Keep My Grave Open (1976; S.F. Brownrigg)

Of all the genre filmmakers in the "regional" circuit, few had a body of work as distinctive as that of S.F. Brownrigg. The Texan's quartet of horror-exploitation films, made in the 1970s, is remarkable for the “you are there” atmosphere, unusual camerawork and melodramatic acting, in addition to the helpings of gore and violence to sell tickets. Although these pictures had different screenwriters, similar themes of madness, dysfunctional famiiles and sexual tension play into all of these scenarios, best described as macabre mélanges of Tennessee Williams and Erskine Caldwell.