The Gravedigger (2019) by Erynn Dalton

Director: Erynn Dalton

Year: 2019

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Creature Feature

Plot:

Going about his daily life, a lonely gravedigger stumbles upon a strange man in the graveyard, who he discovers is the legendary creature created by Victor Frankenstein, who’s now out looking to end his creation once and for all, forcing him to use his newfound skills to save his friend.

Review:

Overall, this was a fairly strong if problematic take on the genre. Among the better elements of this one is the sense of humanity and humility displayed as this one takes a different spin on the story’s predictable formula. The main setup here offers the idea of the creature being alive and prepared to end his own life over the treatment of his creator, which causes him to seek sanctuary in the graveyard where the gravedigger works and keeps him on as an assistant since it’s a mutually beneficial relationship for both of them. Since the gravedigger’s crippled body can’t take the rigors of the job, and the monster is healthy enough to dig but unwilling to face the rest of humanity, he can work at night for the both of them, keeping him company during the day with stories about his past and what led him to his current situation. Learning about the trauma each has gone through with the various background information and flashbacks that are featured throughout here helps to bring about a slew of sympathetic attributes as their friendship grows.

With everything established and put into a working storyline, this gets the fun final half in line, where the doctor returns, trying to seek revenge on the creature for what happened to their relationship in the past. Appearing to finally learn the truth about his existence and what it means to be alive, this sets up the striking final confrontation where the master and his creation come to blows and manage to fight off the kind of prejudice that each had for the other based on the past, to give this a great finish. Using a play-like structure with the way it all comes together, including the staging and presentation that offers a wildly overstated variation of everything, there’s some fun to be had here, while still being presented with the main flaw, where everything present here is so play-like that it never really presents much for hardcore genre fans to latch onto. With pretty much the whole film going for this kind of dialogue-heavy presentation and wild gesticulating instead of much action or genre flair, it might not meet expectations for some genre fans, being what lowers this one overall.

Overview: ***.5/5

An enjoyable if potentially problematic take on the genre, there’s a lot to like here with the explored relationship on display, which does bring a few slight problems that come together. Viewers who appreciate that type of storytelling, are hardcore fans of the story in general, or who are curious about this one, will have the most to like here, as most others out there might want to heed caution.