The Seventh Grave

The Seventh Grave (Italian: La settima tomba) is a 1965 Italian horror film directed by Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo.

[1]

The Seventh Grave was produced by F.G.S. International Pictures, a company founded in December 1964 by Felice Falvo, Arturo Giorni and Alessandro Santini.[2]

Santini also wrote the story and screenplay with director Garibaldia Serra Caracciolo and actor Antonio Casale.[2] The film was shot in three and a half weeks at Balsorano castle and Olimpia Studios in Rome from February to March 1965.[3] The films budget was around 40 million Italian lire.[3]

A photonovel of the film was published in issue 52 of the Malìa in May 1965 while the film was released on August 18, 1965.[1] In 1968, Fortuanato Misiano's company Romana Cinematografica bought the rights from the producers and attempted to get the subsidies from 1965's Corona law.[3] The film was rejected by the Ministerial commission who unanimously decided that the "technical eligibility and sufficient artistic, culture and spectacular qualities" that the law demanded were not present.[3]

Roberto Curti, author of Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957-1969 noted the films amateur qualities such as breaking the 180 degree rule and lacking continuity between shots and that "lighting was passable at best".[3] The script was described as one that "haphazardly assembles a bunch of Gothic stereotypes" and that the plot, the production clearly saw The Cat and the Canary (1927) "one too many times".[3]