Horror movies aren’t usually known for their highly skilled acting or plausible storylines. In fact, much of the plot depends on the stupidity of the characters. Or plot coincidences. Though the premise is clever, Open Grave is no different than most of it’s other predecessors in the horror genre.
We meet Jonah, (Sharlto Copley) after he wakes up in a pit full of dead bodies, with no memory as to how he got there. On the upside, he has a gun. After Jonah squishes and sloshes his way out of the pit, he finds a coincidental mansion in the woods, where 5 strangers, Lukas (Thomas Kretschmann), Nathan (Joseph Morgan), Sharon (Erin Richards), Michael (Max Wrottesley) and another woman that no one bothered to name, who is only called Brown Eyes (Josie Ho), are holed up. They are all suffering from amnesia and have to work together to find who they are and how they got there.
The sound design, while realistic, is over the top gruesome. For instance, in the beginning of the movie, as Jonah is crawling out of the pit, we hear virtually every squish and crunch as he squeezes out. [more…]
Then, we have character stupidity. Why, what’s the best thing to do when you’ve just been attacked, and are suffering from serious amnesia, likely due to the fact that you were attacked? I know! Go wandering out into the woods.
Once out in the woods, the characters have to fight off something that seems like zombies, but aren’t quite zombies. They’re undead and this movie is as well.
The zombie thing has flooded the market. If you can’t do better than “The Walking Deadâ€, you have no business making a zombie movie. Just stop.
I did like the amnesia twist and the fact that they wrapped a mystery up into the horror. I do enjoy it when a horror movie involves more than gruesome scenes and inevitable death. In addition, the gruesome scenes were kept to a minimum, where the grossest parts were the sounds over the view.
Open Grave is more of a thinking horror than an exploitative horror. The director didn’t rely on jump scares or gross scenes. Instead, he focused on the horror of the situation. The movie had its clever moments, including the ending.
The make-up was good. The acting was good and the direction was good. This is not your standard low budget horror. This was a horror that someone put a bit of work into. However, I do wish they had fleshed out the script a bit more.
If this movie has come out prior to the zombie craze, I’m sure it would have been a hit. In 2007, the premise would have been clever and refreshing. In 2014, the premise is overdone and has been done much better (i.e. the Walking Dead).
But if you like horror movies that involve a real mystery, and actually make you think, Open Grave might be worth the watch for you.
Watch the Trailer Below.
