Open Graves (2009)

I love this movie so much

Simply Perfect

Powerful

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

OPEN GRAVES has a pretty good plot, its well acted by the cast, Eliza Dushku is delicious as always and the direction is okay but the film is actually not something to write home about, there aren't any real memorable moments that will leave you breathless even though some of the death scenes are rather weird, in fact there's nothing that stands out about this film, the best way to sum it up is that its nothing more than a time passer.However, where I can give it credit is that it does try to be different but unfortunately like you could've guessed it falls short, I'd say only watch this if you want to kill time and if there's nothing else to watch which is the reason I watched it in the first place.

Open Graves starts out as something at least different enough from the repetitive ghost stories that became too common in the last few years.Well technically it shares many similar aspects, but remains reasonably different mainly through methods of offing the victims. Unfortunately not different enough.As oversaturate formula demands, we quickly learn several characters are going to die because of a certain event, and after the first few deaths we already know how everything's will play out. After which we're subjected to scenes of the remaining characters, or at least the central ones trying to figure out what's causing the deaths before it's their turn.And of course, Open Graves follows the tradition of similar mystery- related films in the sense that once the cast discover an objective, any characterization disappears, the mystery itself becoming supposedly more important than giving the audience any interest in the people trying to solve it.

American Jason(Mike Vogel) overseas in Northern Spain encounters odd no-legged antique shop owner in a wheelchair who offers him a game which just so happens to be cursed with black magic. Once they play the game, which is supposed to grant a wish to the victor, those who participate are doomed if they draw the "epitaph" card which considers them dead. This antique game, which existed during the Spanish Inquisition, is given to Jason from the owner free. Anonbeliever who soon is convinced of it's dark power, Jason will need to beat the game in order to rescue his friends who are taken one by one through various methods, the epitaph card, in poetry, dispelling their fates. We see that Northern Spain is a tourist party hotspot where all the beautiful and buff Americans come to get drunk, wasted, and laid. The rules of the game, everybody could win, everybody could lose(I'm leaning towards the latter, how about you?).Jason is a graduate student(currently working at a wildlife sanctuary), Tomas(Ethan Rains) his hardpartying friend, and Lisa(Lindsay Caroline Robba), Tomas' girlfriend(who Tomas sleeps around on behind her back)are all students in Northern Spain. Jason meets a fellow American in Erica(Eliza Dushku), who lives in a lighthouse, no less, and has a definite interest in the occult(the literary works located in her home, as Jason discovers, feature Bram Stoker and others). Tomas is a photographer, Lisa is his model, Pablo and Miguel(Boris Martinez and Ander Pardo) are Spanish students who service the plot as fodder for the game to destroy. Helena(Naike Rivelli)is another calender model Tomas beds without Lisa's knowledge. Helena, also, was a loser in the game and is frightened of what the future holds for her.OPEN GRAVES depends almost entirely on CGI, with snakes(Black Mamba),dragon flies, and crabs(!)all playing a part in the deaths of the victims of the games. One victim withers quickly by an "age sickness" which has her deteriorating, before eventually becoming nothing more than a human shell of skin and bones. Crabs eat a victim's eyes out, someone unable to move because he fell from a cliff. Mamba bites cause one victim to swell until he suffocates due to lack of oxygen. Another is burnt alive after a horrifying crash where a fuel truck ignites, a runaway power line falling on some gas leakage, setting her on fire. Gary Picker is Detective Izar, someone who desperately wants to attain the game..and is willing to shoot anyone to get his hands on it.I won't beat around the bush. The reason to see this is for the beauty of Dushku(whose worth slogging through any movie, no matter the quality of the product)and the setting. Everything else is blah. The CGI, cliché plot, and derivative twist all lack much to be desired. The crabs killing the one victim is rather unique, and there's one icky victim of the game who was skinned alive(if you make it to the end of the game, yet fail to choose the right slot, inside either one or another snake sculpture, to slide your dice, your fate is the same as the witch whose skin was used to fashion the game), but there isn't much else to applaud. I will say that, (despite the 'Final Destination' type of storyline where the damned attempt to avoid certain death), the victim burning alive, no matter how many times we have seen it used when a character is killed in such a way, is always a potent shock to the senses. Truth be told, I'll just be honest, I rented this because Dushku was in the cast, and I never pass up a chance to drool over her in any movie.

In Spain, the American surfer Jason (Mike Vogel), his best friend and photographer Tomas Escaño (Iman Nazemzadeh) and his girlfriend Lisa (Lindsay Caroline Robba) go shopping in a fair and while the couple is negotiating with a street vendor, Jason visits a dreadful store. Jason has a friction with the handicapped owner Malek (Alex O'Dogherty) and the man in a wheelchair offers an ancient board game called Mamba from the Spanish Inquisition period for free to excuse his behavior. Meanwhile, Detective Izar (Gary Piquer) is investigating the death of a man that was skinned alive. When a heavy rain falls during a party on the beach, Jason joins Tomas, Lisa, his new acquaintance Erica Vargas (Eliza Dushku), Pablo (Boris Martinez), Miguel (Ander Pardo) and Elena (Naike Rivelli) to play the game. Erica reads the rules and explains that the winner would have his wish granted while the losers would be cursed to die the way described in the cards. Pablo is the first to lose and borrows Tomas' car to buy some beers. Miguel, Lisa, Elena and Tomas also lose, but the players stop the game when Detective Eric arrives and informs that Pablo has just died. When Miguel, Lisa and Elena also die, Jason researches the Mamba in the Internet and finds that the pieces and board had been made of skin and bones of the witch Mamba Masamba and the cards had been written with her blood and tears. Jason decides to finish the game with Erica to undo the curse."Open Graves" is a reasonable horror movie that blends the story of "Wishmaster", "Final Destination" and several Ouija Board movies. The plot takes place in Spain and surprisingly every international and local character speaks English. The camera work and the special effects are very poor. The greatest attraction is certainly the cult-actress Eliza Dushku. However the conclusion makes the difference and an attentive viewer probably might have noted that Erica advises Jason to take care with his words in his wish. He should have wished that he had never accepted the game and consequently all the deaths would have never happened. The reviews in IMDb are unfair and this movie is not so bad. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Jogo Macabro" ("Macabre Game")