Terror-Creatures from the Grave (1965)

A lawyer named Albert is summoned to an estate, or more accurately his unavailable partner is summoned and he answers it.  He is to change the will of the patriarch of the family, but when he arrives he discovers that the man has been dead for almost a year!  While investigating who might have sent the letter that summoned him bodies start to appear around the small village nearby.  When he realizes that the victims are all those who witnessed the clients death nearly a year earlier and they are dying in the order which they signed the death notice Albert realizes something is amiss.  But will it be too late to save himself?

This is one of those badly dubbed black and white gothic horror movies from the ‘60s that the European market was churning out.  Many of them, including this one, follow a familiar pattern.  You have a wronged man (or woman sometimes) that comes back from the grave as a ghost to take their revenge on those that were responsible for their death.  There is always a niece or daughter (as is the case here) caught in the crossfire that are put in danger and eventually saved by some twist of fate. 

Terror-Creatures from the Grave follows this familiar pattern, but does have a few things going for it.  I rather enjoyed the mythology behind the story here as they bring the plague and plague bringers into it.  I’m sure this is mostly to give them an excuse for some of the makeup effects, like the severed hands and the effects that the plague has on its victims.  But it does add to the story and atmosphere of the movie.  And since I’m talking about the special effects I do have to say for the mid ‘60s the severed hands moving in the display case as well as the pulsing wounds of the plague victims is pretty gruesome.  So the movie does deliver the goods there.  I also thought that it was great that the legendary Barbara Steele appears in this movie.  Honestly I’ve only discovered and paid attention to these European flicks in the last few years, and the only reason that Terror-Creatures was even on my radar is because of the lovely Barbara Steele.  Sadly she doesn’t get as much screen time here as I would have liked.  That said her character is very memorable and in the end is the reason that much of the action happens. 

Now that I’ve talked about the things that I liked about the movie I need to warn you guys about a few other items.  The movie is a bit slow to start and really it isn’t until the last 30 minutes that a lot of the action happens.  This is fairly typical of movies like this one, but is also the reason that many fans simply don’t get into them.  So if you are new to flicks like this consider yourself warned.  I’ve also mentioned the dubbing, but I want to reiterate that this is pretty bad.  The voices actors are at times overly dramatic and then totally flat.  They also didn’t make that many attempts at adding ambient noise, which gives the movie that unique feeling that so many 1st time viewers can’t put their fingers on.  Again consider yourself warned.

I could go on about both the negatives and positives to Terror-Creatures from the Grave, but that would be pointless.  In the end I can’t honestly say that the movie is very good.  I mean I did enjoy it as an example of good cheesy European cinema, and Barbara Steele is awesome.  But I rather enjoy some bad movies and I don’t want to steer you readers towards a flick you might not enjoy.  If you dig movies like Black Sunday and Nightmare Castle then give this one a try (though it isn’t as good as those).  If you haven’t seen those movies then it might be a better idea to check those out before watching a movie like Terror-Creatures from the Grave.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2010 John Shatzer