Grave Secrets/Secret Screams

USA/1989/90 minutes

Grave Secrets is a curiosity as it tries to weld supernatural horror elements with human trauma by stretching one horrific aspect to dimensions even more horrific; however it is not quite successful at either of them. It could be that the tight budget hindered the use of effective special or creative effects, or perhaps the director intended to take a light approach about both sub-plots. However, the film has its charms, starting with the eerie musical composition, the beautifully apt locales to the fine acting of Renée Soutendijk, a Dutch actress (Spetters, The Fourth Man, Eve of Destruction).

The plot concerns ghostly apparitions at a rural bed and breakfast inn run by a troubled woman(Renée Soutendijk playing Iris Norwood), and the unraveling of the mystery by a professor of physic phenomena, David Shaw (Paul Le Mat of Puppet Master). The professor is facing financial problems and accepts the assignment given by the woman in return for a fat check, though he is skeptical of the occurrences described by her. 

However, once Shaw arrives at the house, things have changed and he finds Iris hostile towards him, when she even asks him to leave immediately! Other locals of the town also seem to be negatively inclined towards Iris, stating that the trouble is with the woman and not the house she has recently purchased. Shaw manages to stay at the inn/homestay and form a bond with Iris, helping her understand the paranormal phenomena which occur at the stroke of midnight and involve flying vinyl records and wine glasses with one sofa being the focus of the spirit’s rage. Though attracted to Iris and wishing to help her, Shaw is also doubtful of her complete innocence, and he learns from a hardware shop owner that Iris was allegedly involved in a man’s fatal accident few months ago (shown in the movie’s prologue).

With the help of an eager graduate student at his college, Shaw learns that Iris had given birth to a child and almost immediately given up the baby for adoption. Iris, however, repels his questions about her past and orders him out. Before leaving, Shaw summons a medium and persuades Iris to participate in a séance to draw out the vengeful ghost and question its purpose and motive. The séance is a disaster and ends up in the medium being possessed and spurting venom at Iris, that he would never leave her alone and would kill her. The spirit appears to of a corpulent and headless man who is well known to Iris.

After this incident, Iris finally discloses her past secret to Shaw, which involved incestuous rape by her father and the birth of a baby as a consequence of the violence and rape. Iris reveals that once her baby was born, her father strode into her bedroom and snatched the baby away, taking it away to an undisclosed location. In flashback, Iris is seen gathering strength and confronting her father about the child, however as the latter refuses to tell her anything, Iris hit her father with a spade and rendered him unconscious. Later, Iris took her injured father to a hospital; however he woke up and attacked Iris. During the scuffle, Iris was thrown away from the car and her father died, the head separated from his body. This is the headless spirit haunting Iris and vowing to never leave her alone. On the other hand, Iris is determined to find closure about her missing baby, even at the cost of losing her sanity and peace of mind.

While the premise is interesting and the first half of the movie managed to hold my interest, I found the plot from going from silly to boring in the second half, with the ending being a definite letdown in terms of the mystery’s resolution. However, I was glad that the cult label Vinegar Syndrome decided to release this obscure ghost story in a fine edition (part of their Vinegar Syndrome Archive collection), complete with a nice slipcover, fold out poster and reversible cover. The feature is presented in widescreen (1.85:1 aspect ratio), restored in 2k resolution from a 35mm interpositive, and the disc features an interview with director Donald P. Borchers. The picture quality from Vinegar Syndrome is excellent, with strong details and impressive colors of interior locations, ghostly effects and facial features. Interestingly, Grave Secrets is the debut directorial effort of Borchers, who had erstwhile only produced a few feature films such as Vamp, Crimes of Passion, Children of the Corn, Two Moon Junction etc. While the direction is not amateurish, the film suffers from lack of focus on its central subjects and inability to combine horrific incidents and their outcomes stemming from human cruelty and vengeance of the undead.