Open Graves

Plot synopsis:
In the medieval era, a witch named Mamba is tortured and skinned alive in punishment for her crimes. Her skin and organs are then used to make a cursed game. A player who wins the game is granted a wish; however, a player losing the game is killed in a fashion predicted by the game.
In the present day, Jason (Mike Vogel), while shopping with his friend Tomas (Iman Nazemzadeh) and Tomas' girlfriend Lisa (Lindsay Caroline Robba), acquires the board game from a handicapped shop owner called Malek (Alex O'Dogherty). The three friends travel back to Tomas' beachfront house, and at night a party occurs on the beach. Jason meets Erica (Eliza Dushku), before it begins to rain, causing most of the party-goers to leave; leaving behind only Jason, Erica, Tomas, Lisa, Elena (Naike Rivelli), Miguel (Ander Pardo) and Pablo (Boris Martinez). Erica suggests that the group should play the game, to which they all agree.
However, Pablo is soon eliminated and takes Tomas' car to go to the shop and get beer. On his travel, Pablo stops to urinate, but falls over the edge of a cliff. He survives the fall, but is barely alive. A group of crabs then attacks him, gouging out his eyes and killing him. Meanwhile, Miguel, Lisa, Elena and Tomas also lose the game, before Detective Izar (Gary Piquer) arrives and informs the group of Pablo's death, cutting the game short.
The group attend Pablo's funeral, where Erica realizes his death mirrors the games prediction. Soon after, Tomas, Lisa and Miguel travel to a wood-cutting factory (that belongs to Miguel's family but is currently empty) to have a photo shoot. While Lisa models, she feels unwell; she stops the photo shoot and leaves with Tomas. After their departure, Miguel is attacked by snakes. He attempts to climb a stack of logs, but a snake bites him and he falls into a large group of snakes that kill him with their venomous bites.
Meanwhile, Jason and Erica start up a romance. While they are in Jason's car they witness ghostly versions of Pablo and Miguel, before receiving a call from Tomas telling them of Miguel's death. Jason and Erica meet Tomas, Lisa and Elena at Tomas' apartment, where they tell the others they suspect the group are dying because of the game. Tomas, Lisa and Elena remain skeptical, however. After Jason, Erica and Elena have left, Lisa becomes more ill. Tomas tends to her, before the pair go to bed. The following morning, Lisa has aged into an old woman and is rushed to hospital.
Jason, Erica and Elena arrive at the hospital and tell Detective Izar their theory about the game. They then go in to see Lisa. Elena becomes distraught at her appearance and about her friends' deaths, and leaves despite Tomas' attempts to get her to stay. Lisa soon dies, prompting Jason, Erica and Tomas to seek answers from Malek.
They find Malek at his home, but he is no longer handicapped. He explains to them that he won the game and wished to no longer be handicapped. Meanwhile, Elena is traveling home to Milan in her car when she is involved in a car accident. Her car leaks gas, and a broken electrical wire ignites it, burning her to death. Jason, Erica and Tomas go to Jason's house, where they find Detective Izar looking for the game. Jason and Erica escape with it, but Tomas is caught by the Detective, who puts him in the trunk of his car. Later, Jason receives a call from the Detective demanding the game in return for Tomas, but Tomas attempts to escape and the Detective shoots him dead.
At Tomas' beachfront house, Jason and Erica decide to play the game in the hope that they can win and wish for it to be a week in the past, so that their friends will be alive. Erica is eliminated, and realizes her death will involve the sea. Jason wins the game, and will get his wish as long as he passes the game onto another person. Jason and Erica go to bed, but Erica discovers she must die for Jason to get his wish, so she enters the sea. Jason wakes up and rushes out to save her, but Detective Izar shows up, takes the game away and leaves with it. Erica then emerges from the sea and reveals herself to be Mamba, granting Jason his wish that they have never played the game. However, Jason and his friends now become trapped, forced to relive the week again and again.

Tags: revenge, horror, violence

Review:
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..
I can be forgiven for flopping into my armchair and wanting to watch some movie I'd never seen, rather than read Proust in the original or learn how to play the oud.Which is to say, I didn't deserve Open Graves.
