The Graves (2010)

Brian Pulido had the chance to work with an amazing cast for his first feature length film as a director. Some well known names and some upcoming talents... that's all you need to grab my attention. Storywise it's the same old shit, but who cares?

I'd love to skip the entire plot and just get into the good stuff. So....that's what I'll try to do. Clare Grant and Jillian Murray, our two female protagonists, get into a heap of trouble in some sort of 'ghost town'. They play the parts of the 'Graves-sisters' and do a fine job at it. It all starts off really promising but it's obvious they won't be avoiding clichés.

And it gets rather painfull near the ending. The first hour is really good. The black smith was a cool character and Bill Moseley is (of course) brilliant as one of the bad guys. Having met Tony Todd in the diner already, you know this is gonna be a true feast for the fans. And it most certainly is if you look at the perfomances.

It's far from original in any way. The setting isn't that special, though it remains an effective enviroment for a horrorfilm to take place in. But my main concern was the last half hour, which seemed unnecessary to say the least. The film could've ended after barely 60 minutes due to it's hasty start. Which is a shame, because the introduction was definitely interesting and they could've taken the time to expand the ghost town in terms of creating a nastier atmosphere much like TCM did.

It's not a fair comparisson, I know. But there's so much more that should've been done better or differently. It's taking various illogical twists and turns to keep things going and it often gets humorous when they try their best to keep it all serious. It might've been better if they'd left some space for wanted-laughter.

But I really enjoyed 'The Graves' even though it has plenty of obvious flaws and its appeal doesn't reach very far. It's worth your time if you're a fan of these B-film actors and actrices such as myself, but don't expect too much if you're looking for a decent plot or even some rewarding gore. It's something to be left desired.

Score: 70/100