Graverobbers (1988)

the audience applauded

Absolutely Fantastic

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The lonely waitress of a diner Nora Mae Edwards (Elizabeth Mannino) has dreadful nightmares and difficulties to sleep. One night, her new client John Henry Cox (David Gregory), who is an undertaker, proposes to marry her immediately after knowing her and Nora accepts. Henry's driver Morley (Kelvin Keraga) drives Nora and Henry to his town, Newbury, and they get married in Henry's funeral home that belongs to his family by Rev. Collins (Kevin Scullin). Henry introduces his friends to Nora, among them the Sheriff Porter (Lawrence Bockius) and Emmaline Strickland (Judith Mayes). When the young and beautiful Cicely Matthews (Kathleen Margo) dies in a car accident, Nora snoops in the mortuary and sees that he husband and friends a necrophiliacs but she is not sure that it was not a daydream. But when Cicely's brother Evan Matthews (Adam Wahl) meets her, he discloses the dreadful secret of Newbury to Nora."Dead Mate" is a low-budget horror movie with a story with great potential but a screenplay that is a complete mess. Nora was a prostitute, but accepting to get married with a stranger is moronic. The society is formed by necrophiliacs, but is there a Dr. Frankenstein to bring life to the dead? Otherwise, who is Morley? Nora finds the truth about the dwellers of Newbury and is driving a car, but she heads to Henry's funeral home instead of leaving town. There are many other inconsistencies along the plot that ruin this movie. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Grave Robbers – Ladrões de Sepultura" ("Grave Robbers")

Here's another obscure and long-forgotten 80's horror flick (it never ceases to amaze me that I keep on discovering unknown gems from that decade) that certainly might appeal to fans of the genre with an interest in unorthodox and slightly deviant concepts. It looks like another dull and discouraging day for roadside diner waitress Norma Mae. She just declined the advances of a sleazy condom salesman guy when a tall dark stranger by the name of John Henry walks in and promptly asks her to marry him. Completely bedazzled but flattered, Norma Mae accepts the proposal and accompanies him to his hometown of Newville, 100 miles up the expressway. She quickly discovers that nothing is kosher in the little town where her husband works as a funeral director. The entire population shares a sick fetish for dead persons and the elite town members gather in Henry's funeral home for a series of sick and perverted rituals whenever there's a fresh cadaver. When Norma Mae witnesses a twisted ceremony on the corpse of an unfortunate cheerleader who died in a peculiar car accident, she righteously wonders herself why Henry so desperately wanted a new spouse on such a short notice. "Dead Mate" is a low-budgeted and often clumsily handled B-movie, but it nevertheless benefices from a rather macabre ambiance and the controversy around the necrophilia theme. The town members are very well cast and there are numerous delightfully demented dialogs, like "this is the only true form of safe sex. You can't get aids from dead people". The other reviewers are correct in their comparisons of this movie with the modest early 80's classic "Dead & Buried". The film has the same morbid vibes, albeit minus the suspense and shocking aftertaste. "Dead Mate" is by no means a hidden treasure or a must-see, but certainly worth a peek if you like bizarre stuff.

"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

Hey, Straw, if you read this-get this out on DVD. I love this movie! It is funny and twisted and Necrocomedies are sorely in short supply in this sad world. I have been a big fan since it first appeared in video stores almost 20 years ago. I was casually glancing through the New Releases-not expecting much-when my unbelieving eyes saw this movie. I could not believe it-finally some brave auteur made a heart warming romantic comedy starring a necrophiliac. I salute you. I own a VHS copy of this, but I want a DVD to add to my collection. Have you tried? You all deserve to treat yourself to the joy that is "Dead Mate". You will thank me!