Half a point, though, for the legless entrepreneur, who was clichéd but did have one good scene.It all sort of plays like Final Destination delivered via a board game.
The drawback there is that the game possessed more personality than most of the characters.As for the end, if you didn't see it coming, then I think YOU fell asleep.
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..
An added thread to the "plot" is a rouge cop who wants the game for himself, though this adds little to the movie.
This movie is like a strange and bad mix of "Jumanji", "Hellraiser",  "Final Destination" and whatever more.
You just can never get into this movie because of its lacking story and  poor characters.
It involves some strange  old board game, that causes those who play and loose it to die.
The 'explaination' at the end  doesn't really cover this and is just too out of tone with the rest of  the movie that it feels totally wrong and bad.
I have seen far worse movies than Open Graves, but that is saying little in its favour.
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.
People who die in the game end up dying in similar fashion in real life.
If you win the game, you get to make a wish and in a final draw of luck, you either have it come true or not.
Now they know what they have to do.Open Graves is actually an intelligent horror movie.
For a horror movie, the death scenes, except for the first one, are rather weak.
Mike Vogel, who's character is one of the few compelling things in Under the Dome, and Eliza Dushku do a solid job, but unfortunately they can't save the movie..
A group of nice-looking booze and sex fueled 20-something's play an antique game, and then start dying.
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.
"Mr Producer, I have an idea for a movie." "Oh, go on." "We take the popular movies Jumanji and Final Destination.""Ooh, yes?" "Take out all of the bad bits that people didn't like." "Yes, yes!" "And combine all of those bad bits into a new movie and stick a God-awful ending on to wrap it together!" "...what?"SPOILERS BELOW, ALTHOUGH THE DIRECTOR SPOILED IT BEFORE ME.Square jawed Captain America and his beach bronzed buddies have just graduated, presumably as rocket scientists or brain surgeons, since they're in their thirties.
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.
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.
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 only thing that lets it down is the bad CGI, but the CGI only makes up about five minutes of the movie, so that't not a problem, and also the bad make-up and the obvious low-budget feel the movie has in some places.Easiest way to describe this movie is Jumanji meets Final Destination.
A comment I made whilst watching the movie was, change a few scenes and you could have final destination 5, as some scenes do feel very similar, but it's not too much of a flaw, as this movie takes well known ideas and makes them its own.The story goes that this group of teenagers find an old mysterious board game.
Just an easy horror movie to watch when there's nothing else on, and to be entertained and enjoy the rather predictable but well written story and several very good actors..
With proper writers and director this movie could be less insipid and actually become a good work.So, here's a bored group of young guys and girls playing an old game, a relic from the Spanish Inquisition given to one of those guys.
In this mix between "Jumanji" and "Final Destination" the poetic cards of the game reveals strange yet well written things (and in English when the game was from Spain).
However, the characters deaths might cause some strangeness such as being killed by a bunch of crabs or hilarious CGI snakes, whose appearance made me think that if a producer don't have enough money to spend with visual effects then don't make the movie at all, that can save the producer and the viewers from the embarrassment.
HELP!"Open Graves" (known here as "The Curse of the Dragonfly") deviates from being a lousy film because Mike Vogel and Eliza Dushku hold the ties in a good way, making of this mess almost enjoyable.
This cheapish horror movie mashes up two decent ideas - Jumanji and Final Destination - and comes up with a group of young people being eliminated one by one in accordance with fates predetermined in a board game.Eliza Dushku is the biggest name in the cast (which, considering how the promise shown by her TV roles has parlayed into increasingly indifferent horror movies, is probably a telling comment about this one).
It started out as a really bad b-rate movie but developed some back bone about half way through.
I don't think I've ever seen that done before and that's what makes this particular horror fest different.The daftness of the characters was off-putting and yeah the CGI was bad but that aside it was an okay watch.
He is given an ancient board game dating back to the Spanish inquisition and the idiot and his friends play the game.
Whatever happens in the game happens in real life so those who receive a death card die in that fashion.
With horrible dialog such as main character Jason telling Erica "You're a Goth girl in a wetsuit" and cheesy digital effects (check out the snake scene), Open Graves just stumbles along in predictable fashion.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
However, if they draw a death card, they are out of the game...all the way out.
