The Graves

I found this movie to have potential, but it's badly executed. The story is interesting with a mining town that has its people sacrifice strangers for a supernatural entity to feed on it. I wish the movie would go into the history of the mining place and why they need to sacrifice people for the entity. They briefly said it before the climax of the movie. Unfortunately, the movie isn't interesting at all because it's rather predictable and does have that much in the story. Most of the movie is just the two sisters getting chased by the villains and sometimes fighting back. It does have some suspenseful moments in those scenes, but nothing too big or interesting happens during it. Even the movie feels like it keeps going on for a little bit too long and is not that enjoyable. The climax itself is underwhelming and is anticlimactic on how it ends. The characters aren't really the worst, but aren't that interesting at all. I found the special effects to be a mixed bag throughout the movie. The way the entity feast on the deceased body looks pretty terrifying, but the CGI effects look really bad. Gore effects are also a mixed bag with some have pretty good practical effects, but the digital gore effects look mediocre.

The Graves have potential with its concept, but the execution is badly done on the direction they go with this movie. The movie does have recognizable actors in it, but they barely appear that much in the movie.

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.

Wow……and to think that all of the movies in the After Dark Horror-fest would be somewhat, oh I don't know…enjoyable? Because of what I had to deal with this first film, The Graves,……well, it wasn't pretty.

The Graves, a miserable little turd fest of a film, is about two girls, Meghan and Abby, going on a last trip together before Meghan leaves for New York. They go to comic book stores (which, I'm sorry, these girls look like they've never set foot in a comic shop in their lives) and talk about how Lady Death is the most awesome comic book ever…….really? (And don't worry, this is only one of the many faults of this movie.) They then stop in a diner (which is so far out of the way that the first girl to die in the original Nightmare on Elm Street is stuck waiting there), and they're lead to Skull Mine, which is said to be a ghost town after some brutal murders took place there. And then, guess what? Everything goes to hell……what a shock….

My first point is Brian Pulido. I should just stop there, but I'll guess I'll keep going. If you don't know who he is, he is one of the WORST comic book writers from the 1990s and the 2000s. He's responsible for writing such terrible comic books such as Lady Death (which I referred to before) and Evil Ernie. So when I heard he wrote, directed, and produced this piece of utter crap, I already knew it was going to be terrible. He doesn't have a clue what he's doing and he should stop thinking he can do anything creative.

And some of the acting in here is atrocious. You have your two female protagonists who can't act their way out of a wet paper bag. I mean, they have scenes where they are just SO melodramatic in scenes where they're in total danger! Also, you have Tony Todd……..really? Tony, why did you chose this? Did your wife need a new car? Did your daughter need more money to get into the collage she wanted? I mean, you were the candy man! Your cartoon-styled acting in this is so bad, that I almost broke down and cried.

Now, if there is anything redeemable about this film, it's that Bill Mosely (yep, Devils Rejects Bill Mosely) plays a guy called the "Pig Man", who is just a guy who puts on a fake pig nose and likes to kill people. I have to say that whenever he was on screen, a shimmer of light helped me get through this film.

But, all in all, there is almost (almost!) nothing to like about this film. It's not scary, it's not funny, it's not dramatic, It's not anything! And if it weren't for Bill Mosely, I would give this film a flat out zero.

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/

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.