Well, I guess it’s time to go back to basics. Grave Robbers is a fun little Mexican eighties horror movie. If you’re a fan of the genre, be it regular or cheesy eighties horror movies, you’re going to have a great time with this one. And if you’re not either of those things, aren’t you interested to see what a Mexican take on the popular horrors of that decade? In fact, I’ll let you have the opening few minutes to persuade you to watch this hidden gem. The song that plays during this time perfectly sets the mood. It’s this ominously hypnotizing ancient, I’m guessing Catholic, dark liturgical chant. It’s like you’re listening to some Satanic ritual from hundreds of years ago. Metal band Moonspell has a song Vampiria that starts almost the same way.
That chant is very fitting because what follows is a scene in which a hooded man has a woman tied in the middle of a pentagram. Surrounded by candles, he is trying to summon Satan. However, a bunch of monks catch and kill him. With his dying breath, he vows to return to life with supernatural strength. Fast-forward to the present time, and a young gang is roaming the cemetery looking for valuable items. You can probably see where this is going, so I’ll stop here. Grave Robbers features surprisingly good production values that extend to some pretty gruesome practical effects. Sure, it’s a bit campy, but what do you expect from a movie like this? The most important thing is that it’s entertaining. The performances match this perfectly.
Not too over the top but sometimes quite cheesy, which just adds to the overall fun vibe of the movie. The writing falls into the same category. Our protagonists will keep making the wrong decisions, running in the wrong directions, and so forth. I know that this kind of ruins the tension, but this is a staple of the genre, after all. To compensate for that, some people who I felt would surely survive were killed almost instantly. So, you can play that guessing game of who dies first and how. I bet you’ll be wrong at least once. As this is a B-movie from the eighties, you can also expect a lot of bizarre scenes. Bizarre and hilarious scenes, to be more precise.
Like the one where a guy repairs a machine gun for the sheriff, who then proceeds to test fire it in his house, in the middle of the city. And don’t get me started on the fashion. Now, since I haven’t lived in Mexico during the eighties, is this how young people really looked? Or this is, more likely, a stylistic choice to honor some of the horror classics. The same goes for the atmosphere. There are even a couple of scenes I’m sure horror fans will recognize easily. Grave Robbers draws inspiration from movies like Return of the Living Dead, Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead, and others. Not too bad a selection, you’ll have to admit. Moreover, it also introduces its own thing. A thing that’s right there in the title.
Whatever the fuck happened with this whole “profession”? Do you think people still rob graves? Do people still bury their loved ones with valuable items? Have we moved on from this tradition? I bet you didn’t have those thoughts on your schedule tonight, but here we are. Now, you should know that the movie takes a while to get fully going. Something I didn’t realize, as I was too fascinated with the whole grave robbing thing. And the fact that I found another awesome horror movie from the eighties, I haven’t watched. Something that just keeps on happening. When it comes to gore and blood, there will be just the right amounts of it.
Our demonic monk will be using the axe they originally killed him with to chop everyone up. Towards the end, Grave Robbers becomes more of an action movie than a horror. Perhaps this is why there’s no nudity at all here. Finally, if you’re looking for movies like Grave Robbers, I suggest you start with the classic Demons from 1985. Cemetery Man is also a good choice. And I am yet to check out Rubén Galindo Jr.’s Cemetery of Terror and Don’t Panic. Both of them should be worth watching.
Director: Rubén Galindo Jr.
Writer: Rubén Galindo Jr., Carlos Valdemar
Cast: Fernando Almada, Edna Bolkan, Erika Buenfil, Ernesto Laguardia, MarÃa Rebeca, Toño Infante
Fun Facts: AgustÃn Bernal, the actor who plays the evil monk El Verdugo, appears in more 150 movies and television shows. He was also a director and producer. Despite all of this, there’s virtually no information about him available on the internet.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282672/
