Mantén mi tumba abierta

Denizens of a Southern-U.S. agronomic community are being violently shanked by a sword-brandishing bedlamite. The killer is introduced formally as Lesley, an attractive woman with a history of mental problems who lives in a sprawling antebellum manor with "Kevin", her brother and erotic "idee fixe". There is a surreptitious nature to the Kevin character, as his existence is supported only by reference. He may be either dead or entirely nonexistent, or possibly a spectral alter-ego drawn forth from Lesley's troubled mind, emerging during her repressed libidinous yearnings to wreak the bloody murders she is otherwise incapable of. This mystery only deepens with the film's oblique denouement.

Despite being a lesser entry in the small but celebrated S.F. Brownrigg oeuvre, KEEP MY GRAVE OPEN is by no means a starch or disposable low-budget drive-in quickie. A surprisingly well-acted impecunious project, it manages to loom a mournful and chilling presence of wandering detachment, and occasionally feels like a pauper Polanski film. It does have its share of observable technical deficiencies(though I personally found the cheap visual impurities an enhancement of the occasion), and the music score is strange and often rather extraneous. Still, this is an effectively subdued horror mood piece, and why it's been unable to galvanize the same substantial cult interest as other Brownrigg titles is anyone's guess.

7/10

Brownrigg has a small but loyal group of fans (here, here!), and this film is one of the reasons why. Low budget doesn't have to mean low quality, and KEEP MY GRAVE OPEN incorporates all of Brownie's favorite elements: beautiful female leads, insanity, and atmosphere to burn. The lead in question is Camilla Carr, a gorgeous redhead who had been a quasi-regular in Brownie's stock company of versatile actors (she played a doll-toting crazy in DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT). There's a sense of isolation--or maybe more correctly, desolation--that plays from the opening scene all the way through the film. Gloomy interiors and shots of lonely Texas two-lanes reinforce this. Occasionally the film drifts into soap opera territory, as when Carr's character gives a length exposition describing her past traumas, but it's by and large a study of grief, abandonment, and madness. And the ending still has me scratching my head! Oh well, them's the grits!

This low budget obscurity might entertain you to stick with it to the end, and although the very low budget hampers it, the director is skilled enough to make a watchable feature out of the (very) raw materials. However, I wouldn't say that Keep My Grave Open is an undiscovered gem, its just better than it could have been. The plot follows a spinsterish woman called Lesley who lives in a remote house with her husband or brother Kevin, who never leaves his room and only Lesley seems to have ever seen him (Ahh – alarm bells!). People who get too close or too nosy about Lesley and Kevin fall foul of a murderer, but who is doing the killing?

Now you won't find this little thriller going too far from the well worn path but it does have a handful of positive features. First of all are the performances, which are on the whole very natural, with particular praise for Camilla Carr in the lead, as she thoroughly convinces as the unhinged Lesley. The film's most memorable sequence (in my opinion) involves Lesley getting dolled up to make an amorous nocturnal visit to Kevin's bedroom and the resulting trippy seduction (?) scene is all down to Camilla Carr's performance in what must have been a pretty difficult scene to shoot (you'll see what I mean). The remainder of the film is kind of predictable what with a few stalking and murdering scenes and general, none of which are outstanding, even though the "sword through the walls" attack is often cited as a suspenseful sequence, it doesn't really work for me as the victim has to be stupid enough to walk all the way around the room and then stand in exactly the right place to allow the killer to conveniently run her through. The effect isn't very good either, and things don't improve a great deal after it.

Sadly the biggest thing working against the film is the cheapness of it all. The lighting can be very poor, sound is tinny, nighttime shots are impossible to see clearly, and the film has a general grainy air. However, as I have said the film is directed and shot with competence and I would be interested to see how well it turned out had SF Brownrigg had more studio backing, as his scenes with people, especially all the scenes involving Lesley, which are well handled and show his skill with many different film-making techniques.

I wouldn't shell out to buy a DVD of this – certainly not the hideous one called "The House Where Hell Froze Over" with it's god-awful cover (the original video release cover is great), but if you happen to pass this film and have the time to watch it, you could have some fun. It even manages a perverse last minute twist ending of sorts that kind of surprised me, which always leaves a good impression.

Out of the quartet of S.F. Brownrigg shockers (also including "Don't Look in the Basement!", "Don't Open the Door", & "Scum of the Earth"), this is the worst. That doesn't mean it's bad, it just doesn't measure up to the others that I've seen ("Basement" and "Scum").

Camilla Carr once again steals the show as Leslie Fontaine, a mentally unbalanced woman who lives alone in an isolated mansion with her brother/lover Kevin. A series of murders occur committed by someone wearing a horseriding suit and wielding a sword. Along for the ride are other Brownigg regulars Jessie Lee Fulton (a bit part here, but who was killed by Carr in "Basement"), Gene Ross (who appeared in all 4 Brownrigg shockers; this is his worst role as a spectacled psychiatrist), Ann Stafford (a step down from her performance in "Scum", but still likable and cute), and Anne MacAdams (a cameo in a pink wig as a brothel madam).

Brownrigg's technique has bettered since "Scum of the Earth", made 5 years earlier. The use of the camera and lighting has improved a great deal, the music is great (as usual in a Brownrigg film), and the acting is all well-done! Newcomers who make an impression include Stephen Toblowsky as the lad who takes care of Carr's horses and Sharon Bunn as Twinkle the prostitute. While this could never top Brownrigg's two previous films in a million years, it still manages to pack a few punches in 78 minutes. A few scenes to watch for: the stalking of Ann Stafford after she is locked in a cabin, including the dragging of a sword along the siding of the house and pushing a sword through a crack in the door; the twist in the storyline that results in a gory death in a bathroom; and the chase after Twinkle, culminating in her hiding in an antique car filled with the killer's victims! Brownrigg has yet to disappoint me with any of his films and I recommend this to those with patience (this movie is not fast-paced) and an appreciation for "less is better" (budget, that is).

As a whole this movie was totally lame. Not scary, not funny, not unexpectedly heart-warming, not gross, not incomprehensible. You don't even really have any sympathy for the director as someone trying and failing. But it looks really, really good. It would make a decent silent, with the right score & titles. It's all washed out and almost-there most of the time, and I thought that was really nice. So I have a soft-spot for it in that regard. I wouldn't get rid of my copy. There's something there inside it, there are people there somewhere. Something ought to be done with it.