Michael Sherrington (Bill Curran) returns home to his family estate to find that his pregnant wife, Elizabeth (Ines Morales), and unborn baby died during childbirth. In addition, his brother, Sir Robert (John Clark) seems to have disappeared. Still living in the family estate are his mother-in-law, Barbara (Maria Paz Madrid), and sisters-in-law, Pamela (Marisa Shiero) and Lilith (Titania Clement). Also in the family castle is Robert’s wife, Lady Anne (Catherine Ellison) and her niece, Margaret (Beatriz Elorrieta).
Michael wants to know what happened, but his questions go unanswered. In desperation he goes to the cemetery and digs up his wife’s coffin only to find it empty. He is then attacked and his body disappears. Pamela and Lilith prove to be secretly in love with Michael and jealous of each other and Elizabeth. Michael seems to have been oblivious to it all.
In the meantime, Robert had been in league with Dr. Lexter (Frank Brana) and was experimenting in the transmutation of human cells. His experiments require that he be buried alive and that he be given specific serums and blood plasma in order to survive. Robert is kept “alive” with the help of the cemetery keeper, Mr. Fowles (Victor Israel), who is often seen skulking around the cemetery. The mysterious disappearance of Robert brings Police Inspector Harrison (J.R. Clarke), who is pretending to be the assistant of another physician, Dr. Kinberg (Antonio Jimenez Escribano).
“Graveyard of Horror” AKA “The Butcher of Binbrook” AKA “Necrophagous” was released in 1971 and was directed by Miguel Madrid. It is a Spanish horror film.
The plot is very scattered and confusing. The choppy editing makes understanding what is going on even worse. The beginning and the ending of the film have some interest but most of the middle is a bit of a hodgepodge of scenes that are somewhat boring and don’t make a lot of sense. Any monster action doesn’t happen until the last six or seven minutes of the film.
Everything is sorta kinda wrapped up at the end but not very satisfactory. You are led to believe that Robert is a zombie but it’s not clear what he actually is. The film never really answers many questions and the explanation of why Robert is buried isn’t clear. Actually, nothing is really clear. There are some atmospheric moments but not enough to save the film from being boring. Since it is also a Spanish film from the early seventies, during the Francisco Franco regime, there’s no nudity and not much blood.
The monster in the movie is a green toothy thing that looks like it would be more comfortable in a swamp than an English cemetery, almost like a low budget homemade version of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, in a suit.