Открытая могила (2013) Online

I stumbled upon this film knowing absolutely nothing about it, and I think that's exactly the right way - perhaps the only way - to approach this bleak, suspenseful tale. So I won't spoil anything for you and concentrate instead on my impressions from the film. Firstly: great production values; set and sound design can compete with anything you normally see in big Hollywood productions. Secondly: fantastic actors, and if you're into dark, disturbing films, great story. I don't understand how a gem like this - which was obviously very well made - could fly under the radar and miss a wide theatrical release; a film of this caliber and with such a great cast should be seen in the theater. The current rather low IMDb rating bugs me and I think it will go up as soon as more people have seen the film. I'd highly recommend this film to anyone who likes a well told gritty story - I rate it a solid 7 out of 10.

Favorite films: http://www.IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Fun B-flicks/low budget films: http://www.imdb.com/list/YV1Lxq7WLkU/

Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

In an ideal world, movies would be made without the aim for a certain rating. This article sums up why this is so important:

www.the-fanboy-perspective.com/the-importance-of-the-r-rating.html

Trust me on this one. The less you know about this movie the better.

I came across this movie knowing nothing more than the IMDb plot summary. Hence I did not know what to expect. And that is exactly the mindset "Open Grave" will work best for. It is hard to say something about this movie when every statement regarding the story, characters or structure could potentially reveal too much...

"Open Grave" is a smart movie. Its well thought out narrative structure invites you to constantly try to solve the puzzle. This suspense is maintained all the way until the last ~20mins of the movie. The story and heavy atmosphere are supported by the superb acting and skilled cinematography. It is almost impossible to not get immersed in the movie's microcosm. There are also a few good scares and action sequences to ease the pacing and give your brain time to relax.

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Are you still reading? GO WATCH THE MOVIE! ;-)

After quite some time of waiting for something different, for a new approach, we can finally say we have lived to see it: Open Grave!

Now, without spoiling the plot, I can't really go into too many details, therefore I'll keep this short and try to focus on the important thing: getting YOU, to watch IT! Man oh man, this one right here, on a cold night, darkness surrounding your screen, and utter complete silence, makes for one hell of a movie! You'll love it, you'll scratch your head so many times trying to figure out what exactly is going on, you might turn bald at the end of it. For some, it won't be too hard to understand what's happening, especially after around 40 minutes, but still, you'll be dying to see more!

Why would I recommend it? New way of saying the story, lovely acting, good atmosphere, perfect tension (provided by great soundtrack), and a story that reveals itself little by little. The end, will be a few minutes when you'll stay on your couch, and feed on the dying moments, as they conclude into something great.

Open Grave (not the most original name) but surely an original and complex way of telling a story.

Yeah, I'm going to try and say as little as possible about the plot. Actually, nothing about the plot would be best. Some people spend the entire time watching a movie like this trying to "figure it out" or whatever. Which is fine and all but disrespects the movie to a degree. I'm not one of those people but even if I were, I seriously doubt it would help much.

The story has quite a bit of mystery to it. You don't really know much more than the characters for most of the run time, but it's a good thing. It isn't frustrating/mysterious like David Lynch or something, and there is a pay off in the third act. I'm not a particularly dumb man but a couple things I was still vague on at the end, but I prefer that to being beaten over the head w/explanations or, god forbid, a narrator.

I suppose it's more of a 7-8 but I'm giving it 9 for originality (more impressive considering it's somewhat unoriginal setup and seemingly going into an extremely overdone genre). Yeah, that won't make much sense until you watch it. Neither will this smooth segue: I don't like Vin Diesel at all (See! what?) but I still give Pitch Black a decent score for similar reasoning. That was an original sci-fi story and deserved props (despite it's Mr. Potato Head leading man/meatsicle). Same w/Open Grave. I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't feel screwed when I found out. It wasn't perfect, but also in a good way (as in too perfect becomes fake/meaningless whereas a blemish or two makes it all the better for being identifiable). And, though it's not an ending that makes you want to jump around riding ponies over rainbows, I felt good at the end. Remembered thinking, "thanks, I needed that" (God knows why I think these things).

Most of the actors are unknown to me, w/the exception of Copley, but all did a great job. I'm digging that he's primarily becoming a sci-fi(ish) actor. Hasn't been many of those in a long time. When I finished Europa Report I had an unsatisfied, I-only-got-to-eat-half-a-sandwich-and-I'm- still-hungry kind of feeling. It was okay (I guess; opinions and all) but this is better. I'm thinking the acting was good because the parts were good. Big famous celebrities can carry movies and parts that are really empty and uninspiring just cuz we want to see them. I think Open Grave could be recast (not that it needs it) and be just as good. It's a good story, they filmed it good, etc.

