The Graves

Plot synopsis:
Present day. Arizona. Megan and Abby Graves are inseparable sisters that couldn't be less alike. Megan just graduated ASU with a marketing degree. She's a self-assured, naturally attractive rock chick with a black belt that she likes to use. Abby just barely graduated high school. She's a cute, Hot Topic Goth who's caustic and afraid of her own shadow. They share one thing: a life-long obsession with comics and pop culture. Simply put, they are beautiful geeks. In a few days, Megan will start a new job at in New York. To send her off in style, the sisters go on a wild, pop culture bender that includes a trip to uncharted Arizona in search of a kitchy roadside attraction. Instead, Megan and Abby happen on Skull City Mine, a weather-beaten, abandoned mine town converted into a self-guided tour. But Skull City harbors terrible, vexing secrets. It appears to be haunted. Its caretakers are murderous. Victims' souls are ripped from their bodies right before their eyes, and that's only the beginning. When Megan suffers a near mortal wound, Abby must save her sister, but to do so, she must unlock the mystery of Skull City alone. Can Abby defeat the threats of Skull City and rescue Megan or are they doomed like all the other tourists before them?

Tags: violence

Review:
It broke my heart too because I was really up to watching it with my all time favorite vocalist Randy Blythe, and two other great actors, Tony Todd and Bill Mosely.
Wowand to think that all of the movies in the After Dark Horror-fest would be somewhat, oh I don't knowenjoyable?
Because of what I had to deal with this first film, The Graves,well, it wasn't pretty.The Graves, a miserable little turd fest of a film, is about two girls, Meghan and Abby, going on a last trip together before Meghan leaves for New York.
They go to comic book stores (which, I'm sorry, these girls look like they've never set foot in a comic shop in their lives) and talk about how Lady Death is the most awesome comic book ever.really?
(And don't worry, this is only one of the many faults of this movie.) They then stop in a diner (which is so far out of the way that the first girl to die in the original Nightmare on Elm Street is stuck waiting there), and they're lead to Skull Mine, which is said to be a ghost town after some brutal murders took place there.
Your cartoon-styled acting in this is so bad, that I almost broke down and cried.Now, if there is anything redeemable about this film, it's that Bill Mosely (yep, Devils Rejects Bill Mosely) plays a guy called the "Pig Man", who is just a guy who puts on a fake pig nose and likes to kill people.
It starts off veering towards a backwoods stalk-and-slash type of movie and then ends up in kooky religious cult territory.
To put my comment in context, I love a good B movie, such as the Tarrantino's "Deathproof", or Peter Jackson's "Braindead", so I approached the film expecting to enjoy it.I watched this during the "Grimm Up North" horror film festival in the Printworks in Manchester, UK.
The film completely failed to generate any sort of suspense, shock, or in fact, horror!
A better name for this awful movie would have to be "Hack." You know how bad acting takes you out of the movie?
Bad acting, bad writing, bad directing, stupid story, and no reason whatsoever to waste your time with this.I would say that Brian Pulido should go back to comics but he's not good at that either.It's a waste when someone is given the talent to be great at something yet no drive to follow through.
I feel like the people who spawned this film had to say something to the effect of "Hey everyone, let's take two semi-attractive women with no acting experience and give them a garbage script, Tony Todd, a camera we no longer use and all of the pocket change we have on us right now, and see if we can't turn a profit."If this film actually somehow did turn a profit, I think it was somewhere in the range of 4 McDoubles-20 Chicken McNuggets.
Normally 'big character' actors like Todd and Mosely seem to waiting for direction through most of their scenes..
It's fairly common to see B-and-below-movies with a decent script and some good ideas, but lacking in resources that turn out a disaster.
The Graves on the other hand seems to have plenty of resources to hire established actors and get good equipment, but script and direction are lacking.Two sisters, one very dominant over the other, end up driving around Arizona, stop at a diner, and decide to go visit the local ghost town and mines.
Ultimately, the girls will have to confront the town people, but a strange thing happens in the relationship between the town and the savior.The Graves has an impressive cast- our two very attractive leads, and horror icons Todd and Moseley.
The movie looks great, is mostly filmed during the day, the colors are gorgeous.
The direction, too, isn't up to par, and you see takes that are very odd and that you don't usually see in films.With the resources and enthusiasm they had available, the producers should have hired an additional writer and an established director and this movie could have been pretty good.
This is the first of the After Dark Movies To Die For that I have watched so far this year and what a way to start!!!
I just got done watching Brothers with Jake However-You-Spell-His-Name and Tobey McGuire and that was such a great movie that I gave it a 9 and I go to this.
the sisters were likable enough and we are almost immediate thrown into a killer-chasing-victims mode.I also had a few hopes because of the inclusion of Bill Moseley and Tony Todd.
Pretty lame movie at the start quickly introducing us to two hot sisters who are supposed to be into comic books.
Then we see them in the punk goth club for one last night out before they take a road trip heading towards more boredom than anything else.The plot "borrows" from many older movies where young adults breakdown, visit, and otherwise go where angels fear to tread.
