With the seasons changing and Halloween right around the corner, this time of year always gets me yearning for a good horror film to watch more often than any other time of the year. Ah heck, who am I kidding…I can’t get enough of them no matter what time of year it is.
That being said, it had been awhile since I settled down and actually watched a movie, and yesterday I had time to burn before work. Being an avid Netflix junkie, I stumbled upon The Graves in my recommend list. I of course read all of the reviews by other Netflix watchers and laughed at all the negative comments that were posted. Whereas most people probably listen to these comments and move on, I judge a horror movie’s worth based on the amount of negativity. The majority of horror viewers on Netflix somehow seem to expect some kind of Oscar winning performance when in reality, horror is often viewed as the red-headed stepchild of film and rarely has the budget to make it all work flawlessly. Don’t get me wrong…sometimes a studio will invest a ton of money but as history has shown, money doesn’t always equal value.
But I digress.
The Graves is everything you would expect from a B movie slasher film: more blood than gore, heroines running around in tight jeans and tank tops, ghost town with a spooky past, crazed killer running amok, and the town of lunatics that lured them there. Add to that the twist at the end that adds to the ultimate reveal. The Graves did seem to stretch this part just a bit and failed in the execution.
Here’s the description from Mischief Makers Studios, LLC:
Present day. Arizona. Megan and Abby Graves are inseparable sisters that couldn't be less alike. Megan just graduated ASU with a marketing degree. She's a self-assured, naturally attractive rock chick with a black belt that she likes to use. Abby just barely graduated high school. She's a cute, Hot Topic Goth who's caustic and afraid of her own shadow. They share one thing: a life-long obsession with comics and pop culture. Simply put, they are beautiful geeks. In a few days, Megan will start a new job at in New York. To send her off in style, the sisters go on a wild, pop culture bender that includes a trip to uncharted Arizona in search of a kitchy roadside attraction. Instead, Megan and Abby happen on Skull City Mine, a weather-beaten, abandoned mine town converted into a self-guided tour. But Skull City harbors terrible, vexing secrets. It appears to be haunted. Its caretakers are murderous...
The film is 88 minutes long and seemed to this viewer to be cut into two parts. The first part – background story of the sisters; road trip before the big move; touring of the ghost town; being hunted by Jonah; trying desperately to survive and figure out what is going on – is all cut and dry and executed quite nicely. Shane Stevens played a fine role as the brutal killing blacksmith and the chain of events added a lot of questions for the audience as he felt a kind of remorse for his victims and kept telling them it wasn’t personal. Huh? What kind of twisted psychopath is this guy anyway that tries to rationalize his kills? Add to that the screams from Hell that emanate after each kill and you are led to believe that something strange is going on and you really just want to find out what.
Then we get to the second half of the movie. And this is the part that gets disappointing. More of the plot is revealed of the town’s involvement and the continuity of the film just seems to disappear. A second killer is revealed and you really just want Jonah back since he was more believable and less laughable by far.
The kill scenes in the last part are ridiculous, the acting by Tony Todd, as the Reverend, is just embarrassing, and the final reveal is disappointing by far. What could have been a great B film left me with feeling of wanting more and less…more violence, less talking, more creepy sound effects, less biblical ranting, more fear, less Caleb “Cookie” Atwood. It could have been worse, but on the other hand it could have been much, much better.
In summary, I do not think this was a total waste of time and left it with a Netflix rating of 3 stars (I liked it).
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The Graves
88 minutes
Writer & Director: Brian Pulido
Starring: Clare Grant, Jillian Murray, Bill Moseley, Tony Todd, Shane Stevens
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