Watch it. Do it, now. Just put the kids out back to graze and feed em later. Watch it. Aaarrrggghhhh....!!!!

The film's opening takes you from you seat and places you in the full horror of waking up in an open grave of dead bodies with no memory of how you got there.

The cinematography is ambitious, the music and sound are used subtly and with good effect, and the film's first quarter drags you in well and you want to know on earth happened just as much as the characters in the film. But as they begin to interact, it all goes wrong. The dialogue is forced and unnatural, their decision making strange, and the American accent by South African Sharlto Copley distracts, especially when you are trying to understand someone who has just woken up not knowing who he is.

As the film gets past the hallway point, it loses its direction. It feels like a collection of scenes pasted together sloppily than an evolving narrative, and by the time the truth is revealed you have already stopped caring.

Not a bad movie. but not that good either.

In Short: cool setup for a movie and cool storyline but the overall execution was lacking. first 30-40 minutes are great and your really like wtf. and then you basically figure out everything 20 minutes later and are left with the last 40 minutes waiting for the characters to come to the conclusion that you already made.

Really not that scary, more thriller than anything but to be honest after about 30-40 minutes its really boring and repetitive. Just could have been much more

Interesting take on a plague story but I think a different setting, more scares, more tension, and the fact that you stop guessing about the movie about halfway through really makes this underwhelming

Engaging from beginning to end with excellent performances from every member of the cast. In a genre so played out, so overblown, and over exposed, this is a refreshing creation that doesn't go into cliché autopilot mode, mock itself, mock you, or mock the industry.

Sure there are one or two bits that are fair game, but overall it doesn't degenerate into some stylized sexist no talent tit and dick prop running around. Instead you have dialogue. I know, amazing concept; making you continually ask who, what, and why like some kind of horror thriller where the protagonist, antagonist, victim and suspect are all the same person, but at the same time they aren't. Exactly.

Great atmosphere through out with solid sound work, unfortunately the ending doesn't do the rest of the film any justice, but it's rare that any endings in these kinds of film do so -3 points. Highly recommended.

The movie begins excellent, the actors portray a group of people who have no knowledge of where they are and how they got there; including each other. Slowly each character develops thinking they are someone they are not, intensifying into conflict. As the story unfolds, relapses in memory begin to occur, and we begin to see the true intentions of each character unfold, or as we the audience are to see happen.

The actors do a great job, the main character Copley does a great performance as I myself enjoyed his other characters especially in the movie A-TEAM, and ELYSIUM.

OVERALL - great beginning, gets a little too repetitive in the middle, and the end just seems to rush it out without really giving the plot any resolve. Be your own judge! I personally believe this movie was intended to make you just as lost as the rest of the characters... right up to the end. So if thats your cake, then go eat it up.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a group of strangers wake up in a strange place with no memory of who they are. They go through the usual motions where characters discover special skills and everyone's feeling each other out. Generally strange and grim things pop up as they explore their surroundings and elements are introduced that couldn't possibly begin to be fully explained.

Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego delivers some wonderfully macabre visuals and scenarios that he sprinkles throughout and the cast holds up as well as one could hope, but much of this plays like cut scenes from a more interesting video game. While still a marked improvement on his previous effort, Apollo 18, this film attempts to pack in so much as it unfolds that it overwhelms the original conceit, making it more annoying than mysterious.

Once the picture has finished with its big reveal, one immediately wonders why we wasted all that time fumbling around figuring out who was who and how many languages people spoke when we could have been exploring something much more interesting. It seems for that, we'll have to wait for the sequel.

I heard about this film because I've been a fan of Sharlto Copley since District 9. When I saw the trailer, I was extremely interested. I wanted to watch it to find out why the hell he was in a pit of dead bodies and why he didn't have any memory of how exactly he got in that situation. The plot has many little details that give you hints as to what is going on, but when I finally pieced them together, I was surprised. It keeps you guessing as to whats really going on throughout almost the entire film. I won't ruin the reveal, but I did NOT see it coming. It's a fairly interesting and original film, and I enjoyed the ride.

I went into this movie mostly blind, having only read a short summary 30 minutes before seeing it. The summary does not do this film any justice. I expected a quick horror slasher, that I could enjoy for 90 minutes and immediately forget about. What I got was a brilliantly shot, beautifully scored, and engrossing mystery/horror thriller that I will never forget. It relieves me to know that there is still some creativity and originality in horror movies, especially in this day and age. While the ideas and concepts in Open Grave have been done to death, it brings new light to a certain horror genre we are all probably getting sick of and uses them perfectly. A few horror clichés are still there that I am frankly growing tired of, but not enough that it hurts the film.

