This nifty chiller begins a run on SHO-B today. I assume the print will be in better shape than the usual public domain eyesores. [It's not really a British import, no?]

GRAVE schedule

GRAVE was on MONSTERS HD recently but I did not catch it, but this will likely be the same source and look much better than the current budget DVD's out there. It's not a British film but a low budget American one, directed by John Hayes and with a script from David Chase. GRAVE tries to do something a little different for a vampire flick and I have always enjoyed it. The opening sequence in the graveyard is memorably creepy and there are some great moments scattered throughout. Sadly, the films graphic gore was cut out of US prints and has only surfaced on an old German VHS according to UNCUT magazine. I picked up the Japanese release and it too is the cut version, but even missing most of it's red stuff, GRAVE is well worth a look for fans of low budget 70's horror.
Here are more details on the Showtime Beyond airdates.
Wed Feb 1 07:05A on Showtime Beyond
Wed Feb 1 01:50P on Showtime Beyond
Thu Feb 9 10:50A on Showtime Beyond
Thu Feb 9 06:55P on Showtime Beyond
Sun Feb 12 06:40A on Showtime Beyond
Sun Feb 12 01:25P on Showtime Beyond
Tue Feb 14 06:00A on Showtime Beyond
Tue Feb 14 05:10P on Showtime Beyond
Sat Feb 18 09:35A on Showtime Beyond
Sat Feb 18 06:55P on Showtime Beyond
Sun Feb 19 05:05A on Showtime Beyond
Wed Feb 22 08:40A on Showtime Beyond
Wed Feb 22 07:00P on Showtime Beyond
Thu Feb 23 05:10A on Showtime Beyond
Tue Feb 28 12:20P on Showtime Beyond
Tue Feb 28 07:00P on Showtime Beyond

For those in the Philly area, this will the third installment of Exhumed's Feb. triple feature playing on Sat. (including EVIL DEAD 2 and ZOMBIE). I can never sit past two of 'em, but for diehards this is a chance to see it on the big screen.

doug

I'm watching it out of the corner of my should-be-working-instead eye...it's matted and in much better shape than I've ever seen it. Wonder if Sony/MGM, which seems to have acquired it, has DVD plans? Maybe Chase will record a commentary between SOPRANOS episodes. And has the final title card always been in French, or is France where the print came from?

Not only written by David Chase, but the actress who plays Charmaine Buco on THE SOPRANOS is in it, too!

I just checked the Japanese release and the end titles are in English and in a red color that matches the opening credits, so sounds like a French print was used for at least part of this transfer. I will try and grab this sometime this month to give it a check for content. I am even more curious as Showtime's website lists 91 minutes, the IMDB says 95 and the Japanese VHS runs 89 min 45 seconds. Maybe MGM dug up a longer version than what has been previously released in the US?

I didn't check the runtime, but the murder sequences seemed as obviously truncated as they always have been (not disruptively so). I'd be interested in a comparison. Compelling movie; the setting and atmosphere are believably mundane, even moreso than in the YORGA pictures--almost enervated, as if drained of blood.

It's apparently still missing the two gore scenes that have only showed up in the German print so far (the bloody face licking and the entrail eating).

here's a question: has ANYONE ever read Chase's THE STILL LIFE, from which the film is adapted? Was it ever even published?

I really wish I was back in Jersey for that Exhumed showing. Good memories!

I checked out GRAVE on Showtime Beyond over the weekend and ran it next to my Japanese VHS.
MGM has indeed come up with a longer version than found on the Japanese tape or the old Unicorn tape. I have not seen any of the cheapo DVD's out there on this title, but have heard they look awful and I just assumed the DVD's were sourced from the Unicorn tape ( which itself was a washed out, print damged eyesore ).

SPOILERS!


MGM's restoration may not be 100% uncut but does include longer edits of two murders with footage I had never seen before. When the woman gets attacked in her basement, the vampire hacks at her throat with a garden tool. This scene previously ended after the first blow, but MGM's print continues for 2 more chops and then adds an additional shot where it looks like the vampire is about to bite her in the forehead. I watched this several times and it's a difficult shot for me to decipher. Maybe this is the bloody face licking Bruce mentioned?
The other additional footage is brief and consists of a medium shot of the vampire and the woman he attacks in the park as he leans down to get a hot drink and then an extended long shot where he settles at her throat ( which is cut short on the Japanese tape ).

That's it for differences besides the strange French language end credit title card, which indicates MGM did some digging around for this one. I can't lay my hands on that issue of UNCUT that details the longer German release, but get the vibe this is still missing some material. Maybe the entrail eating scene? Although I can't figure out where entrail eating would fit into the puzzle.

MGM has matted the film at approx. 1.85 and a few tight shots aside, the framing looks good with additional picture info right and left over the full frame release. The source materials are not great but overall the MGM version is decent with natural skin tones and colors. The outdoor night scenes seem to have been darkened a little ( they are brighter, easier to read and more colorful on the Japanese VHS ), but perhaps look more realistic in the MGM presentation.

Confirmed the German version is still longer, as both sequences are still incomplete in the MGM version. The Canadian CIC video release is cited as being longer than the Unicorn tape but it is not clear exactly what is on it. Anyone here have the CIC tape who can look at these two scenes?

I used to have the CIC and Unicorn tapes and compared them years back.

(spoilers)

In general, the framing and color between the two tapes varied in several spots. Overall I recall liking Unicorn's presentation better.

The CIC tape did indeed contain the additional garden tool hacks in the basement, but cut before the licking of the blood off of the face that is apparently intact on the German VAF Video release (as Die Gruft des Grauens). According to Chris Bryant's UNCUT review in issue #10, "It shows the vampire slurping at the victim's forehead before licking her face, her neck and then down her body."

However, the Unicorn tape seemed to contain a bloodier alternate shot at the end where an impaled vampire slides across the wall, leaving a big blood smear. The Unicorn tape had the smear, the CIC did not. (I'm going off memory here, but I'm pretty sure it was an alternate shot and not just framing differences.)

The entrail sequence described in UNCUT is during the murder of the prostitute with the broken bottle. According to the review, "... there is an additional 15 seconds of footage as Croft picks up a handful of blood and guts from the prostitute's wound (in semi-close-up) and drinks it."

Anyone know anyone at MGM to forward this information to? I'd love for its DVD release to be as complete as possible.

I just rewatched the CIC tape. The blood smear is definitely present on the wall. So are the three hacks with the garden tool that John Bernhard mentioned, but no face-licking or entrails. There are no end titles on this version, except for "The End Or Is It?" The running time is 88 minutes. It opens with an MPAA PG rating card.

I ended up getting the CIC tape off EBAY and the MGM version on Showtime reflects that to a frame, except for the French end title.
So MGM was able to restore the film to it's PG form, a step up from the TV prints Unicorn and the PD companies offered. It's a shame as I feel the flick would have a bit more of a kick with a bit of extra mayhem. While it was nice to see the film get a face lift , I'd hate to see it hit DVD still missing footage.

At least now that Sony seems to have lost part of their stranglehold on MGM's library, maybe a more complete restoration can finally take place.