By Geno McGahee
The 1970s was responsible for a lot of great drive-in horror movies. It was a good time for the genre and for film in general. The 1976 slasher “KEEP YOUR GRAVE OPEN” is a really interesting movie that is easy to imagine playing big screen at the drive in. The film is directed by S.F. Brownrigg, who also directed DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT and DON’T OPEN THE DOOR. If there was the word “don’t” in it, he was willing to direct. KEEP MY GRAVE OPEN is much like the other two films…gritty, interesting, and with a slow-burn sort of scare.
We begin with a bum walking the street and he stumbles upon a house and nobody’s home. So he lets himself in and helps himself to some food. As he sits in the woods, cooking the food over a fire, a figure stands in the distance. A sword kills the man and sets the tone for the film.
Lesley (Camilla Carr) is one of the people of the home and she seems like the only resident, but she keeps referring to her brother “Kevin.” Young Robert (Stephen Tobolowsky) does some work around the house and is the only real friend of Lesley it seems. It was hard to believe that it was Stephen Tobolowsky in this role. He’s young and has hair and he’s not a geek as he’s been in his last ten dozen or so films. I remember him mostly from GROUNDHOG DAY as the insurance salesman that tells Billy Murray to watch that first step… “it’s a doozy!” In this one, he plays a young and naïve guy and he does it well.
There is an aura of mystery surrounding the killer and Lesley is not right. Her psychiatrist stops by to ask her to return to the hospital but she refuses, mostly because of her brother Kevin. Does he exist? If he does, he’s nowhere to be found. Is he the one killing the people with the sword or is he a figment of Lesley’s imagination? As the movie progresses, the mystery unfolds, leading to a predictable ending but an unexpected twist that was rather neat.
KEEP MY GRAVE OPEN is a pretty simple movie, but it’s raw and has that great feel that the movies had at this time. It has some PSYCHO influence and did the fun 70’s twist at the end, resulting in an entertaining watch overall. It actually felt a great deal like DON’T GO IN THE BASEMENT, from production value to grit to aura of mystery. I recommend it.
Rating: 6/10