Graverobbers (1988)

"Graverobbers" isn't all that much of a horror film at all.**SPOILERS**Meeting together in a diner, Nora Mae Edwards, (Elizabeth Mannino) decides to marry John Henry Cox, (David Gregory) after only a few minutes together and move into a mortuary together. When she arrives there, he introduces her to his family, Sheriff Potter, (Larry Bockius) Emmaline Strickland, (Judith Mayes) Bill Billings, (Kenneth Giek) and Rev. Collins, (Kevin Scullin) who all live in the town of Newbury where they live. When she starts to suspect that something might be wrong when a series of strange accidents plagues the residents of the town, she realizes that he and his friends are reanimating the dead bodies so that they can all engage in safe-sex practices without catching any sort of weird disease from them. Gradually learning that it's only the tip of what's actually going on in the town, she tries whatever she can to stay away from the psychotics and get out of town alive.The Good News: There wasn't a great deal of good stuff here. One of the better areas in this one is the film's rather intriguing plot and the mystery that's built up around it. It's going to be quite obvious what the film's about to those going into it, but the fact that the film decides to make it a mystery for the characters makes it a lot of fun to watch things play out, and from the random odd-segment here and there to the first resurrection scene and their interactions once the secret has been somewhat revealed, these all make the mystery a little more worthwhile than normal and are quite fun on their own as well. The necrophilia theme also allows for some rather sleazy sequences to pop up, nothing too shocking or revolting but still there's enough of it to be a little unsettling at best. The last rather good part of the film is the finale, which is just over-the-top and completely awesome. Starting with a great foot chase through town where everyone seems to be in on it to the full-on suspenseful trip through the basement that features the literal skeletons-in-the-closet coming to the light-of-day in a fun little chase all the way to the incredibly energetic and exciting car chase, that has a pursuer on motorcycle having his skin whipped off at the speed of travel all the way down to a skeleton no less, ending with a fantastic twist that works well for the film. It's a lot of fun, and all of these issues are the only good things about this one.The Bad News: There was a couple of big flaws with this one. One of the most serious is that the film can't decide when to be serious or goofy and silly. The initial premise is handled well, as are several other moments, but the majority of the time the film just switches over jarringly trying to make it seem like a light, entertaining romp as if the subject matter were too gruesome to carry on with and, needing only a few cursory moments in which to remind of what the overall film is about, almost all other times there's a sense of the film utilizing an attitude of just sheer camp that conflicts immensely with the rest of the events portrayed. From the attitudes of the townspeople to the comical situations presented and the overall feel coming from the actions, it's just impossible to take what's going on seriously, and instead of creating a fun atmosphere, it conflicts with the film's more serious moments because of the shift in tone so abruptly, which is greatly shown in the funeral scene as that just drags out forever with the pastor reading essentially the same thing over and over, yet the assembled masses treat the situation with great sadness. That's just a single example of this, and it's rampant through the whole film. Of course, another way to deal with this is to be interesting when it's not focused on them, and yet it fails here as well. This is a criminally dull film for the first part, lasting nearly fifty minutes before it even so much as starts putting some kind of momentum towards the pace, and yet it still feels quite slow and boring during these because of that, and the frequent tone changes don't help matters at all. Those two factors contribute heavily to the film, and are the biggest problems to get over with this one.The Final Verdict: An undoubtedly cheesy 80s horror film, though a shining example of how there can be a bad cheesy movie. Preferably only for those who enjoy hilariously bad movies or just cheesy 80s horror movies no matter the quality, while those who actually have a taste for quality should skip this.Rated R: Violence, Language, Nudity and themes of necrophilia

First off the Summary is a quote taken from the movie itself so no one get offended at me... OK now then,Nora, a small town waitress, first fends off a traveling condom salesman before agreeing to marry a complete and utter stranger by the name of Henry. Henry also happens to be a funeral director who likes his woman tired in the sack... DEAD tired. She must escape from all this kookiness. This is a bizarre film, filled with bad acting and insane dialog. It had to be trying to be a horror-comedy, but it was neither horrific or comedic. Still somehow I still found it strangely watchable. Kinda had the feel of "Dead & Buried", but not nearly as good as that film. Points deducted for the movie imploding in on itself in it's ending twenty minutes or so.Eye Candy: Kathleen Margo gets toplessMy Grade: D

I saw this on a DVD double-bill with Andy Milligan's "Monstrosity". I see where people say "Graverobbers" (a.k.a "Dead Mate") is the worst movie ever. I dunno, I kinda think "Manos: Hands of Fate" is worse, but this merely a matter of semantics; both are awful bad. But, the other film on this DVD, "Monstrosity" is certainly worse than "Graverobbers". Both films were well-pared. Both are tasteless, cheap exploitation films, and surprisingly, "Graverobbers" has the higher production values of the two. The director of "Graverobbers" had once worked with "Monstrosity" creator Andy Milligan. Imagine, both incredibleminds and their films on one disc!The thing is, as tasteless as "Graverobbers" is, it is still more entertaining (again, semantics) than "Monstrosity". At least I was (sort of) rooting for the heroine in "Graverobbers", and well, the production values in that film were better. "Monstrosity" cannot escape its bargain-basement production values, its hideous, altering tone, and the most grating lead performance (by Haal Borske) in my long term memory. But, that's not to say "Graverobbers" is any good. It's low-grade direct to video nonsense that is about as useful as J. Lo's nipple-tweeker. Of course, at least that guy has a skill.The makers of "Graverobbers" display no skill that I can descern. Granted, some parts were funny (a category "Monstrosity" fails in, unintentional laughs aside), but I think even there I give "Graverobbers" too much credit.Forget any of the praise. Just avoid that double-feature DVD disc, because the side effects of watching both films on the same day will leave you sticking your tongue in a power outlet because you can't take another minute of the pain...Unless you enjoy the bottom-of-the-barrel bad movies...

One of those movies where you feel worse for having watched it. Inexplicably, college buddies of mine rented this and a similarly disgusting worthless movie, Bloodsucking Freaks, from a Wegmans Food Market video store! What those videos were doing there, I can't imagine. My recommendation: stay away from it. It's bad (and not so bad that it's good), and depraved.