I had a weird moment of confusion while watching the beginning of 1965’s The Seventh Grave, as a found myself thinking about the 1990’s puzzle-mystery CD-rom game The Seventh Guest. Typical of such games of the era, which was one of those things set in a creepy mansion on a dark and stormy night. These things were the opposite of fun, just one puzzle after another to solve, many of which had little to no connection to the overarching flimsy plot. The Seventh Grave is more fun than playing that unrelated CD-rom game, though not for any of the reasons it intended.
This is an Italian-made gothic set in “Old Scotland”, which I guess is no stranger than all those American films set in parts of the world where English may not be the predominant language, and yet it is widely spoken by all the locals in those pictures. So, here we have people talking Italian in “Scotland”, and I can live with that.
I feel like this script follows some sort of checklist for this type of fare. We have:
- Relatives gathered for the reading of the will
- A séance
- A huge mansion, complete with:
- a mad scientist laboratory
- hidden passageways
- A family crypt
Somehow, there is also an escaped leper here in “Scotland”. Throw this all together and you get a mildly enjoyable film, but one that will only appeal to fans of the gothic genre.
Typical of Italian giallo cinema, there is a lengthy and preposterously convoluted reveal at the end. I was once again bemused by how the character providing the explanation has a wealth of information the other characters, and the viewers, did not have access to. I am starting to learn that, when watching giallo, don’t even bother trying to solve the mystery—these are films that never play fair.
Dir: Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo
Starring Steve McQueen, Zsa Zsa Gabor and David Attenborough. Nah, I’m just kidding. There’s nobody here you have seen in anything before, nor will in anything again.
Watched as part of Severin’s blu-ray box set Danza Macabra Volume One: Italian Gothic Collection