But don't worry, the curse cards to the game which describe their death are written in modern English with a font to make it look old.
A group of young surfers come into possession of an ancient artifact, Mamba, an old board game made from the skin and bones of a witch executed during the Spanish Inquisition.
Its all fun and games until they find out that curses last forever and death is the ultimate game stake.....I would have given this a one star, but there is one scene around the twenty minute mark where there is a priceless look on Dushku's face of the realisation that she is in a mess of a film and cannot do anything about it.Other than that, its a stink fest of Bad CGI reptiles and Molluscs, and a weird policeman who looks like a really cheap Michael Douglas double looking for the stupid game.The makers obviously want this to be a hybrid of Jumanji and Final Destination, but the latter film had a little more urgency to it, and was original, and the former was a kids movie.The characters are the usual rag tag team of Jocks, Geeks and other people you wouldn't speak to on the street, and it all ends with a voluptuous CGI Dushku granting someone a wish.And you know what that wish is?
And, you end up with OPEN GRAVES.There are so many plot holes in this film that they aren't even worth mentioning.
Open Graves starts in Spain during 1485 as a Witch named Mamba is tortured, skinned alive & killed by the Spanish Inquisition.
Jump forward to the 'Present Day' & Jason (Mike Vogel) is a surfer living in Spain, while looking around an old antiques shop a man in a wheelchair gives him an old wooden box containing a game to be played by seven people, later that night after a drinking party Jason & six of his buddies including potential girlfriend Erica (Eliza Dushku) decide to play the game which promises to grant the winner a wish of their choice.
They play the game & as losers leave the game only Jason & Erica remain, Pablo (Boris Martinez) is later found dead on a beach & the friends become convinced that the game is killing the losers off as stated.
Jason finds out that the evil board game was made with the Witches skin & bone & written in her blood, Jason & Erica have to finish the game & try to at least save themselves...This American & Spanish co-production was directed by Álvaro de Armiñán & feels like a silly horror film mix of Jumanji (1995), The Evil Dead (1981) & Final Destination (2000) with a little sprinkling of Wishmaster (1997) for good measure that felt to me like it was squarely aimed at a young teen audience.
The script feels cobbled together from several much better films, the magical board game is straight out of Jumanji but has a slightly darker if sillier edge here, once the teens realise what's going on they try to stay alive in a Final Destination sort of way while the central concept of granting a wish & it backfiring in a painfully predictable way at the end reeks of Wishmaster while the ancient demons terrorising teens is surely lifted from The Evil Dead?
The script for Open Graves is rather silly, from the way the teen act & behave to the silly death scenes to a seemingly random subplot about a cop wanting the game which is never resolved to it's predictable climax which you can see coming a mile off to a scene in which Erica emerges from the Ocean with wings.
At only 80 odd minutes long Open Graves moves along at a decent pace but there's not much depth here at all, no-one is given any sort of background, the board game itself is just hard to take seriously which is a problem because Open Graves takes itself very seriously like it's some great supernatural horror film with deep underlying meanings but in reality it's bits & pieces of other much better films thrown together with little regard to narrative or logic or audience enjoyment.The kills in Open Graves are strange & bear no consistency, one for instance is very Final Destination in which a series of coincidences ends up in a woman's car crashing & setting on fire with her in it while there's a bizarre supernatural death in which a pretty young girl ages rapidly & then randomly deflates in hospital!
The tone & balance of Open graves, the kills, the character's the events & the story are all over the place like the makers couldn't decide what sort of film they were trying to make.
Some of the CGI computer effects are poor, the CGI Snakes, the CGI transformation of Erica at the end, some CGI ghost's & a swarm of Dragonfly look pretty bad.
Actually filmed in Spain, not that it makes any difference since Open Graves could have been set anywhere for all the significance it has.
The acting is average at best, no-one looks that interested & a few of the performances are just terrible.Open Graves is a silly teen horror film that tries to be totally serious but comes across as camp & silly at times, at least it's short & it's watchable enough I suppose but there are better films out there..
Aaaaahhhhh, SyFy. 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.