yashicad

There is one of those coin operated crane machines full of cheap, worthless junk in the lobby of the multiplex. As I was walking out, I thought how ironic it was that I could have fed eight dollars worth of quarters into the machine and not felt as ripped off as I did buying a ticket to this movie. I have seen this movie a dozen times over the past decade. Nothing new here folks. Just two hours worth of jump scares with loud sound effects. Want to get the same "scare" for nothing? Just give a friend two metal trashcan lids with the instructions to bang them together behind your back when your not looking. Same thing. That's not scary, just annoying and you jump because it is a reflex. Had I not been with someone else (who was enjoying it ) I would have left after about 45 minutes.

This movie is about 90% stock footage of animals with a really dull voice-over talking about Bigfoot. If I had a dollar for every time he said the name "Bigfoot" throughout this 92 minutes of coma inducing stock footage, I could take it and buy a decent movie. I like cheesy movies, but this isn't even remotely entertaining. By the one hour mark you will be praying for the sweet release of death. It took me not once, not twice but THREE different times before I could manage to watch this stinker all the way through. It became a challenge or a quest if you will, to watch this movie until the end without turning it off. At one point we are treated to a guy in a really cheap, and I do mean cheap suit hobbling around as a "wounded" Bigfoot. At the end of the movie (yay!!!) we get to see another shot of a guy in a suit splashing around in some water along with a young Bigfoot nearby. I was shocked and amazed that this was actually marketed as authentic footage back in 1976! Anybody that would believe this was actual footage of an undocumented, bipedal primate needs to get some serious help. If you want to waste 90 minutes of your life just save your dollar (thats what I paid) and go sit down outside and watch a blade of grass grow for that amount of time.

I wasn't really expecting Grave Of The Vampire to be very good. I bought it because I found it in a bargain section for only a couple of bucks. I must say, that it was well worth what I paid for it. Grave Of The Vampire has one of the most atmospheric graveyard scenes that comes to mind. Weird lighting, fog, and sinister music really make the opening scene in an old cemetery quite effective. Michael Pataki makes a great vampire. Actually, he looks like a zombie vampire during the opening scene, which I really liked. The film is very dated, so don't go into it expecting it to be comparable to something like Blade for example. However, for a good, spooky night movie it certainly hit the mark.