The cinematography was top notch for a horror film. The casting was also well done. Sharlto Copley does a fantastic job as the lead, even with his real South African accent trying ever so hard to bleed through his fake American one. Also anything with Thomas Kretschmann in it is always worth a watch. In conclusion, if you are at all a horror fan like me, you must give this film a go. I think you will enjoy it.

Gonzalo López-Gallego's (Apollo 18) latest offering, Open Grave, is a rare pleasure where the viewer doesn't quite know what's going on until fairly late in proceedings. As with 1997 'cult' classic Cube, we find ourselves in a similar position to the protagonists, who wake from unconsciousness with amnesia and something resembling a warzone outside, with trees and fences littered with fetid corpses and those still slowly expiring.

When a 'John Doe' (Sharlto Copley) regains consciousness to find himself in a large pit in the woods in the company of innumerable cadavers, it doesn't take a genius to work out that something very bad has happened and might just still be happening. When he finds a gun, his panic escalates; is he victim or murderer? A mute figure, Brown Eyes (Josie Ho), throws down a rope to help him escape and leads him to a shack in the woods where several other survivors/victims are discovering the situation for themselves. Suspicion and blame ensues as the group tries to establish their identities and just what the hell is going on...

There's a great deal to like about Open Grave, from the opening sequence in which a pair of unblinking eyes slowly fill with confusion, awareness and panic to give the impression that, like with Cormac McCarthy's The Road, we'll never know exactly what, why or where. There are nods in several directions (World War Z, 28 Days Later, Contagion), all of which keep us guessing as to whether we're in the presence of zombies, the aftermath of a government experiment or some new Captain Trips. López-Gallego doesn't allow us to know how far it stretches or how serious the situation. If the characters in the middle of it don't know what state their lives are in and how many breaths they still have, why should we? Would that more thrillers took this approach!

Like Apollo 18, Open Grave is likely to attract a limited audience of a certain demographic but for those who like their horror a little less obvious and with a hint of mystery, this should fill a Friday evening quite satisfactorily. There is a quantity of violence and gore as one would expect and it is sufficient to make it feel 'real' without pandering to the morons who only find pleasure in gratuitous blood spatter.

A lack of genuine scares steers Open Grave away from being an out and out horror but it does play on the nerves, keeping us on edge until we know what's going on. This feels like a low budget flick but López-Gallego handles it well, eking it out so that rather than allowing his film to feel empty, he emphasizes the isolation of the characters.

Copley recently complained that Hollywood doesn't know which box to place him in because he plays such a varied range of characters. I'm not sure I'd go along with his own assessment yet. Though his eight features to date, including this month's particularly dark Oldboy, have seen him play both solid support and quirky lead, I'm not sure there's sufficient chameleon-like qualities to have Ben Kingsley worried for the time being. Nevertheless, Copley remains a very watchable actor and as the John Doe in one hell of a tight spot, he keeps us both guessing and attentive throughout.

Open Grave isn't going to scare you witless like Insidious or have you avoiding the trees like The Cabin in the Woods, but if you're looking for a mild thriller that doesn't lay everything out before you in the first act, you could do far worse than this.

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It's one of those mediocre movies that you might like or might not. I found it dull after the first ten minutes or so. It gets really slow and the pay off isn't worth it in my opinion. I like all horror movies and this didn't even feel like one.

I watched it cause I'm a fan of Sharlto Copley, but even he was dull. He's a fantastic character actor so of course he plays a normal guy in this movie. It's like getting Superman and giving him Kryptonite. So it's a horror movie that's not really a horror movie and the lead was wasted. When the movie was over, I felt like i just wasted a huge chunk of my life on nothing and wished I could take it back.

I will give this one a 10 out of 10 cause it is very well made. The movie director had a very talented way of hiding the facts in plain sight yet alluding us off track with illusions and disbelieves. It is hard to avoid what the movie is about, but I will just say this, I haven't seen such a good acting performance since "28 days later".

The movie becomes predictable half way to the end, still you are set up in the situation where you have no idea what the main character is going to do or is going to end up.

The ending is indeed one of my favorites and makes it more intriguing since it is a never ending loop of trial and error till you get it right, that is if you ever get it right! If you rely like to see something well performed and with smart twists, I guarantee you this movie will not fail to impress.

