Terror Creatures from the Grave

  Terror Creatures from the Grave ( 5 Tombe per un Medium)

1965

Director- Massimo Pupillo

Cast- Barbara Steele, Walter Brandi, Mirella Maravidi, Alfredo Rizzo, Riccardo Garrone, Luciano Pigozzi, Tilde Till, Ennio Balbo

            

    To start off, can we just agree that Terror Creatures from the Grave is a terrible name? This was an American-Italian collaboration and I have to assume that the terrible name came from the American half. It conjures up images of Ed Wood and teenagers from Mars. The Italian name, 5 Graves for a Medium is much better, and actually related to the film. However, the American cut has some extra scenes, so I guess it’s worth putting up with the name.

            

      A lawyer, Kovacs, (Walter Brandi) arrives at an estate, answering a request by a man to check over his will. He is met by the man’s daughter, Corinne (Mirella Maravidi) and her step-mother, Cleo (Barbara Steele). She tells the lawyer that her husband couldn’t have sent the request because he has been dead for almost a year. In fact, the anniversary of his death is approaching. The lawyer has the letter authenticated and, from the writing and the seal, it seems genuine. But where did the letter come from?

            

     Cleo says that the whole thing is just a joke in poor taste, but Corinne believes that supernatural forces are at work. She reveals that her father was a renowned scientist but also an accomplished spiritualist. The local villagers avoid the estate. The villa used to be a hospital for plague victims. It bears ghastly souvenirs of its past, like a collection of mummified hands, hands cut from men believed to be spreading the plague maliciously.

            

     Corinne seems scared and claims that she has been seeing her father, returned from the grave. Kovacs finds a recording of her father, claiming to have contacted the spirits of the dead plague victims. Cleo, on the other hand, doesn’t think too highly of her dead husband, feeling a bit hoodwinked by their marriage. She left a life of high society to follow him out into the rural countryside with little payoff for her investment.

            

   The dead man’s friends, all of whom were the only witnesses to his death, are dying off one at a time. No cause of death can be found, but each corpse has a look of utter terror on its face. We also learn that his wife Cleo was having an affair and that her husband’s loyal gardener knew about it. However, as the anniversary of the man’s death draws closer, more frightening things occur.

            

    Are the deaths a result of supernatural forces or is there a more mundane explanation? This sort of revenge from beyond the grave whodunit was a typical plot for these gothic horror films. Barbara Steele starred in several of them herself (Nightmare Castle and Long Hair of Death being two examples).

      

    Barbara seems a little underutilized in the film (at least for my tastes). Reportedly, she and the director did not get along too well. Maybe that’s why. The credits list the director as Ralph Zucker, but that was really just the pseudonym for Massimo Pupillo, who went on to direct Bloody Pit of Horror the same year. The credits say the film is inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe, but if so, I don't know which work. More likely that was inserted to capitalize on the popularity of the Poe pictures that Roger Corman had been making.

     

    As far as Barbara Steele movies go, it’s about middle of the pack. It is typical of Italian gothic movies of this era. It is creepy with some original surprises and spends a sufficient amount of time building tension. Average horror fans can probably skip it but fans of Italian gothic horror will want to see it as will any Barbara Steele fan.