The Horror Show
Open Grave
Directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego
Open Grave is one of those movies that halfway through you realize is a different movie altogether than when you initially started. By the end of the movie, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be shouting obscenities (albeit excitedly) at the screen and questioning if you should watch it again because you loved it so much. Yes. Yes you should.
The film begins with actor Sharlto Copely waking up in an enormous pit of dead bodies in the middle of nowhere. He has some serious memory loss and can’t even remember his own name. There are odd things in his pockets and a revolver lying near him, all of which he unfortunately cannot connect. As he ponders a way out of this giant murder pit, a mysterious head appears at the pit’s opening and a silent woman throws down a rope to aid him in escaping the hole in the earth. An impending storm looms overhead, flashes of lightning bringing the dead bodies almost to life. The stench of the pit is made to appear extremely real and conveyed excellently. Suddenly an onslaught of rain pounds down onto Copely as he finally climbs out of the pit and the movie’s title appears on the screen.
Our unnamed man walks through the rain soaked forest and finds a house. There is a group of people in the house experiencing the same memory loss and our main character has arrived just in time to witness a man on the floor waking up in the exact same way as he just did. The group of strangers all have identification on them except for Copely, who they decide they will name John Doe. There is one woman amongst the strangers, the one who helped “John” out of the pit who doesn’t seem to be experiencing the memory loss but there are two problems: she is mute and can only write in another language that none of them speak. The woman, they call her “Brown Eyes”, seems to know all of these people and although she isn’t scared of them, she’s completely terrified of something and unfortunately has no way of communicating what that something is. The house that our strange group now occupies is filled with an arsenal of weaponry, stocked with food and water, and filled with books about medicine and medical practices.
The group explores the surrounding forest and discovers dead men tied to several trees and a woman shackled in a small shed. There are cameras everywhere and it seems that an unknown presence has been watching them. Is this some kind of sick, twisted joke being played on them? Were they abducted and now participating in some weird madman’s game? Further exploration reveals a row of houses with cages, blood, medical equipment, and yep…more cameras. Our group also comes across very violent and sick people running around the forest. It’s at this point in the movie that I made the assumption that there is a very strong chance that there is some sick bastard somewhere in this forest performing experiments on people and recording it all. It’s not very long after I made this assumption that I was also led to believe that one of the members of the group is the one responsible and somehow, with all the inexplicable memory loss, has unknowingly placed himself among his own victims.
This is where I will stop describing this movie to you. Further explanation and description would simply ruin it for the viewer. But I will absolutely applaud the writers, Chris and Eddie Borey, for a job more than well done. The dialogue is exceptional, especially between strangers that slowly begin to realize they are somehow all connected. The characters delicately fall into their prescribed roles as to ensure no overacting on anyone’s part. Up until this point I have only ever seen Sharlto Copely in District 9 and Elysium, but he thoroughly impressed me with his acting abilities in Open Grave. Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego has only directed one other film that I’ve seen, Apollo 18. While I wasn’t impressed with Apollo 18 as a whole, I was impressed with the fact that Gallego delivered a found footage sci-fi flick that at least held my attention throughout. He does an even better job with this film. Open Grave more than held my attention. It engrossed me in its story and forced me to identify with each individual character as they slowly but surely discovered the answers to questions that I had been asking right along-side them the entire time. The mysterious tone of the film, along with excellent cinematography and morbid beauty make for more than just a mystery horror thriller. Open Grave holds you at gunpoint and forces you into assumptions only to throw those assumptions back in your face when it proves you wrong. The film is cleverly executed and the climactic ending relentlessly punches you in the gut, giving viewers one of the best kept secrets of 2013. Open Grave is, in fact, one of the most perfect post-apocalyptic movies I have ever seen... and that is where I challenge you to get off of your computer and watch this movie. Now.
Stevie Kopas, Associate Editor HMS
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