Open Grave

When John awakens in an open grave surrounded by dead bodies all is not well. He cannot remember his name, why he is there or even what he was doing before he awoke. He finds a gun and then a face looks down at him from above. Suddenly a rag tag rope appears and when he climbs it the face has disappeared and all he can see is a house nearby. He enters the house, finding it occupied by five other people, all of which don’t remember why they are there or what will happen next. Flashbacks of experiments, murders and the various roles of the others in a complicated world await us, in this twisting, turning zombie film.

The film has so much potential, it has so much promise of a world of unexpected delights. This is the sort of film you dream about, a premise that pulls you in and makes you want to dig. Dig down to the very core, to the heart of the story and find the evading truth. This is where the problems begin as this heart has been built on a foundation of anticipation and desire that it does not live up to. There are clues and suspicions aplenty, with many suspecting one and then others coming into the frame but this causes apathy by the end. We have red herrings and false dawns via expositions scenes that are introduced violently and become irritating quickly. The issue with this film is not that you don’t get to the truth of its characters or the events that have unfolded, far from it. The issue here is that the film leads you astray so much that you many not care at the end for the conclusion that is drawn here.

This state of affairs is not helped by the acting, which is often stilted and very hammy, so much so in places that it felt as if I was eating a roast pork lunch with a bacon sandwich chaser. It is a shame that the acting talent of Copley has been drawn to such a production. I can imagine he read the synopsis and said a firm yes. He may have then seen the films full script and may have realised that often a great story is as much in the telling as in the premise. You see he is the bright spark here, I did not like him in either the A team or District 9 but I saw him in this and feel he has something. This meant that I did not care what was going to happen and really did not care who too either.

Now I will have to say that positives are in shortly supply here. Open grave has a great premise, which if only the film had not been rushed might have smashed its audience in the face. It also looks superb with the camera work and cinematography beautiful but it sounds absolutely awful. How you may ask? Well let me explain the scene in which a character is being attacked and we have a very odd piano piece playing. It sounds much like a terrible silent film with a lot of clangs and a missed place bong. It draws you so far out as to wishing that the pianist was being murdered.

So watch this film on a weekend night when you want a film that does not challenge you too hard, it just disappoints and leaves you wanting more….