La settima tomba

Various interested parties gather for the reading of Sir Robert Thorne's last will and testament in an old Scottish castle reputed to house the hidden treasure of Francis Drake. Before the will is even read, the guests & heirs hold a séance to try and find the loot but are interrupted when Sir Robert's corpse vanishes from the family vault (he's 7th generation) and his grounds keeper is found hanging from the rafters...

Like quite a few other "horror" films, this is actually more of a mystery with sinister trappings -and not a very good one, at that. Sir Robert died (or did he?) of leprosy and experimented with cell regeneration in a basement laboratory before his untimely demise but what's so scary about that? The body count's low and the limited sets make it look like the filmmakers had access to a crumbling old castle and just slapped together a semblance of a story to fit the circumstances. The IMDb plot description couldn't be further from the truth.

Heading to a local castle, a gathering of heirs looking for their inheritance after the death of a wealthy relative are forced to stay at the house which brings them into contact with a curse involving their supposedly-dead heir coming back to stalk them which forces them to figure out what's going on.

Generally, this was a fairly solid and likable by-the-numbers Italian Gothic horror effort. One of the better features here is the strong setup that doesn't really set any new boundaries but works for this type of fare. The idea of the group of unscrupulous and greedy family members looking to gather their inheritance at a castle of their relative at a will reading to be held at the castle is one featured in quite a few genre efforts over the years. However, that still allows this one to work incredibly well at offering up the kind of solid starting point here by giving the group enough of a reason to get together at the location, providing a brief bit of history about their arrival with their intentions about gathering there, and also gathering a bit of information about who each one is that helps establish everything for later on. As this also manages to include the work done by the group while at the castle looking into the history of their relative and the bizarre lifestyle he led that involves radical experimentation, unusual collections, and twisted secrets that are all part and parcel of the genre, it fits into the genre rather nicely. The longer they stay at the castle, though, the more this one moves into the type of Gothic melodrama spiced up with random bits of proto-slasher/Giallo-style attacks that make the genre rather fun. The early scenes of the group staying at the house and looking around the castle grounds which enables them to learn about the true nature of his experiments in the underground laboratory trying to look into the leprosy diagnosis he has gives everything a great touch. That leads into the more involved sequences featuring the group holding a seance that goes into some rather extreme revelations during the experience and the group picked off one by one around the castle grounds leads to some immensely chilling sequences here. Enhanced rather nicely by the expected Gothic trappings within the house and the belief that the cursed relative is still alive and running after the family that includes the series of encounters involving the nightgown-clad women running through the secret passageways or looking for the killer with fiery candelabras, this all brings about some genuinely fun and chilling moments for a lot to like here. There are some big issues here that hold this one down. The main issue here is the overall expected and somewhat detrimental familiarity that runs throughout here being pretty much ruled by its cliches. It feels far more like a film that's going through the Gothic horror playbook about the family brought together by the confines of a strange death and looking to get their hands on an inheritance, find the truth about what's going on inside the house that's far more dangerous than anything that gathered them there and begin going through a series of encounters and confrontations that offer up the kind of setup that proves a far more human outcome than the supernatural. It's all pretty much the same as most other films in the style that includes a similar series of setups and doesn't differentiate itself from too many other films in the style either which hinders this one quite a bit. The slack pacing that leaves long periods without a lot going on here is another big factor where everything takes so long to get started with everyone standing around discussing their next step that it feels really slow-going at points. Otherwise, this is a rather fun time with these issues holding it back.

Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

An American family travels in them carriage through old Scotland.They are going to the old castle of the dead Sir Reginald for the reading of the will.During a standstill in an inn they discover that their old relative is dead with leprosy.Then in the castle they meet the other relatives and during a black ritual they evoke the spirit of Sir Reginald,also to discover the hideaway of his treasure hidden in the castle.The soul of the old ancestor still lives in the castle and is raged for the greed of the descendants,so night after night he persecutes them making their stay a nightmare.This is the synopsis of "La Settima Tomba"-extremely rare and obscure Italian Gothic horror made in 1965.The film is quite dull and lacks suspense and eerie atmosphere.The location sets provide a bit of Gothic mood and it's nice to see young Gianni Dei of "Giallo a Venezia" infamy in a small role.Still "The Seventh Grave" is worth watching,but only for completists of forgotten Italian horror.5 tombs out of 10.

This one is so obscure that the version I watched had ended up on YouTube after being uploaded from an MP4 while originally being recorded onto a VCR from an Italian TV station. Please note that sometimes these films stay obscure and are never cleaned up because it's not worth the bother. This is one of those films, although I do appreciate that it has been preserved in some form.

Set in 'Old Scotland', a bunch of Americans are heading for an old mansion (yep, it's one of those films) but not before stopping at a local inn. Surprised that they make omelette in Scotland as well as England, they then head of to find that they are not the only heirs to the estate of one Reginald Jenkins, who died of leprosy. Also, his assistant escaped from a mental institution and also has leprosy. And one of the guests is psychic and particularly afraid of a table.

After being told by the lawyer that they've got to wait until another heir arrives, everyone decides to waste time by having a séance (that's where that scary table comes in handy). After some lengthy table tapping and a woman shouting 'Dan!' over and over, a spirit warns them to go, so naturally they all stay.

The Gothic horror part of the films works quite well, but once the housekeeper is found hanged the film staggers through the giallo bit with little enthusiasm. I blame this purely on the killer's fixation with moving bodies around or posing them at pianos to scare people, hitting people on the head lightly, or kidnapping people when he should have been cutting down the cast a bit. He (or she? or maybe even the table?) gets caught because they spend a lot of time explaining things when they should be removing people's blood.

It's a short film, and not a total waste. There are subtitles on the YouTube upload that are pretty all over the place. Not that I could do any better. And watch out for those Scottish omelettes!

You could be forgiven for not recognising the name of the director of this one - this was Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo's only film. And it's remained a pretty obscure entry in the Italian gothic cycle ever since. The story concerns a group who are travelling through 'Old Scotland' to a castle for the reading of the will of a dead relative, Sir Reginald. Before long the groundskeeper is found dead and Sir Reginald's body has vanished from the crypt. Could it be the dead aristocrat who subsequently stalks and terrorises these greedy guests?

I guess it would be fair to say that this isn't an upper-level example of this kind of thing. But then again, these old Italian gothics don't really need to do too much to basically work in my opinion. Throw together a crumbling gothic location, some spooky goings on, some attractive black and white photography and a gorgeous gothic girl, and usually you're going to have enough ingredients to get over the line in this sub-genre. This film's no different, as it works due to its atmosphere and feel, more than its plot mechanics, which are as routine as most of these types of things are. It does have some effective moments though, such as the séance scene, where the greedy relatives try to evoke the dead spirit of their ancestor in order to locate the hidden treasure of Sir Francis Drake (!!?). This whole sequence is shot nicely with some interesting angles and it does end with the psychic lady repeatedly shouting 'Dan' in a way which somewhat improbably recalls a much later hilarious scene from 'I'm Alan Partridge' - I wonder if Steve Coogan saw this on late night telly back in the 80's, leading to the Seventh Grave influencing one of the greatest TV comedy characters ever? In all honesty, probably not. On a final note, it was kind of interesting to see a couple of obscure Italian performers appear in this one - Jenkins is played by Antonio Casale who was no less than the key character Bill Carson from the western classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, while Fred is played by a fresh-faced Gianni Dei who would go on to star in the notorious sleaze-fest Giallo a Venezia.