Nearing the end of the October Challenge on IMDb's Horror board,I decided that it was time to watch an easy-going flick by Lamberto Bava. Looking round for info on his titles,I stumbled on a Bava Horror that has recently been put online,which led to me deciding to disturb the graveyard.The plot:Stealing sweets from a shop,a gang jump in their van and drive off. Traveling to the outskirts of town,the gang find a tavern.Entering the tavern, the group meet the inn keeper and notice a pot of priceless valuables. Interested in getting their hands on the loot,the gang accept a bet where they have to spend a night in the catacomb and graveyard under the tavern.Expecting a quiet night,the gang start to notice disturbances in the yard. View on the film:Screened on TV during the final wave of Italian Horror,co- writer/(along with Dardano Sacchetti) director Lamberto Bava (who has a pretty funny cameo) & cinematographer Gianlorenzo Battaglia use the low budget to their advantage,as waves from Simon Boswell's Shoegaze score brew a dreamy atmosphere of fog drenched blue surrounding the group. Signally the direction he would soon go in,Bava pulls the Horror outline away for a "Family" Fantasy flick,featuring no serious threat,and all the ghostly creeps they faced being de-fanged.Despite reuniting with cute actress Lea Martino,the screenplay by Bava and Sacchetti leaves the gang running in inane circles,with the writers giving up on making the characters anything but flat,or giving them any real challenges,as the graveyard is left undisturbed.

I think Lamberto Bava's Graveyard Disturbance is the very definition of a mixed bag. The plot, characters, and dialogue are a clumsy, jumbled mess. But, what I think Bava excels at in spades is the look and atmosphere of the catacombs where a great deal of the movie is set as a group of irritating, moronic twentysomethings, after robbing a supermarket (the proprietor of the establishment is the director!), drive into what appears to be a wooded area where the van carrying them gets caught in a river, forcing them to hike it to the skeletal remains of a castle, located next to a strange pub with customers who favor ghouls and have glowing eyes (wtf?). Challenged by a creep with a mangled face who had been following them (wearing a slicker), serving as their waiter in the pub, to stay the night in the underground catacombs beneath the establishment, these bratty young adults experience all sorts of bizarre events and encounter a number of undead monsters (rotted vampires, mummies, and zombies), hoping to win a treasure if they successfully make it to dawn. A foggy labyrinth of ancient rooms covered in thickets, cob webs, rats, and skeletal remains, with pits of goopy water, ladders, cells, and gateways that lead to a neverending cycle of similar passageways, the catacombs is an ideal Gothic setting for any horror film featuring young criminals who rob a store for the hell of it (or more like the thrill of it), suffering for their wrong doing by entering a world alien to their own. It doesn't surprise me that this is a television movie as Bava plays it safe with no nudity, sexual themes, or ultraviolence, but he sure put the make-up department to work as there are plenty of rotted faces on display here, not to mention one of the most crazy dinner table scenes you are likely to see (this family is a bunch of icky monsters, such as a mother with multiple eyes, others with gloppy faces, the menu entails such delicacies as "spider pie"). It seems Bava is having a grand ole time as the movie just keeps placing the characters in one weird scenario after another (one of the men falls into a deep, watery hole where a one-eyed creature is floating around looking for him; every time it seems the group is about to hit paydirt and escape from their crisis, climbing up a ladder, they wind up in another room almost identical to the one they just left). It does get a bit repetitive and to be honest, the screenplay is scattershot and schizophrenic, but I had some fun with Graveyard Disturbance. I enjoyed the setting even if I found most everything else poor. The make-up for the monsters really gives them a wonderfully ghastly look. The twist regarding the creep in the slicker is a bit obvious, especially after Bava shows law enforcement coming across the van, but the reveal of the face underneath a skin mask is rather an unpleasant sight certain to earn praise from zombie fans. How the characters are able to deal with him and their eventual fates left me with mixed feelings. I think escaping one perilous situation only to face the consequences of their actions at the beginning of the film (and willing to accept this considering the alternative) is amusing, at the same time, I think the creep in the slicker is dealt with a bit too easily. I think the way the characters behave while facing extremely unsettling and nightmarish experiences, sometimes taking them in stride, other times barely holding themselves together, hurts the film, and the unfocused screenplay is a detriment to the visual merits and technical achievements.

Made for cable-TV, a cheesy synopsis and director Bava who had just delivered his very weak "Demons 2" sequel...There were more than enough omens to warn me that this "Graveyard Disturbance" would be a waste of time and not worth purchasing. Yet, I'm a fan of most of the man's work and even a mediocre Italian horror film is still better than an over-hyped American one, so I gave it a look anyway. Since this is a TV-production, you can't really compare it with Lamberto Bava's more serious horror films and that also explains the lack of gore and controversy (aspects that are normally well-present in Bava-films). The story is light-headed, simple and cliché, introducing five rebel-teenagers who strand at a ghostly cemetery after a fleeing from their daily shoplifting routines. They meet a spooky looking bartender who offers them a bet they can't refuse. They're promised a pricey reward when they manage to spend the night in the eerie catacombs underneath the cemetery. The script (partly written by Lamberto Bava himself) is really weak and the dialogues are pitiful. The film is only made endurable by a few ingenious sequences (like the freak-family's dinner party inside the crypt), some atmospheric set pieces and professional make-up effects. The zombies look good and the giant eyeball scene is the only slightly suspenseful moment in the entire film. Bava also obviously attempted to insert humor and parody in his screenplay but this was far from effective (I didn't laugh, at least). I'm not even going to waste words on the acting performances as they are truly amateurish. Most cast-members are nonetheless Bava regulars who acted remarkably better in "Foto di Goia" and "Demons". Overall, Graveyard Disturbance is worth a peek in case you've already seen every other Italian horror film or when you're really bored.

this is one of those typical movies in which a bunch of teens, driving around in their hippie van which they call a jeep, drive (quite logically) into a stream, astonishingly get stuck when they're driving against the current in 3-4 foot deep water, and go camp out in the nearby ruins of an old castle. the acting is pretty awful, and mixed with the actual dialog and plot, i just wanted every one of these adolescent abominations to die (it being a horror movie, after all). i won't put in any spoilers, but...let's just say i was disappointed to the fullest degree on that note. in fact, i'll add that i was disappointed by the zombies, or vampire-zombies, or whatever, as they didn't attack ANYTHING. one of them fondled another one's breast and got slapped for it, and one popped out of the shadows and just kind of gave up pursuit, but that was it. i was hoping for something of the gorier, more eurohorror-ish kind a la Zombie or The Beyond. instead, i got Mystery Science Theater 3000 material... but without the robots.