GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (John Hayes, 1972) -- Scream Factory 4/16/19

[bruce holecheck]

John Hayes' underrated GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972) gets a Blu from Scream Factory this April!

https://www.shoutfactory.com/product...roduct_id=7037

"Perverse and bizarre ... an interesting departure from standard vampire tales, with plenty of unexpected curves ..." – TV Guide

The vampire Caleb Croft has awakened from his unholy slumber — with an insatiable lust for blood and the pleasures of the flesh. A brutal attack on a pair of lovers allows for his desire to be temporarily fulfilled ... but his unspeakable acts leave the woman pregnant with his child. Ignoring all advice, she gives birth to the progeny of their unwanted union: James — who will only drink blood from his mother's breast. As James matures, he learns of his father's true nature, and sets out to destroy him.

Grave of the Vampire Official Trailer - YouTube

[babybreese]

Do they know that this was rated R and the PG version is cut and no one wants a cut Blu?

[monwobbbo]

Originally Posted by babybreese

Do they know that this was rated R and the PG version is cut and no one wants a cut Blu?

yeah if it's not the full version then no thanx.

[Partyslammer]

This is great news, one of my favorite 70's "modern" vampire films. Although it has a very similar tone to the early 70's Count Yorga films (especially the "shock" ending), it is imo, far superior and has much more of a rough edge and overall nasty brutality in regards to the violence and murders.

As mentioned above, this film absolutely needs to be the full uncut version which I don't think has been released on home video. The two US DVD releases from the past 10+ years are *nearly* uncut but there's a couple scenes on those releases that still have some bits missing, notably the scene in which the woman is killed by the stream by with a broken bottle. The PG cut is the one for late night TV broadcast back in the early 80's I believe. Hopefully SF has a complete cut of the film as if it isn't that would be a deal breaker for me.

Interesting factoid: This movie was David Chase's first big break in film (although the tiny budget was barely $50k), he wrote the story adapted from his own novel. Chase later went on to create The Sopranos.

[bigshot]

I was pals with Mike Pataki and he would talk about this movie and Dracula's Dog and The Baby as being films that he had fun working on. I've seen the other two and they're great. Looking forward to getting this one.

[MJD64]

I recall this being a pretty grisly but interesting take on the vampire genre, with that low-budget 70's flavor I'm a real fan of in the horror genre; can't wait to revisit this one. I think I first saw actor William Smith (he always reminded me a bit of Charles Bronson) in the lurid and campy INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS, and he turned up in so many 80's films I saw growing up such as ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, RUMBLE FISH and RED DAWN. Did a little research on IMDB and was surprised to find out he made his film debut as a child actor in THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN!

[DoghouseReilly46]

I would love to see this one but the R rated cut is a must or no sale.

[Boggle]

I'm curious if anyone here has actually seen this film uncut?

The version I've seen was not uncut. It seems pretty obvious where the cuts are too. Despite this, it's still a very good 70's horror film. I went into it with modest expectations and was surprised. It's an overachiever.

I'd love to see the complete film, but honestly I'm going to buy it regardless. The cuts don't ruin the movie for me. Surely some extra gore would be welcome and would punch up a few scenes, but it's hardly a deal-breaker.

[Partyslammer]

Originally Posted by Boggle

I'm curious if anyone here has actually seen this film uncut?

The version I've seen was not uncut. It seems pretty obvious where the cuts are too. Despite this, it's still a very good 70's horror film. I went into it with modest expectations and was surprised. It's an overachiever.

I'd love to see the complete film, but honestly I'm going to buy it regardless. The cuts don't ruin the movie for me. Surely some extra gore would be welcome and would punch up a few scenes, but it's hardly a deal-breaker.

I have. The tv edited version which is where I saw this movie for the first time in the early 80's was surprisingly strong for broadcast tv even if it was on late night, but the cuts were obvious, often resulting in clunky jumps in the soundtrack. I saw what I believe to be a completely uncut version (although poor quality) in the early 90's at a really run down revival house showing a bunch of horror films for an October Halloween film festival.

In the past 10+ years, I picked up first the Alpha Video DVD which is a faded, sub-vhs bootleg quality release that while being the R rated version, still was missing some complete scenes and was 4:3 standard def. Around 2012, I picked up the Retromedia anamorphic widescreen DVD sourced from a decent quality 35mm print which was slightly more complete but still missing some frames in key scenes, notably from the "broken bottle" murder next to the stream. While the Retromedia DVD was a gigantic upgrade over the Alpha release, there is still a *lot* of room for improvement over the Retromedia DVD if a better and complete source has been found and used for this upcoming release.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by Partyslammer

I have. The tv edited version which is where I saw this movie for the first time in the early 80's was surprisingly strong for broadcast tv even if it was on late night, but the cuts were obvious, often resulting in clunky jumps in the soundtrack. I saw what I believe to be a completely uncut version (although poor quality) in the early 90's at a really run down revival house showing a bunch of horror films for an October Halloween film festival.

