Currently playing on VOD platforms
Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego
MPAA Rating: R
Film Pulse Score: 5.5/10
Gonzalo López-Gallego’s latest thriller, Open Grave, is an interesting movie worth a watch on concept alone. The real surprise here is that it’s actually a fairly well made, and despite some technical flaws and performance issues, a very fun and intriguing film.
Open Grave stars Sharlto Copley as a man who wakes up in a giant pit full of bodies with no recollection of who he his or how he got there. After emerging from the open grave he wonders into a nearby house where he finds a group of other people who also have no memory and no idea what’s going on. Not only will they need to trust each other, but there’s also a more serious threat looming outside that they will have to contend with.
Most moviegoers have seen movies like this before. An individual or group of people wake up with amnesia and need to figure out what’s going on. It’s a formula that easily ropes people in, but often results in a letdown. Fortunately, Open Grave keeps the viewer guessing throughout most of the runtime, and while some may balk at the ending, I found it satisfying and much more cogent than expected.
One of the film’s shortcomings however, comes from the ensemble cast of characters who are generally unlikable and completely flipping out nearly the entire time. Everyone is cranked to 11 and it quickly becomes grating, however Copley’s performance makes up for most of it despite his struggles putting on an American accent.
The interesting dynamic with his character is that no one is ever sure if he’s the bad guy or not. While the viewer is struggling to figure out who the villain is, the characters are too, which makes his journey more interesting than the rest. The internal struggle he is having while coming to grips with the new reality he was thrust into is also evident on screen, making the film as a whole much more thought provoking than a movie like this should be- which is a good thing.
On the technical side, the film looks very good, with gritty, colorless visuals set on a forest backdrop. From the onset, we’re aware that these people are in a world where something very bad has happened. Unfortunately, there are some inconsistencies in the audio, with some poorly done ADR, but it’s not jarring enough to really pull anyone out of the mood.
Overall, Open Grave is a surprisingly taut thriller that will keep you guessing all the way till the film’s climax, where you’ll either be happy with the twist or you won’t. After hating on the director’s previous film, Apollo 18, fairly hard, I wasn’t expecting much, but this is a marked improvement and it’s definitely worth a look.
