Grave of the Vampire

So which came first Blade or Grave of the Vampire? Obviously, if you look at the success of Blade this was a good idea, but Grave of the Vampire was too weak to get much mileage out of it.

What does it have in common with the Marvel vampire hunter? James is a half-human vampire. He has a vampire father and a human mother. He can walk in the daylight and go toe-to-toe with vampires in a fight.

James isn't a vampire hunter like Blade, though. For one thing vampires in this world don't seem to be numerous. We really only see one, the one James is hunting, his father. There is the suggestion that the elder vampire (who goes by many names in the story so I'll just call him “the vampire”) once had an undead bride who was destroyed long ago.

The focus of the plot is weird, though. The way it opens I thought the vampire attack on Leslie (James' mother) was just going to be a prelude to more attacks. Then I thought we would be seeing the story through Leslie's eyes. She's is raped by the vampire in the first scene. From there we spend the first third of the movie watching her as she decides to have her baby without doctor involvement then rear him even though she discovers he's not fully human.

We jump forward several times. We learn Leslie's pregnant, then practically in the next scene she's in labor, and then after a few key scenes James is a grown man and Leslie is out of the story completely.

From there we join James on his quest to hunt down his father already in progress. We quickly learn that his professor at night school might be the vamp he's looking for, although James wants proof before revealing his nature.

I kept expecting James to be heroic, but he's really not. Lots of people die due to his inaction. I really don't find James to be all that likable.

I will say that the vampire legacy they write in is pretty good, but other than that most of the developments and characters are uninteresting. People just kind of drop in and out of the story. They impact the plot but not the viewers' emotions.

This isn't helped by the fact that a lot of the acting is goofy. The entire cast is made up of unknowns which isn't always a negative. This time, though, there's a good reason these people haven't gotten more exposure.

MORALITY:

Most of the violence isn't extreme, but a couple of the vampire attacks are vicious. Leslie cuts her breast to feed baby James her blood. Leslie is raped, but it isn't graphically depicted. In fact, until we find out she's pregnant it's unclear if there was a sexual assault or not.

There is at least one sex scene and some other mild sensuality. There is no nudity.

The strong language is very little.

SPIRITUALITY:

We are dealing with undead vampires here, presumably the type to be burned by holy water though we don't get deeply into that territory.

James wants vengeance, and given the nature of the villain his quest could be a good one. But in stopping a monster James becomes something of one himself, not caring who gets hurt along the way. What could be a noble quest becomes a selfish endeavor.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I've seen worse than Grave of the Vampire, but there's not a lot here to be enticing. At the same time if you like vampires you might find this one entertaining as long as you go into it knowing it's a B movie from the early 70's.

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