The Graves (2009)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

The Graves

So, in every Horrorfest, there's at least one (possibly more) movie that's just a total dud from start to finish. Like Unearthed, from two Horrorfests ago, which was just terrible. Horrorfest films aren't necessarily the top of the barrel (although you do get a few diamonds in the rough) - in fact, the contrary is widely regarded to be true - and sometimes a film misses its mark, or it has a good premise but too many flaws, or is just too intelligent or convoluted for the general public, or is just simply foreign, but then there are films like The Graves which just scream cheap and silly and poorly made.

And yet I'm willing to believe this is still more or less a subjective thing, as I'll bet there are others with much different taste than mine who might like this movie. But to me, it was pretty horrible. And compounding that was the fact that it tried to act like it was cool. I don't even feel like going into all the reasons it was so terrible, it just wasn't very good. The only redeeming feature, and it does deserve mentioning, is that the two leads were hot goth chicks that were nice to look at. It's almost enough to warrant sitting through the film. Almost.

As for the premise, these two chicks are sisters, one of them about to move cross country, for college or a job or something. For no reason whatsoever, they decide to drive out to the desert alone to see the world's biggest thermometer. Of course, they get lost, and end up in a middle of nowhere town of religious fanatics who have confused Beelzebub (which manifests as lots of flies and an almost exclusively off-camera "soul reaving" presence every time someone dies - terrible CGI, by the way), inexplicably living in an old abandoned mine; I say, they mistake this demonic force for Jesus, the savior.

Like most films, whether it's good or bad doesn't depend entirely on the premise. Good premises have been wasted, and terrible premises have been turned into gold. Whatever you think of the premise, the execution is just bad. I didn't even bother watching any of the special features included on the DVD, I was eager to move on to the next film...