I can only imagine his need for money and hope that no one actually watched this movie was his reason for taking the role.You can't feel anything for the characters since they never really develop during the movie.
In fact, one scene between actress Clare Grant and Bill Moseley in a school house has no impact on the movie as it really should.
I sometimes think myself or a neighbor should go write and direct a movie, as unqualified as we are- neither are the people behind this film.
The more cheap modern horror I watch, the more I start to realize how badly the genre needs to redefine itself once again, since it simply just isn't working anymore.
Really, people seem to have no idea what good and creative to come up with anymore, with as an ultimate low example of that this movie.But no, it's not just simply the lack of creativity or originally that kills this movie, it foremost is it's extremely weak approach to the genre.
The movie absolutely does not manage to build up any tension or create ever a good feeling of danger.
Director Brian Pulido should just stop and realize that he doesn't has the right required talent and knowledge required, for this genre at least.It's also especially ridicules how this movie is lacking in any good scary or powerful villainous murderers.
There is absolutely nothing threatening about the villains in this movie, which quite frankly also makes this a bore to watch.And man, why throw in a supernatural theme as well, that just isn't in tone with any of the rest of the movie.
This movie was already extremely bad as a straight-forward slasher but they actually managed to make things worse by throwing in the supernatural elements.
Some of their actions are also just incredibly stupid, though the script is of course to blame for that really.A great lesson on how NOT to make an horror movie.2/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
I'll just give my .02The movie starts off promising, the title sequence feels reminiscent of Grindhouse films.
The sisters Abby (Jillian Murray) and Megan (Clare Grant) Graves are unbelievably hot and they love comic books!
I'd give them a 7/10 for good characters.Acting: Surprisingly well done for a B-movie.
7/10 for great acting, Todd takes away from it though...never thought I'd ever say that.Special F/X: Don't EVEN get me started on how much I hated the digital blood.
The movie is really nothing special, it just needed a few things for it to be good.
In fact, to this day I have yet to watch Dread and Hidden (which are supposed to be the best).I want to say this movie is underrated, but it should have a slightly higher score than 3.7/10.
There was really no suspense or tension, kind of necessary in a horror movie.Mostly though, the theme of "crazy, evil religious people" killing people is kind of offensive and a really tired and ineffective plot device..
Technically done very solid, but the story might have needed a few tweaks here and there to work out better.The usual "Duh" moments are not absent, quite the contrary and of course, although pretty feisty and not always in the "victim" role, our lead women do quite a few "stupid" things.
I would recommend this movie because Bill Mosely (Otis - House of 1,000 Corpses/Devil's Rejects) steals the show, he basically performs the same character he took on in Rob Zombie's films, a quick-witted, timeless quote saying killer.
Now, this movie may have made it if it simply was about a family that owed a ghost town attraction, and killed the visitors.
The acting is pretty horrible, the special effects are extremely fake, the storyline his horribly, horribly written, and most of all, there are production mistakes (you can even see the studio microphone clear as day in one shot...yes, the entire microphone!!!) This movie is just a very bad B-movie, that somehow got the budget to include top name actors like Bill Mosely, Jillian Whoever (Jigsaw's wife), and a couple other mentionables.
It's absolutely boring, and like I said, only the time we see Bill is when the movie takes off, and when he dies, it goes down with him!.
I honestly wanted to like this movie, but I had to turn it off after awhile.
As sexy as Grant was as the older of the two sisters, and as much fun as Moseley can be in any movie, this was so amateurishly made as to be a student film.
Part of the After Dark Horrorfest 4 list of movies, The Graves...
As the credits begin, you notice Bill Mosley and Tony Todd are in this movie...
There are scenes that don't make any sense (a man dying in a minute with a simple stab in the leg; however, the older sister gets stabbed in the chest right by the heart and somehow manages to live).
Bill Moseley is, you guessed it, a lunatic after the girls and having fun during the hunt, wearing a pig snout and grinning from ear to ear, taking his time as Megan attempts to keep Abby safe from harm(Abby falls into a hole knocking herself unconscious).
The leads are cute and they match each other which I found adorable, their tight jeans and black muscle shirts..good casting as they resemble each other(I certainly would consider them sisters if I saw them out and about).For some reason, "The Graves" simply lacked real, palpable menace, and I never really felt that the girls would bite the bullet, mainly because the film kept finding ways to release them from certain doom.
Or, the performances were uninspired and the cast was going through the motions..when Moseley's routine even fails to deliver, the jury's out and the verdict may be quite unkind.Many might recognize Claire Grant, who portrays Megan, as the gorgeous creature from Mick Garris' second Masters of Horror entry "Valerie in the Stairs" also starring Tony Todd.
Well does anybody know where i can find the maker of this movie i want to ask him if he can give me the hour and a half of my life back that was wasted watching this complete and utter trash.
They kill the first man by stabbing him in the leg with what looks like a snorkel, amazingly he is dead within 1 minute and that's the end of him.
Shock horror the person who stops to help is only in on the killings and is the brother of the man they just snorkeled to death.
