OPEN GRAVES (2009)
Stars: Eliza Dushku, Mike Vogel, Ethan Rains, Naike Rivelli | Written by Bruce A. Taylor, Roderick Taylor | Directed by Álvaro de Armiñán
Young American expatriate, Jason (Vogel), spends his carefree days surfing the beaches of north western Spain. The surf community is international, exotic and beautiful, particularly the enigmatic and sexy Erica (Dushku), who Jason falls in love with. One evening, during a drunken party, the surfers become curious and suddenly decide to open up and play a board game Jason bought at a local Spanish market. Little do they know that the board game – Mamba – is made from the skin and bones of a witch executed during the Spanish Inquisition..! It’s all fun and games until the gang discover that Mamba holds an ancient curse that will have terrifying consequences for anyone who plays the game. One by one, death begins extract vengeance upon each of the players in the most gruesome ways. To save their friends Erica and Jason are forced to put themselves at ultimate risk by trying to unwind the chain of events they set in motion…
A mix of Jumanji and Final Destination, Open Graves is the latest film from actress Eliza Dushku, whose horror film exploits have ranged from the good: Wrong Turn; to the not-so-good: Soul Survivors, and sadly this film falls firmly in the later camp. That’s not to say that there aren’t some interesting aspects to Open Graves – for one director Álvaro de Armiñán makes some excellent choices in camera angles and imagery and has a good eye for shooting the Spanish scenery in a “travelogue” style that reminded this reviewer of the Italian horrors of the 80s.
There’s also some good, and gory, SFX at work in the film: such as those in the opening scenes set during the spanish inquisition which featured close-up finger nail removal, nipple tearing and stomach slicing and a particular nasty burn victim at the end of the film. But sadly the movies low-budget means that the film-makers have resorted to CGI for a lot of the effects and Open Graves really suffers for it – there’s some badly executed murderous CGI crabs and snakes in the film that look like they’ve been created on a low-end PC in someone’s bedroom.
The problem with Open Graves is that it feels schizophrenic – from good effects to bad effects, good direction to the worst type of TV movie directing, from reasonable acting to REALLY bad acting (especially from the foreign actor contingent), in fact the film is very much like Eliza Dushku’s career: up and down!
DISC SPECS:
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Stereo 2.0
Subtitles: English Hard of Hearing
EXTRAS:
None
** (2/5)
Open Graves will be released on DVD in the UK by Icon Home Entertainment on February 22nd, for more info, check out the official website: www.preparetobescared.com
