Review: Horrorfest 10 – THE GRAVES

THE GRAVES represents the kind of horror film that gives horror films a bad name and I’m stunned that Lions Gate chose it to be in this year’s Horrorfest. Perhaps Horrorfest organizers thought the participation of horror vets Bill Mosely (THE DEVILS REJECTS, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2) and Tony Todd (CANDYMAN) would bring in the Fangoria crowd but THE GRAVES is the type of film that, had I rented it on DVD, would have shut off after about 15 minutes. There may be gore-hounds out there that will defend this as a solid slasher flick but THE GRAVES is an example of why horror movie fans get labeled as being nothing but a bunch of bloodthirsty malcontents, and why slasher films are generally perceived as being one step up from pornography in terms of social value. THE GRAVES may have its audience but including it in this year’s Horrorfest, while other more-worthy entries had to have been overlooked, was a big mistake.

THE GRAVES recounts the adventures of sisters Megan and Abby Graves who are supposed to be beautiful geeks (we know they’re geeks because one works in a comic book store). In a few days, Megan is soon to start a new job at in New York, so the sisters go on a road trip to uncharted Arizona in search of a kitchy roadside attraction. Megan and Abby happen on Skull City Mine, a weather-beaten, abandoned mine town converted into a self-guided tour. But Skull City harbors a terrible, unsurprising secret; It’s not only haunted but it’s a ‘human game preserve’ run by the Atwoods, a family of homicidal, unwashed cretins. Skull City’s tourists are slashed to death and their souls are ripped from their bodies and devoured by swarms of flies (don’t ask), and that’s only the beginning. The Graves girls are stalked and chased and when Megan suffers a near-mortal wound , Abby must save her sister, so she drags her to a nearby town full of religious zealots who are even more deranged than the caretakers of Skull City. More chasing and abuse ensues until the Graves girls develop their own taste for the kill.

I’m not going to spend too much space dissecting everything wrong about THE GRAVES. After PARANORMAL ACTIVITY as well as some of the other films at Horrorfest, a low budget is no excuse for a film this bad and one made with a sense of absolute contempt for its viewers. Ugly and insulting, THE GRAVES contains a high level of jaw-dropping WTF-ness and all the principles of a good movie are completely absent. There is no rise of action, no climax, it just simply keeps the same stalk-and-slash pace through the whole movie. The scenes don’t seem to connect and it’s just a bunch of sloppy killing with zero scares, and no characters you care about. It’s a bad combo for a slasher flick. If there’s a bright spot in THE GRAVES, it’s the always-watchable Bill Mosely as Caleb Atwood. Mosely spends much of the film’s middle act wearing a rubber pig noise and chasing the girls while wielding a sickle. With fun lines (that often seem improvised) like “You’re leaking. I like that in my women!”, Mosely seems to be having more fun than the audience but if the filmmakers thought they could make a successful horror film by just letting Mosely coast on his wicked cult persona, they were mistaken. Tony Todd is less successful as the leader of the religious cult, gesticulating and overacting wildly and his perf is more in line with film’s overall crappiness. Jillian Murphy and Clare Grant play the title sisters. They’re not convincing actresses, often smiling and acting completely at odds with their imperiled situation. There’s a scene where they are briefly possessed while tied together and try to bite each other where I was actually embarrassed for these two young actresses. They don’t look related but they do look like toned swimsuit models and I’m sure they look great in bikinis but I’ll never know because they never change out of their jeans and black tops in THE GRAVES. The gore effects are poor (they don’t even try with the swarms of bees), suspense is absent, and there is nothing to recommend about THE GRAVES. It’s a film that represents the nadir of Horrorfest and its organizers are going to blow the good will of its devoted attendees if they keep adding crap like THE GRAVES to the line-up.