exploitation and horror fans looking to discover the schlock cinema of yesteryear.Seven out of 10.

Scarecrow-88 A powerful, savage vampire, Caleb Croft(Pataki) rises from his tomb who destroys a man and rapes his woman(in turn, impregnating this poor girl who had just accepted her now dead boyfriend's wedding proposal). This vampire isn't through. In life, Croft was a serial rapist, and his sadism towards women will continue in vampiric form, the thirst of blood another motivating factor behind attacks on humans. After being chased into a Boston subway by police, Croft was electrocuted when he fell on the rails. Leslie attempts, with help from drugs, will attempt to pick up the pieces and move on with her life. Believing her unborn child is Paul's, Leslie will not accept the advice from her doctor that she should abort it(the child is considered a parasite, only nourishing itself through her provided blood, half-human/half-vampire). Along with a patient she befriends while recovering in the hospital, Olga, Leslie has the child. She extracts blood through a hypodermic and feeds her child with it in a bottle, substituting milk. Caleb Croft, an assumed name replacing his infamous true identity of Charles Croyden(a 17th Century nobleman), has metamorphosed from a wrinkled, shriveled corpse into a young, handsome professor thanks to the fresh blood of college students he drinks from as a professor. Lots of students pack his classroom, Professor Lockwood's course at night(as expected since he's a bloodsucker), regarding folklore and history(but mostly philosophy).William Smith stars as Croft's haunted hellspawn, James Easman, hungry for revenge for his mother's suffering and early demise(the blood she provided him shortened her own life)and a student in Lockwood's night class. Ann is a teacher of English literature who reminds Croft of his former bride, Sarah. Anita is a fellow student interested in James, finding out that Lockwood is Croyden, yearning to become one of the undead(even Lockwood's vampire bride, to serve him for all eternity to replace his dead wife, Sarah who was burned at the stake). Well, that notion is dismissed rather quickly. The ending concludes with Lockwood conducting a séance at his mansion, Ann, James, and other students gathered as participants. Exciting close with James and Lockwood locked in battle, engaged in a spirited dual. Lockwood, interesting enough, encourages his own downfall, by putting together the séance, because Ann is used as the medium for which Anita can inhibit to call Croyden out.It's not a surprise anymore to me that I turn up yet another gem from the 70s in regards to a previously undiscovered quality vampire horror drive-in flick. I think what makes this film stand out is Michael Pataki as the vicious, menacing vampire, Caleb Croft, who, once gaining his youth after draining enough blood from victims, can move amongst the living, albeit at night time. Pataki's Lockwood is rather snobbish and aristocratic, but when he is angered or threatened, he disposes of humans with relative ease and lack of empathy. He will kill your ass and not think twice about it..plain and simple. Smith steps out as a hero, in a change of pace role, until the evil within finally becomes too difficult to contain, but not before he unleashes his fury on the vampire that has caused him much pain. Lyn Peters and Diane Holden are the women of the film, Anne and Anita respectively. Not a traditional vampire film, set in the contemporary, swinging 70s, absent youth, adults portraying the college students here. Television veteran Carmen Argenziano has an early role here as cynical Sam who finds the séance to be a load of hogwash and learns that bullets fired from his gun have little effect on a vampire..and he learns the hard way, to say the least.

lastliberal Now, when a body is found and a police lieutenant (Eric Mason) asks if the sun was completely up, you know there are going to be problems. The police do not automatically assume vampires. But, this one did.Leslie (Kitty Vallacher) was doing the nasty with her boyfriend (Jay Scott) in a cemetery when Caleb Croft (Michael Pataki) rises from the grave. The boyfriend is killed, and she is raped. An interesting twist on the vampire theme.30 years later the child (William Smith) is tracking down his father who has lost the ugliness of the grave and is busy raping and sucking the blood from young women.The movie is slow and there is no blood or nudity. I would have never watched had I noticed the PG rating. PG for a vampire movie. Lame!