In the past 10+ years, I picked up first the Alpha Video DVD which is a faded, sub-vhs bootleg quality release that while being the R rated version, still was missing some complete scenes and was 4:3 standard def. Around 2012, I picked up the Retromedia anamorphic widescreen DVD sourced from a decent quality 35mm print which was slightly more complete but still missing some frames in key scenes, notably from the "broken bottle" murder next to the stream. While the Retromedia DVD was a gigantic upgrade over the Alpha release, there is still a *lot* of room for improvement over the Retromedia DVD if a better and complete source has been found and used for this upcoming release.

my experiences with Retromedia has always merited lots of "room for improvement"! Hoping that Scream can release a definitive version...

[BarnDoor]

On the Hammer Horror on Blu-ray Facebook group a chap called John Bernhard posted this:

I have the German VHS with the 2 uncut scenes of violence missing from MGM's PG HD master and have sent a note to the producer, and will be offering it and informing them what is required to make it complete.

If they can't unearth anything better, hopefully Scream will utilize this footage, whether it be integrated into the film (two different cuts) or included as deleted scenes.

[The Great Owl]

Is the 95-minute version the uncut one?

That’s the run time listed both by Scream Factory and Internet Movie Database.

[DukeTogo84]

Never heard of this, but sounds like a solid film.

[Partyslammer]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

On the Hammer Horror on Blu-ray Facebook group a chap called John Bernhard posted this:

If they can't unearth anything better, hopefully Scream will utilize this footage, whether it be integrated into the film (two different cuts) or included as deleted scenes.

I believe someone posted one of the uncut scenes on YouTube years ago from the German VHS tape (it's long gone now). It was really, REALLY rough quality, the viewer could barely make out what was happening.

It was the scene which Croft murders the woman with a broken bottle before going to teach his class. The fully uncut scene has Croft using the woman's arm to stab herself with the broken bottle in the medium closeup, then a long shot of Croft stabbing her several more times in the face and neck followed by a close shot of him leaning into her to drink her blood followed back to the long shot of Croft bent over the now dead woman at the edge of the stream.

The currently longest cut of that scene on the Retromedia DVD shows Croft stabbing her once, a very quick (any poorly edited) cut to him leaning in and back to the long shot of Croft drinking her blood. Listening carefully, you'll hear a jump in the soundtrack. If you look at the medium shot of Croft leaning into her, you can see blood on her neck *and* face from multiple stab wounds from the original uncut scene.

[Partyslammer]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Is the 95-minute version the uncut one?

That’s the run time listed both by Scream Factory and Internet Movie Database.

Hopefully. The Retromedia DVD has a run time of 90 minutes and it's certainly the R rated version despite missing some small bits of violence and possibly nudity/sex in a few scenes. but I don't think it's missing a full 5 minutes worth of footage. As far as I can tell, the Retromedia DVD is missing barely a minute's worth of footage tops. It would be a great surprise if there's that much restored or cut footage included in this new release.

[SpiderBaby]

I only knew this from Unicorn's awesome artwork on the VHS release.

[MJD64]

For those reading this thread whose curiosity has been piqued by this announcement but may not have seen the film, you can currently stream GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE for free if you're an Amazon Prime member; it is the edited version (according to IMDB, all North American versions were censored), but a viewer can still get a sense of the creepy grindhouse effectiveness of the film even in its edited form.

Scream is fairly reliable in attempting to secure uncut versions of their released titles, here's hoping they can make it happen with GRAVE.

[bruce holecheck]

As far as I know, film elements for the two bits of extra gore from the German VHS have never surfaced. I would expect this release to be the same as MGM's HD print that's been making the rounds for the last several years, which has stuff that's missing from the TV prints and some tapes, but still missing that pair of elusive shots that have only appeared (to my knowledge) on the German tape. There was a shot-by-shot comparison made years back on some messageboard, but I can't currently find it.

[rillog]

A new DVD will be released in Germany, called Die Gruft des Grauens. It claims to be from a new 2017 master and uncut for the first time. So there might be a chance for a full uncut Shout Blu Ray.

[sancho]

I have never seen this, but the trailer looks pretty good.