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GRAVE IMAGES (1991)
Label: Leomark Studios
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 85 Minutes 55 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Richard L. Anderson, Michael Haney, Michael D. Nye, Brad White
Cast: Michael D. Nye, Sally Kirkland, Allen Garfield, Tim Brod, Roger Aaron Brown, Eddie Harrah, Robert Grindlinger, Bruno Maucere, Danny Cole, Eugene Mandelcorn, Cameron Watson, Barbara Wilder, Carrie Barton, Kellie Koppel, Kristie Transeau, Laurie Hendricks, Tony Harras, Michelle Yahn, Jeff Carrara, Frankie Albright, Tori Covell Buchanan
Grave Images (1991) is a low-budget independent horror anthology comprised of four segments with a wrap-a-round story. The wraparound features a ghoulish character called The Caretaker (Michael D. Nye, High School High) strolling through a cemetery with a lantern giving a tour of the cobweb covered gravestones, before introducing each of the segments. This wraparound device brought to mind John Carpenter's turn as the ghoulish mortician from the horror anthology Body Bags, which would come a few years later.
Grave Images (1991) is a low-budget independent horror anthology comprised of four segments with a wrap-a-round story. The wraparound features a ghoulish character called The Caretaker (Michael D. Nye, High School High) strolling through a cemetery with a lantern giving a tour of the cobweb covered gravestones, before introducing each of the segments. This wraparound device brought to mind John Carpenter's turn as the ghoulish mortician from the horror anthology Body Bags, which would come a few years later.
The first vignette is "Made for Each Other" wherein a serial killer dubbed the "Screwdriver Killer", who kills women with a screwdriver 'natch, encounters women on the streets, says he believes their a woman named Susan that he knows, and then stabs them with his flathead. He eventually encounters Nancy (Barbara Wilder) at a diner, she getting over a break-up with another guy but looking to find a connection, and the two hit it off. He starts to think he might have found a woman to settle down with, but can he resist the urge to kill her? Nancy seems quite innocent herself, but all is not what it seems.
Next up is "Art Lover", in which art-lover Caitlin (Sally Kirkland, Fatal Games, Two Evil Eyes) is married to the wealthy Jerry (Allen Garfield, Night Visitor), and one night while attending an art gallery soiree she spots a painting she must have, owned by gallery proprietor Anthony (Tim Brod). Her husband purchases it for her, and she begins an affair with the Anthony, which eventually ends in a murder. This one is pretty poorly acted, it felt far too abbreviated and three's little suspense or intrigue to be had. I somewhat enjoyed the nudeless ex scene that involved foreplay with a hammer and smearing each other's bodies in paint, but otherwise a pretty bland thriller.
Perhaps even less satisfying is "Whodunit to Whom", in it a young man named Byron (Perry Lang) is taking the city bus and sits next to a guy (John Furlong, Mudhoney) who turns out to be a raving lunatic. The guy starts to rave like a maniac and pulls out a knife, Bryon attempts to get the knife away from the guy but the bus driver slams on the breaks and the guys stabs himself and dies. When the cops show up there's some debate about if he stabbed the guy or was it self inflicted. There's a brief comical bit with the cops interviewing witnesses and taking a tally of "Whodunit to Whom". The short run time does not allow for much development here, which makes the Norman Bates finale in the backseat of the squad car even more off-putting.
The final segment "Avid Readers" is the one that in my opinion makes this while thing worth watching, without it this would be a strong dismissal. In it the titular book-buddies Marty (Bruno Maucere) and Adam (Danny Cole) visit a book store run by Mr. Bullfinch (Robert Grindlinger). WHile there they not only peep pages from a sex book but find a page of a book called the Necromancer, they're intrigued by the black magic spells it hints at and want to see more of it, but Mr. Bullfinsh shoes them away. Their curiosity is at a fever pitch so they hide away among the labyrinth of bookshelves, planning to search the place for the actual book once he closes. Hiding away they spy the bookseller being visited by a cloaked figure who sells him a decapitated head in a jar, later following him to his basement lair where he practices black magic. The boys nose around and get their hand on the book with tragic unintended sequences for the mischievous kiddos. This last segment seems the most developed and the production value is a bit higher, certainly helped by the seemingly authentic looking bookstore location, and some ropey zombie effects. Don't get me wrong, it's not great, but it has an Eerie Indiana vibe about it that made it the most enjoyable of the four stories for me.
This whole affair seems pretty low-budget and no-frills. The productions and set designs are fairly anemic but you can see some production value and creativity, but a lot of it is hampered by shortcoming in the writing and the execution and acting. The first three are quite forgettable, but the last one won me over, at least by comparison. Watching it I am very curious about it, I was not able to find much about it online and there are no extras to fill in the knowledge-gap unfortunately, I would love to know more about this anthology flick. Was it a student film project or just some random low-budget production, a TV pilot, I want to know. Anyway, while this is not a recommend I am pleased to see an obscure horror anthology get a Blu-ray release, even a barebones MOD Blu-ray that looks like it was sourced from VHS.
Audio/Video: Low-budget horror anthology Grave Images (1991) arrives on MOD Blu-ray from Leomark Studios presented in 1080p HD framed in 1.33:1 fullscreen. I don't know much about the history or production of the film, noir it's home video history, but this looks to have been shot on film and transferred to tape, and this image certainly looks like it's sourced from a tape master of some sort, looking similar to other SOV-era oddities that have arrived on the HD format. The image is actually pretty good considering the dated SD source, there are some frame rate issues, video compression artifacts seemingly inherent to the source. Depth and clarity are obviously not a premium here, darker scenes can often look a bit dupey with smeared detail, but as someone who regularly checks out SOV-era curios this actually looks pretty good good all things considered. Audio comes by way of lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitle options. Again, all things considered this low-budget anthology sounds just fine, a serviceable audio presentation does the job, but not much more than that.
The barebones single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork. There are no extras, not even a start-up menu, you just slip it in and it begins to play.
Special Features:
- None
Screenshots from the Leomark Studios Blu-ray:
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