One of those movies going in you know nothing of...expect nothing and then are confronted with some thing special.. Maby because the horror market is saturated with amnesia related films and hostel/saw like set ups where you know before the first few frames that there's mischief afoot its refreshing when you have all of it just turned upside down.... there's another genre here but Im not gonna spoil it... The actors are great (infact some VERY good actors indeed)I loved each of them and each played their parts well..the setting is fantastic..like the forest of cannibal ferox meets the mansion of the game Resident evil.. I wasn't expecting anything from this..so I think I got everything I look for in a Film...this film really had me hooked from that opening scene

highly recommended

Film quality was average and the scenes set up well. The acting starts a bit rough and ends up a bit above mediocre. Story was somewhat original, but was not presented very well. There were many unnecessary plot points and interactions that made it a bit frustrating to watch, as they didn't provide any substantial information until the end. The plot points that were necessary were explain haphazardly and were convoluted. The setup and trailer makes this seem like a SAW movie, but its quite far from it.

It's a decent film, just don't go into it with any expectations. If you can help it, the least you know about it, the better as the trailer for example will give a bit too much away.

If it looks like a pig, smells like a pig and sounds like a pig its usually a pig.

Remember how The Mist had an ending which was far greater than the preceding hour and a half? So it goes with Open Grave. With what seems like five series of Lost crammed into a single sitting you will find yourself wondering what the hell is going on and who on earth cast these actors....stick with it to be rewarded with an extremely interesting concept and storyline that only creeps up on you in the final scenes.

I'm not going to say its great, and Sharlto Copley does still get a bit apartheid Basil Fawlty now and again but it really is worth it if not only for what they could have done with such a great idea.

OPEN GRAVE (2013) *** Sharlto Copley, Thomas Kretschmann, Joseph Morgan, Erin Richards, Josie Ho, Max Wrottesley. Absorbing horror flick about a small group of amnesiacs trying to unspool a never-ending thread of WTF is going on including the titular man-made landfill with nerve-shredding tension that incorporates a well-constructed puzzler by newbie scribes Chris & Eddie Borey and inventive direction by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego with striking visuals by cinematographer Jose David Montero combined making for a taut thriller to no end. Copley continues to make a cottage industry of on-the-edge-of-losing-sanity characters as the most mysterious of the strangers facing odds from all angles.

I was really looking forward to this. Sharlto Copley in something new? Sign me up. Unfortunately, Open Grave is chock full of the clichés and convenient situations that plague most small-budget horror/mystery/thriller films. Some were groan-worthy, while others made me shake my head and chuckle. The full circle of the end was kind of a nice pay-off, but it literally had to be spelled out in the last few minutes of the movie like most everything else.

The movie wants to be a lot of things, and in trying to weave everything together it just feels like a fan-fiction made into a film. Sharlto Copley did alright with what he had to work with, and his American accent was definitely different, but he didn't seem able to elevate the material above B-movie sci-fi with a little bit more grit around the edges. It's worth a late night watch on cable sometime in the future, but don't go rushing to the theater for a ticket to this one. It kind of reminded me a lot of Carriers from a while back. A few big names and pretty faces, but beneath the surface there's not a lot to latch on to outside the clichés.

This movie was a pleasant surprise. Thought provoking, creepy and exciting. Love the dark stormy beginning, the roller coaster ride of emotions throughout and the bleak ending. So many movies of this genre are a carbon copy of all the ones before it in recent years. The mysterious ongoing plot keeps you captivated till the end. Whether your a fan of this type of movie or not you will have to finish it to see the outcome. The acting is well done and very emotional. Shiloh is as great as usual in his own way of bone shaking nervousness and anger. Everyone else in the film also did very well and complimented each other accordingly. Definitely did not expect much with the huge number of b rate films that are blasted out in piles like certain mounds of not so nice organic material found in many barn yard enclosures. Then the lazy almost plagiarized mainstream movies of today are becoming a plague. Enough said. This movie was a diamond in the rough.

Oh dear. What have we here? I'm sure like most people, you came to this movie via the pretty good looking trailer. That guy caught on the barbed wire fence, the video monitors of people in cages, that big pit full of bodies, man it looked like it was going to be fantastic. Sadly though, that's the "grave" error I made too.

To find a horror movie with an actor who's just been in Elysium, and earlier in the brilliant District9, I thought I was onto a winner here, but the acting? It's absolutely atrocious. Fake accents, and dialogue straight out of Scooby Doo. Dreadful, simply dreadful. You can almost smell the cheese on it.

