Necrophagus

After having away for some time , a young called Michael Sherrington : Bill Curran, returns home to encounter his spouse to find out that she has died during the childbirth . He attempts to solve what happened , but no one , mother and sisters , answer his questions and in fact they have become hostile . There are also two doctors , Dr Lexter : Frank Braña and Dr Kinberg : Antonio Jiménez Escribano who seem to be suspicious by withholding information and know something about her . Then Michael goes to local cemetery asking for the gravedigger : Victor Israel to unearth his wife , but the latter threatens to denounce him to Police . Nevertheleess , the man goes on his obsession and buries out the tomb by digging up where his wife lies to see if he can find out what happened to her , ultimately to resolve that it is empty. Later on , Michael is attacked and knocked out by two weird demon masked beings , and he suddenly disappears .

A bizarre European Gothic with no much sense , horror , supernatural events , hideous monster, weirdness and lousy dubbing . A twisted and absurd mess whose results will leave you embarrasing and bewildering . Resulting to be a rare and eerie terror tale with thrills , chills , plot twists , and being really boring. There appears some habitual Spanish secondaries : Frank Braña, Victor Israel, Antonio Jiménez Escribinano , all of them regular in all kinds of genres of the Sixties ans Seventies as Spaghetti, Paella Western , Terror , Euro-spy sub-genre , Giallo , or Jesus Franco films .

It displays a dark and sinister cinematography by Alfonso Nieva , being extremely necessary a perfect remastering . As well as a gloomy and terrifying musical score by Alfonso Santiesteban. The motion picture was lousily and badly directed by Miguel Madrid who often uses pseudonym Michael Skaife, here providing a morbid and outlandish terror entry with plenty of flashbacks as well . Miguel Madrid was a hack writer and director . He only mady three films, this "Necrophagus" or "The butcher of Binbrook" or "Graveyard of horror" 1971 , an erotic film titled "Bacanal en Directo" 1979 and another terror giallo film , the really weird "El Asesino de Muñecas" 1975 . Rating : 2.5/10 . Below average . Bottom of barrel .

Firstly a warning: this film is a very aquired taste. If you like 'hip' new American Slasher films such as Wes Craven's "Scream", then this film is probably not for you (your head may explode!) But, if you are a devout fan early-70's Spanish horror films like me, this is very highly recommended. You may feel somewhat dis-orientated - but that is the film's intention, it does not want to you to have a clear idea of exavtly what is going on for the first 50 minutes! The director plays with the viewer by fragmenting the narrative in a jarring way backwards and forwards so the chronology can only be worked out at the end. The wintery locations and gothic imagery give the whole film a sense of unease and melancholy. There would be no point in me trying to explain the plot of this movie as it would ruin the dis-orientating experience. The title has become very mis-leading since Jorg Buttgereit unleashed "Nekromantik" upon the world: there is NO gore, NO nudity, NO graphic depictions of necrophilia. But it certainly IS as disturbing as Buttgereit's film because of all the dark undercurrents in the film's depictions of rural family life and the decay of heritage. However, it is advised that the movie be watched in the language it is shot in, Spanish, as the English dubbing in the American and Scandinavian video releases is truly appalling. Unfortuantely, the Spanish video release (Norma Video) is very very rare.

It's really strange and hard to find a movie like that: The plot is interesting, but the acting, the editing and camara are, at best, amateur.

Everything is there to be a great gothic story: Dead love A monster A spooky castle Unspoken hate and revenge A graveyard with a really creepy keeper But from the start, everything goes south, image, sound and acting. Scenes seams to have been match together without rhythm or reason. You could argue that the bad doubling in English doesn't help and makes things worst. But comparing to many other "international" horror movies of the 70's with same treatment (Spanish or Italian made doubled in English for International release), this one is not accomplished.

Too bad, the story is solid, the idea great, the resolution good... But the form is a mess.

The English translation of the title on the DVD version of this film is "Graveyard of Horrors," but I think that must be an error. It should have been called "Graveyard of Horribles." Horrible acting, horrible editing, horrible story, and horrible music all make this a horrible film best left in a horrible graveyard.

Horrible.

What if someone made a horror movie that was completely devoid of plot?

Well, I think it would probably end up a little bit like this one. I don't think I've ever seen a move was so steady it its slide from hackneyed (at the beginning) to complete crap (by the end). I only stuck with it, because I kept thinking it couldn't possibly get worse. Well, up until the very end, "Necrophagus"/"Graveyard of Horror" proved me wrong.

Who would have suspected that a movie with an undead lizard-man, evil grave-robbing cultists, and mad scientists tossed in for no discernible reason could suck this bad? One would think there'd at least be some humor value... but not here.