FAQ

Murderer, rapist, and vampire Caleb Croft (Michael Pataki) rises from his grave to rape Leslie Hollander (Kitty Vallacher) and foster a child. Thirty (30) years later, his on James Eastman (William Smith), who preferred his mother's blood to her milk, vows to avenge his mother by killing his father, who has now become Adrian Lockwood, a college professor of mythology.

Grave of the Vampire (aka Seed of Terror) is based on the novel The Still Life by American screenwriter David Chase. Chase, along with American film-maker John Hayes, adapted the novel for the film.

Based on the idea that Adrian Lockwood, Caleb Croft, and Charles Croyden are the same man, he is at least 300 years old. We are told that, in the 17th-century nobleman Charles Croyden and his wife Sarah were said to be vampires and were hunted by the Church of England, so they took refuge in a small Puritan settlement in Massachusetts. In 1846, Sarah Croyden was burned as a vampire in Salem, and Charles disappeared. In the late 1930s, vampire Caleb Croft was accidentally electrocuted in Boston. Three years later, as depicted at the beginning of the movie, he rises from his grave, having not been destroyed by a regulation stake through the heart, rapes and fathers a child who is now 30 years old. The guesstimate of 300 years assumes, of course, that Croyden's history does not go further back than the 1600s.

The séance begins by Lockwood announcing that Ann (Lyn Peters) will serve as the medium, as her mind is the most receptive. After joining hands with all the students and putting them into a light trance, he calls up the spirit of Sarah Croydon. It is not Sarah who comes through, however, but Anita Jacoby (Diane Holden). Anita warns the students that Lockwood is the vampire and that he will kill them like he killed her. Lockwood makes Ann cast out Anita and, when Ann faints, James carries her upstairs and places her on a bed. Meanwhile, Lockwood locks the doors to the parlor, confirms that he is Charles Croyden, and begins to kill and feed off the students. When James hears their screams, he runs downstairs and breaks down the parlor doors. After an intense four minute fight scene, during which James admits that he is Lockwood's son, James finally manages to destroy his father with a table leg through the heart. "Be damned!" Lockwood says before he dies. Suddenly, James begins to moan and writhe. Ann comes out to help him, but James yells at her to stay away. James turns to face her and, in a full-on shot of his face, it can be seen that he has cut his vampire teeth. He slowly begins moving up the stairs toward Ann. The movie ends with "Fin—ou peut-etre non"? ("The End—or is it'?)