The premise was quite good, and I won't spoil it for you in case you manage to get to the end. But the cast simply ruined it for me. And the storyline is pretty convoluted as well. From the offset when a group of strangers wake up in a room (where have we seen that a million times before?) not knowing how they got there or who they are, it descends into a mess of a film. Towards the end it picks up slightly, but by then you've basically just given up on it. Very disappointing, really disappointing, I had high hopes for this one and it threw me into an open grave.

This one belongs in a closed grave! Golly it just goes on & on with crazy people attacking crazy people. And nobody can remember a damn thing.

The beginning has a man in an open pit of dead people. Then he's out of the pit! Then he's back in the pit. Then he's out of the pit. Then he's back in the pit. And while this is going on there's no end of wacked out people acting like mad angry pit-bulls. It's obvious there has been a scientific experiment going on somewhere way out in the forest - what could go wrong.

Well you find out at movies end and it's all an hour and 45 minutes you struggled or laffed through because not minute is scary.

A man who has lost his memory wakes up in a pit full of dead bodies and is united with several other people all of whom suffer from the same acute memory loss and don't know why they are in the middle of nowhere. So far so good, but the problem is you don't have any idea why you should care about any of the characters until the very end, where the big revelation is made.

A similar type of memory loss happens in Resident Evil; however, in Resident Evil you have people explaining what is going on and why they are where they are from the start. You get bits and pieces of information and the plot revelations are made in appropriate places to keep you guessing without asking yourself why you are even watching the movie. In Open Grave, you are shown clues that are completely misleading and you don't know who the bad and good guys are; not until there's only five minutes left of the movie. While the ending helps you understand what the previous 1:20 minutes were all about, it doesn't change the fact that for almost 1:20 minutes you had no idea what was going on and why you had to care about what happened to any of the characters. In short, the plot structure is seriously flawed.

To be able to enjoy this movie you need to watch it a second time, this time knowing why you should care about the characters at all, but since the story is supposed to remain a mystery until the very end, a second viewing defeats the purpose for which the movie was made in the first place; which is to keep you guessing. A movie where you can't care about and consequently cannot connect with the characters is not worth watching. They could have at least used handsome actors and attractive actresses for the movie to have any redeeming quality the first time you watch it; unfortunately, it didn't even have that.

Good use of each frame, the direction in this is excellent. Great care has been taken to fill the screen in as many scenes as possible. Good actors all of them, the feel was very effective except for some confused forest moments, but that was miss direction. This is a rare movie that uses flashbacks to fill in the story as you go that works, and even though it does become obvious what has happened about half way through, and then it was just a lot of that thing being revealed, and being able to enjoy the rest of the ride. Good story. You are left with some answers just like the first Resident evil film you are faced with scope, and scale as being larger issues. All this, and you get to see these points restore themselves as the characters circle each other until the understanding is found. Babble babble, and such I Enjoyed this a lot, if you want action, and some mystery with zombieish scifi but not with some crumby director, and lousy editors, then you will like this a lot.

A man wakes up in an open grave pit with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Later he encounters a group of people with the same amnesia affliction and they try to workout who is who to survive random attacks from the crazed infected in the area.

Not to be confused with Open Graves (2013) the premise itself from writers Chris and Eddie Borey is pretty intriguing but it never flows to meet its full potential turning into a zombie horror cliché by the end. Spanish director Gonzalo López-Gallego offers lots of style and suspense, as John played excellent by Sharlto Copley and the other characters suffering from memory loss piece together what going on with virus infected people attacking at any given moment. There's a novel idea of the infected being repelled by the dead. It's forest, mansion, body pits, abandoned complex and camp give López-Gallego's plenty of atmosphere accompanied by an ominous score.

Along with Copley, Thomas Kretschmann is notable as paranoid Lukas, sadly Max Wrottesley's interesting character Michael who is not as clever as the others gets killed off disappointingly too soon.

Open Graves is wonderfully filmed with overhead shots, lighting storms, earthly wooden shacks, gritty cells and it has great sound design to match. There's also some nicely executed make up effects. Where as the likes of Eerie 13 flows on its low budget, Graves feels expensive but doesn't seem know what to do with the small stellar cast in the paranoia scenes which become repetitive. Borrowing from The Crazies, Night of the Living Dead and I am Legend's set ups to name a few with the impending trigger happy army, the infected attacking the house and experimental drugs, it falls short as anyone familiar with the genre is always one step ahead of the characters which becomes increasingly frustrating.

Certainly worth watching for López-Gallego's grounded spin on the genre, nuances and Copley's fine performance but comes with the aforementioned advisory notes.