[Open Graves]
Plot:Involves a group of surfer students who stumble upon an old satanic board game in which everytime a person loses, they suffer a horrific death.

Cast:Eliza Dushku, Naike Rivelli, Gary Piquer, Alex O'Dogherty, Martxelo Rubio, Mike Vogel.

My Thoughts:Refreshing.

Review:Horror movies where some game or trinket ends up wreaking havoc upon the lives of some unsuspecting teens or college students are always a good time. However, while watching one is a fun experience, some of these films have resorted to cliches, predictable writing, and some horrible storytelling which makes some of them, a real pain in the ass. "Open Graves", which stars Eliza Dushku and Mike Vogel, takes the age old story of college students caught up in something beyond their comprehension, and manages to make it worth watching and for the most part, enjoyable.

In the movie, Jason (Mike Vogel), and his friend are in Spain for some fun. As good times occur, Jason suddenly has Erica (Dushku), catch his eye. The scene is one of those A-typical horror movie moments where the lead guy meets the obligatory hottie, because every horror movie needs an obligatory hot girl right? Well in this movie, Dushku is it. But also, in typical Eliza Dushku fashion, her character has a backbone. And isn't the overly-feminine "help me, help me" type who can't do anything for herself, and needs a guy to save her over, and over again. And boy is that a relief because I cannot stand female characters like that, and find them somewhat insulting to women.

At any rate, Erica hooks up with Jason and his friends, after Jason buts a strange board game from a shopkeeper in a wheelchair. The shopkeeper is the obligatory creepy guy of the movie, but he also has a motive for selling the game to Mike, a motive which is revealed later on in a clever twist of the plot. The game itself has a dark origin and a dark history, which is shown at the beginning of the movie in one of it's bloodiest moments. Upon playing the gothic-looking game, Mike and his friends, and Erica soon find themselves target of mysterious deaths, all foretold by the cards they drew while playing the game.

Now, Erica and Mike have to finish the game if they want to save their friends and themselves. The cool thing about this movie is that it picks off the cast in some very cool and creepy ways. It's definitely very "Omenistic" in it's kills and demises, with black mamba snakes, poisonous dragonfly's, and even sea crabs all acting as catalysts for a majority of the kills. The CGI with the dragonfly's and the snakes can get annoying at times, but the scenes work well enough and are written well enough to supress some of the flaws of the CGI.

The performances are also pretty good. Vogel and Dushku have great on-screen chemistry, and most of the other actors play their roles good as well. There's one death in particular which will freak out most viewers, and it involves one of the characters being bitten by a dragonfly from the game, and literally wasting away little by little. I personally have always been a big fearer of "wasting away'' deaths in horror films. If you wanna freak me out, show me a death scene where a person is literally turning into skin and bones little by little each hour or each day.

That's enough to give me the willies because it's such an abnormal and unnatural way to go. And is far more disturbing psychologically above the standard stabbing, slashing, or mutilating. Another scene involving a flaming car and the person inside it is also another outstanding kill in the film. The kills are very elaborate and well-crafted, which is why they work so well. The story is also really eerie and as more and more people die, you can kind of feel the ominous cloud of death closing in on Erica and Jason.

Beyond the movies main players, there's a tiny intriguing subplot involving a detective who is searching for the game and who has his own agenda. Which is kept pretty secretive throughout most of the picture. And a little factoid here, this is the second time in two years Vogel is playing a character named Jason. The last time being in JJ Abrams "Cloverfield". The movies finale is really intense and has some outstanding moments including a swarm of dragonfly's and even a demon emerging from the ocean.

So yeah, at the end, things get pretty crazy, and it's a really entertaining close out to the movie. But the dark and shocking twist attached to the movies overall ending really puts the icing on the whole cake. "Open Graves" is a film worth seeing atleast once. It has a good, dark, story, above average performances, and a creepy game which no one will want to play after seeing this movie....that's if the game really existed...or does it? Heh.

Positives:Mike Vogel and Eliza Dushku's performances, the story is really sinister and dark, cool deaths which are disturbing and twisted, and a nice ending.

Negatives:The bad CGI can sometimes be a headache.

Overall:Three and a half out of four stars.





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