paul_m_haakonsen

I had the 2013 movie "Open Grave" laying around for quite some time before actually sitting down to watch it.

The storyline failed to capture my interest. Sure, there were parts of it that had potential and were interesting, but it just generally didn't latch on to me, especially since the audience were left in the dark to try to figure out what was going on.

There are some nice talents on the cast list, with the likes of Sharlto Copley, Thomas Kretschmann and Josie Ho. The acting performances in the movie were good.

Visually then the movie was okay, but nothing outstanding.

Hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing, especially since it was difficult enough to sit through the first time around.

My rating of director Gonzalo López-Gallego's 2013 movie "Open Grave" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

Well, the title alone was more than sufficient for me to pick up the movie. And fueled by my love of all things horror, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch "Skull: A Máscara de Anhangá" (aka "Skull: The Mask"), even without ever having heard about it.

I have to say that the storyline in the movie failed to entertain me. It felt erratic and disjointed, as if writers Armando Fonseca and Kapel Furman were working individually on each of their own scripts and having to merge the two without talking. There were so many random things in the movie that made little or no sense, and didn't really help to further the narrative. Not that there was much of a narrative to begin with. I didn't stick around to finish the movie, I will admit that; I tossed the towel in the ring after 52 minutes of prolonged boredom.

Given my very limited exposure to the Brazilian cinema, of course I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. Not that it was a bad thing, not at all. I do enjoy watching new and unfamiliar talents on the screen when I sit down to watch a movie.

Now, the movie actually has a fair amount of violence and gore effects, which definitely helped to make up for the lack of a properly coherent and entertaining script and storyline. But alas, violence and gore can only do so much.

This is not a movie that I would recommend to horror fans. Nor is it a movie that I will ever return to attempt finish watching.

My rating of writers and directors Armando Fonseca and Kapel Furman's 2020 movie "Skull: A Máscara de Anhangá" lands on a rather generous three out of ten stars.

Sure, I had never heard about this movie titled "Savageland" prior to stumbling upon it by random luck here in 2025. I have to say that I found the movie's cover interesting enough to make me pick it up. And given my love of all things horror, of course I opted to give writers and directors Phil Guidry, Simon Herbert and David Whelan's 2015 movie a fair chance.

But talk about a swing and a miss. This was a brutally dull movie. There was no point to the narrative, and I zoned out rather early on, and the movie droned on as mere background noise. It is safe to say that too many chefs spoil the broth here, especially since it felt like the three writers and directors were not working in unison.

Needless to say that I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. And that was, believe it or not, actually the only thing that the movie had working for it. The acting performances in the movie were fair, though hardly noteworthy or anything to write home about.

Visually, well, you're not in for anything extraordinary here, not even anything worth mentioning. So don't get your hopes up.

The movie's cover was actually the best thing about the entire ordeal.

How this abysmal movie has landed a 6.0 rating here on IMDb, as of the very moment of me writing this review, is simply beyond my mortal comprehension.

My rating of writers and directors Phil Guidry, Simon Herbert and David Whelan's 2015 movie "Savageland" lands on a generous two out of ten star. This was a massive swing and a miss of a movie.