Review: Grave of the Vampire (1972)
By William Pattison
For Horror Bob’s Blog..
This time I got an American dub of a Spanish classic vampire
film that inspired the idea that vampires could breed with humans and create
half vampire offspring…
Grave of the Vampire (1972)
A young man, born of a rape committed by a legendary vampire
against a living woman, vows to locate and vanquish his undead father.
I remember seeing this film in my youth on Creature Features
with Bob Wilkins. It interested me because it starred William Smith who played
Falcon Eddie in Rich Man, Poor Man. In this film Smith played the half vampire
son of the Vampire that disguised himself as a professor who specialized in the
supernatural. When I was young, last time I saw this film I seven years old, I
didn’t get the rape angle of the
vampire. Now, it add a new level of nastiness to the film and to this
particular vampire.
Amusingly, though the one scene that stayed with me wasn’t
the infamous tape scene, nor the baby drinking blood from his mom’s tit, it was
the final confrontation between the vampire and his son. I remembered the
vampire massacring his students at the get together and William Smith fighting
him. I think thisvwas the initial inspiration for my vampire, Terrance Vance.
Still obviously this film had an impact on me as a writer and the vampire genre
in general. I believe it is because of this film we got all the literature and
films about Day Walkers, Damphires, and the like. It made it that vampires
don’t have to be strictly like Dracula, and opened the genre to all the
different styles of vampires we have to this day. That said, I say this film is
BLOODY AWESOMETACULAR!!!
Keep on Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s Blog…
