The Graves

The two main actresses look really good in this. And one of them reminded me of Olivia Wilde somehow (although I can't say why). Other than that, you also have two "horror" heavyweights in the cast. But it also feels like quite a few characters got crammed into this. Technically done very solid, but the story might have needed a few tweaks here and there to work out better.

The usual "Duh" moments are not absent, quite the contrary and of course, although pretty feisty and not always in the "victim" role, our lead women do quite a few "stupid" things. Things that go against common sense that is.

What you should check out though, is the DVD of the movie. I only heard the first couple of minutes, but the commentaries on the Disc seem genuinely entertaining! Rent it and give it a listen (the thing they say about the baby is worth the rent money alone). Not great by long shot, but still far from the worst movies I've seen.

There is one rule in movie watching that seems to always...and I mean ALWAYS...be spot on. That rule is as follows: if you see Tony Todd's name in the title, you're about to be seriously underwhelmed. I can only think of one instance where this deviates and that was the movie Hatchet, however he was in it for all of 20 seconds hence his name was not in the opening credits and was therefore not in violation of the rule. Anyway, enough about that...moving on.

While The Graves isn't horrible, it's certainly middle of the road in pretty much every way. On the upside it's got Bill Moseley (who can do anything from big budget flicks to the lowest of low budget crap) and the phenomenally hot Clare Grant. On the downside, well, just about everything else. This is one of those movies that's not exactly unoriginal but still fails to be the least bit engaging for roughly 95% of the time. The film just doesn't really seem to know what it wants to be. It starts off veering towards a backwoods stalk-and-slash type of movie and then ends up in kooky religious cult territory. Either way, I wasn't exactly involved in the story. I guess if you're up for a movie with a bit of cheese (or happen to be somewhat drunk) this might appeal to you. Otherwise it just feels sort of bland.

The more cheap modern horror I watch, the more I start to realize how badly the genre needs to redefine itself once again, since it simply just isn't working anymore. Really, people seem to have no idea what good and creative to come up with anymore, with as an ultimate low example of that this movie.

But no, it's not just simply the lack of creativity or originally that kills this movie, it foremost is it's extremely weak approach to the genre. It's incredibly disturbing how terribly ineffective this movie is made. The movie absolutely does not manage to build up any tension or create ever a good feeling of danger. Things just happen in this movie, without any proper and required build up to it. As an horror there are absolutely no redeeming qualities about this movie. Even the bloody violence mostly happens off screen, or it's too dark to see really anything. Director Brian Pulido should just stop and realize that he doesn't has the right required talent and knowledge required, for this genre at least.

It's also especially ridicules how this movie is lacking in any good scary or powerful villainous murderers. Seriously, there is no way you could convince me that they were anyone that couldn't have been fought of with a piece of rock or a piece of wood or metal, that were literally all laying around everywhere. There is absolutely nothing threatening about the villains in this movie, which quite frankly also makes this a bore to watch.

And man, why throw in a supernatural theme as well, that just isn't in tone with any of the rest of the movie. It's just so totally random but on top of that, it also adds absolutely nothing to this movie. This movie was already extremely bad as a straight-forward slasher but they actually managed to make things worse by throwing in the supernatural elements. Well done! What an accomplishment...

It also doesn't help much that the two leading ladies of this movie aren't that compelling either. They are not well written but also really not played well by Clare Grant and Jillian Murray. Their fear of things just never comes across as convincing. Some of their actions are also just incredibly stupid, though the script is of course to blame for that really.

A great lesson on how NOT to make an horror movie.

2/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This movie was absolutely horrible! It broke my heart too because I was really up to watching it with my all time favorite vocalist Randy Blythe, and two other great actors, Tony Todd and Bill Mosely. But seriously it hurt to watch this! It was if it was thrown together overnight, the acting was cheaply done even Tony Todd's parts but I don't blame the actors. I blame the director! It had no thrill or suspense to it, it didn't even resonate off any suspense when they built up the moment to try and keep you in suspense low and behold nothing happens......I would not recommend this to anyone its not even good to watch for a good gory B flick.

A better name for this awful movie would have to be "Hack." You know how bad acting takes you out of the movie? Well, in the case of "The Graves" EVERYTHING takes you out of the movie. Bad acting, bad writing, bad directing, stupid story, and no reason whatsoever to waste your time with this.

I would say that Brian Pulido should go back to comics but he's not good at that either.

It's a waste when someone is given the talent to be great at something yet no drive to follow through. It's also a waste when someone is given the drive for accomplishment but only floods the market with garbage.