To sum this film up i would say it has a rubbish plot line, horrendous acting and the maker should be banned from anything to do with the movie industry for the rest of his life.
I have sort of mixed feelings about this movie.THE GOOD: Well for starters, it is nice to see a horror movies that is filmed in daylight.
Not all horror movies have to be taking place at night.
And of course two horror icons (Tony Todd and Bill Mosely) were in the movie, although neither had much to work with.
Better to be kept in the dark, and that part worked well for the movie.THE MEDIOCRE: The special effects were not overly impressive, but not downright crappy either.THE BAD: The supporting cast and extras seemed like they didn't really want to make this movie.
I don't really expect the average horror film to actually be scary, well made, or very original, but it should find some way to entertain.
The Graves was just SO clichéd and uneventful, that not only would I recommend against watching it, but I really don't want to watch anything else by the writer or director ever.Two girls stop in a deserted town and pay to take a tour of the historic remains.
The storyline is stupid, the acting (while not the worst I've ever seen...) is pretty bad, and the FX (both the gore and 'supernatural' scenes) are atrocious.
I like them a lot so I'll give the film a pretty generous 2 points for their involvement, and for the passable performance by Moseley.
While there have been some real winners from this line up-"The Gravedancers", "Reincarnation", "The Abandoned" and "Mullberry Street" for example-by the time the second Horrorfest came around, we started getting movies that one is amazed got any sort of theatrical release.
For every winner in Horrorfest, there will be mediocre to disappointing movies like "Tooth & Nail" and "Dying Breed", to really awful fair like "Lake Dead" and "Slaughter." Well, you can add "The Graves to that third category, as it may be the worst Horrorfest movie yet.The Graves sisters-Abby (Jillian Murphy) and Megan (Clare Grant)-are two comic book, punk rock (well, as the director sees punk) and horror loving girls aka.
Of course, it's not really abandoned, and soon the sisters find themselves fighting for their lives against a psychopath named Caleb (Bill Moseley) and a religious cult lead by Reverend Abraham (Tony Todd.) Can they survive?
Writer and Director Brian Pulido is a horror comic book veteran (he is the creator of "Lady Death"* and "Evil Ernie"), but for a guy with such a pedigree, his movie comes off as rather clueless as to what makes horror movies like this work.
The whole thing feels too much like Pulido was thinking to himself "well, horror fans like this in horror movies", but that he had no idea as to what makes such movies work.
The film wants you to like the Graves sisters, but they are so dull, unrealistic and annoying that you keep hoping for the whole movie to come to a merciful end.
The fact that these two beloved genre veterans are even in dreck like this is depressing as hell, especially with the underwhelming performances they give.I wish I could say "The Graves" is worth watching, but it's not.
Instead, it's a cheap, superficial imitator that clearly wants to be loved, but lacks any of the elements that makes horror like this fun.
Avoid.*At one point, the Graves sisters start going on about their love of Chaos Comics, one in which pretty much plugging "Lady Death" in a groan inducing bit of shameless self promotion.
and so on...The director has no sense of making movie...
It just like a movie from a 10 years old boy.I couldn't bear all the non-senses, and had to turn off my TV.
Once we got through that rocky start, it was a fantastic movie with lines from the killers that'll have you snorting in laughter, believable and lovable heroines, a mad preacher who's voice still gives me goosebumps (in a good way), and a location that made me giggle cause I've seen it :P.
Well worth seeing at least once if you're a blood and gore horror movie fan.
Attempting to bond together, two sisters about to go on with their lives find their roadside rest stop the home of a band of homicidal cult worshippers forced to kill outsiders to make sacrifices in order to carry on their way of life, and must stop a series of killers to get out alive.This here wasn't all that bad of an effort.
And it's a good thing too, because without the impressive, shall we say, "assets" of Claire Evans as one of the film's leads, "The Graves" would've been a complete bore."The Graves" takes its title from the last name of its two heroines, Megan and Abby Graves, a pair of Goth dressin', horror punk rockin', comic book lovin' sisters.
It should be noted here that the film opens with the Graves Sisters hangin' out in a comic book store, proclaiming their "picks of the week" for their hand held video camera, and one of them just happens to recommend...
By the way, I spent a lot of time in a lot of comic book stores as a teenage geek and I never -- repeat, NEVER -- saw any girls who looked anywhere near as hot as these two in any of them.
Anyway, when the Graves Sisters get lost looking for a roadside attraction in Arizona, they are directed to the local Skull City Mine by a friendly diner waitress who promises that the tour is worth the trip.
This first portion of the movie is actually kinda fun, even if it is totally derivative of such redneck-killer flicks as "Wrong Turn," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or Rob Zombie's first two films.
Of course, the ending leaves things open for a sequel, which I shall be sure to ignore entirely if it ever surfaces."The Graves" shows that Pulido has potential as a director, as some of the scenes are nicely staged and it has a nice "look" all around.
It's really low-budget and the violence looks like bad CGI.There are two ways to look at this film.
Without his little thirty minute performance, the film wouldn't be ha;f as good as it is.