Simply Perfect

Excellent adaptation.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Okay, OPEN GRAVES is poor. Surprisingly poor, considering the effort that has gone into this low budget production; although it's a US-financed movie it was shot in Spain with a Spanish director and supporting cast. And yet it turns out to be completely horrible, which is all thanks to a lacklustre storyline.A group of brain-dead surfers are the unlikeable protagonists in this film, among their number the minor horror star Eliza Dushku (WRONG TURN). They get mixed up in a dark world of voodoo and horror when they start playing a game which sees them dying for real. It's much like the 1990s film JUMANJI, where the board game came to life and took the kids on an adventure, except with a horror slant.Not that there's much in the way of horror here. This a murkily-shot production where swathes of boredom are interspersed with a few mildly gory supernatural death sequences. For some reason, the filmmakers are reliant on very poor CGI effects to keep the movie going, and it sinks the production further. OPEN GRAVES is a real stinker, that's for sure.

I have seen far worse movies than Open Graves, but that is saying little in its favour. It does oddly enough have some redeeming values, some of the camera angles are not so bad and I'd say the same for Mike Vogel's performance. Also Eliza Dusku is very sexy. Unfortunately her sexiness is the only good thing about her performance, she is wasted with terrible dialogue and an uninteresting character and does nothing whatsoever to elevate. That is pretty much the same though with the rest of the cast, none of them seem to care or give any kind of heart into what they're doing. The script and characters does nothing in their favour in all fairness. The dialogue is cheesy and has no natural flow, and it is also far too talky. The characters are entirely uninteresting and annoying cardboard cutouts. Further disadvantaging the film are the crude-looking special effects, the dull and atmosphere-less story that we have seen many times before and much better, an atmosphere that has no suspense or horror and flat direction, that shows that almost nobody involved seemed to have their hearts in Open Graves. All in all, couldn't maintain my interest but there are a few things that save it from total disaster. 3/10 Bethany Cox

I have to say this is better than most SyFy outings, but that isn't saying much.The plot is that someone buys a game that is made from the bones and skin of a dead witch from the Spanish Inquisition (and nobody ever expects the Spanish Inquisition!) He and his friends play the game, only to be interrupted halfway through when the friend who went on the beer run is killed in a way that the game predicted.What then follows are a series of kills that are typical for a movie like this, or any of the Final Destination movies. It has the puzzle at the end and the interesting subplot with the cop who wants the game to bring back his family... but otherwise, it's just a mess.

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.