Director: Massimo Pupillo (as Ralph Zucker)
Year: 1965
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: 5 tombe per un medium 5 Graves for the Medium; Cemetery of the Living Dead; Coffin of Terror; Tombs of Horror
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Arriving at an abandoned villa, a lawyer meets with his boss; daughter who informs him that his intent is in vain and to leave, but when a violent storm strands him there overnight they discover the deceased control the dead strewn around the grounds of the house from a plague infestation years ago and must find a way to stop the deadly revenge being carried out.
Review:
This is one of the finest Italian Gothic horror films. One of the best things about the film is the fact that there's an overabundance of high-quality Gothic images. There's the mansion it takes place in, which is great and looks exactly like the kind that usually features in here, from the arrangement of the furniture to the way it has the setup for the creepy surroundings out in the marsh or the various rooms inside the castle. Even more, the shots of the graveyards illuminated from the moonlight and the way the gravestones are simply impressive-looking and create an authentic air to it, and perhaps the most memorable is the shot within the tombstone of the hands along the side of a coffin springing to life with a jolt as it's the one true shock in the film and manages to generate some really nice suspense scenes.
Of course, the fact that there's a lot of scenes that feature a character walking around in the flimsy nightgown through the long, dark hallways as a thunderstorm blasts away in the background allows for an even more Gothic atmosphere. The early scene during the rainstorm, where the flashing lightning illuminates a gravestone in the cemetery quite eerily while he's on the phone is also one of the top scenes in here to demonstrate this. When the plague victims start showing up, they're just as good and actually help to give some more atmosphere to the proceedings. The scarred faces and mangled features are graphic for the time and look disgusting, and even the other victims here are great looking leaving a striking impression and comes off as really unique. There's also a rather fun ending to this that generates some nice action, mainly from the rising zombie plague that forces them into a frantic scramble around the house, and it's quite exciting. All of these here are what makes the film so entertaining.
This one doesn't have all that much wrong with it. The main issue with it is the fact that this one does take a while to get going with its story. The beginning of this, with the weird coincidences of the lawyer arriving with the mysterious letter behind his being summoned there and meeting with the family members, are all quite dull and just manage to suck a lot of life from the film from it's beginning segments before the film even has a chance of getting started. The only other flaw is that it doesn't ever show off the titular creatures at all, offering gloomy glimpses or shadowy figures rather than any sort of prolonged look at them, which is something to take offense with. It isn't that detrimental, though, as it's an overall fun entry.
Overview: ****/5
With a lot to like and only very minor flaws if they could be called as such to hurt it, this one comes off as a very fun and enjoyable Gothic horror entry. Really give this a shot if you're into the Italian Gothic entries, a fan of European horror in general or just into the style, while those who aren't should heed caution.
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