Open Graves

Oh Eliza! Whatever possessed you to be part of this nightmare? The only "horror" about this film is that it was made at all. A group of nice-looking booze and sex fueled 20-something's play an antique game, and then start dying. Luckily for them, even though the box containing the game was passed down from the 15th century Spanish Inquisition, all the cards are in pristine condition AND conveniently printed in English! WOW, what luck! There are absolutely no surprises or suspense whatsoever, as this has been done many times before in many better ways. Sadly, even the gratuitous sex scenes generally associated with this genre are almost non-existent, apparently to devote more screen time to the horrible deaths. Out of deference to Eliza Dushku, I cannot give this the one star rating it truly deserves. The rest of the actors are mediocre at best, God-awful at worst. All are completely forgettable, as is the film itself within fifteen minutes of viewing. Skip it, even from the bargain bin.

An obnoxious group of young twerps are partying in Spain, according to the story anyway, when one of the group runs into an oddball at a curio shop. The oddball correctly sizes-up this young jerk and gives him something he really deserves: a game, supposedly from the Spanish Inquisition. The game kills the participants in macabre ways. An added thread to the "plot" is a rouge cop who wants the game for himself, though this adds little to the movie. After 20 minutes, the audience is relieved when the main characters start to get killed one-by-one. The death scenes try to gross-out the viewer, but fail miserably. One scene with killer crabs reminded me of something out of the 3 Stooges. Really unconvincing CGI's; watch only if you want a few, very few, laughs.

This movie kept me entertained, or a least awake through to the end. Some of the story was not predictable but a lot was. The supporting plot (kind of the history and rule of this enchanted/cursed game) just happen to show up when the plot deadened. Too much of this weak plot structure throughout movie. The plot is that 6 young adults play a board game and stuff happens. Humankind meets Ouige for for the thriller/slasher crowd, but doesn't hold the morbid action. Theres a huge hole in the plot line.. starts with the Spanish Inquisition where a monk is sent to rid the world of its evil by burning it, but on second thought..."Next 2020 and a creepy used crap-store is selling it, and the store manager coaxes this American blond surfer dude to take it and play Mamba, (the name of the game). Specially when the nonstop surf and beach crowd are rainout of there fun during a "spring break-like" holiday. And they do, all apps, drinking dancing, mating is out on hold so these kids can play their recently acquired board game.

The plot of "Open Graves" is very simple:it's about a board game called Mamba,where the players die in real life the same way they die in the game.Laughable death scenes include killings via computer generated crabs and snakes.The characters are cardboard and deliberately annoying and there isn't even a tiny bit of suspense.I liked Eliza Dushku in "Wrong Turn",but she is completely wasted and unmemorable here.The climax with CGI-witch coming from the sea is utterly laughable and stupid.The only reason to see "Open Graves" are some interesting camera angles plus sexy Eliza Dushku.If such movies are the future of horror then I seriously give up.Give me any 70's or 80's low-budget horror flick over this modern piece of crap.A generous 3 out of 10.

No Sir, I don't like it. This is one cheap, low-grade 'horror' thriller, that didn't even seem to had any good ideas of its own. It's a movie with a silly concept and silly concepts often equal silly bad movies. This movie is like a strange and bad mix of "Jumanji", "Hellraiser", "Final Destination" and whatever more. It doesn't use one good original idea and instead uses several from other movies and tried to combine it. Ineffectivly though. And perhaps this is the movie its biggest problem. The problem isn't necessarily the lack of originality but more the way it handles its concepts. Everything gets developed and executed quite poorly into the movie, which makes the overall movie a terrible ineffective one. It's just not a movie that ever gets tense, surprising or intriguing. There is basically no real reason why you should ever watch this movie, since it really doesn't have any redeeming qualities in it. No, it's hardly the worst thing you'll ever see but that doesn't mean you should watch it. You just can never get into this movie because of its lacking story and poor characters. It's a very distant movie, that tries to be mysterious but instead works out as lame and annoying. It involves some strange old board game, that causes those who play and loose it to die. Sounds good perhaps but the way it's being handled in this movie is far from interesting. We don't even get to know how the game works and what's exactly the point of the existence of such a game, what the rules are and how to win it, in the first place. The 'explaination' at the end doesn't really cover this and is just too out of tone with the rest of the movie that it feels totally wrong and bad. Bad as an horror, bad as a thriller, bad as a mystery. There are just no redeeming qualities in it. 4/10