Wonderful character development!

From my favorite movies..

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Two inseparable sisters' visit to a remote mine town turns into a mind-bending fight for survival against menaces both human and supernatural.I had moderately high hopes for this one after the first ten minutes. Although I was a bit annoyed by the use of the hand-held video camera (this never works in movies, why add it to one if you do not need to) and the blood effects are so obviously the work of a computer... the sisters were likable enough and we are almost immediate thrown into a killer-chasing-victims mode.I also had a few hopes because of the inclusion of Bill Moseley and Tony Todd. This is not Todd's finest work, but it is always nice to see him on screen. Moseley, on the other hand, has done a large amount of low-grade horror and his performances vary greatly depending on the project. Here, he throws himself right into it and I have to say it might be his best work since "Devil's Rejects".The problem with the film is that while it is wonderful how fast it jumps into the action, it cannot keep up with the pace it set early on. It shifts gears and slows down part way through, and once we start focusing on the cult rather than the murderous brothers, it just loses a lot of the fun and becomes a weak story with little behind it. I feel there was more going on, and this could have been examined, but it just was not done.

It's fairly common to see B-and-below-movies with a decent script and some good ideas, but lacking in resources that turn out a disaster. The Graves on the other hand seems to have plenty of resources to hire established actors and get good equipment, but script and direction are lacking.Two sisters, one very dominant over the other, end up driving around Arizona, stop at a diner, and decide to go visit the local ghost town and mines. As soon as they get there some guy kills a tourist. The girls run and are found since their chaser is always nearby no matter how fast they run and how slow he walks, but then they kill the killer. Only to meet his brother who's just as crazy. They have to run and hide from him. One oddity is that all the killed people are attacked by a swarm of flies.Later we find out that the town is under the yoke of some crazy pastor who sacrifices all these tourists to "the savior" which is the swarm of flies, for the sake of the town's prosperity. Ultimately, the girls will have to confront the town people, but a strange thing happens in the relationship between the town and the savior.The Graves has an impressive cast- our two very attractive leads, and horror icons Todd and Moseley. The movie looks great, is mostly filmed during the day, the colors are gorgeous. Eventually of course as things unfold, they happen at night. Locations are also excellent. And the movie is also pretty gory at times and those scenes are also very well made.The story, though, is remarkably unfinished. So many things don't make sense and force the actors to do nonsensical things. But the story had potential, had a more experienced writer gotten a chance to revise it. The direction, too, isn't up to par, and you see takes that are very odd and that you don't usually see in films.With the resources and enthusiasm they had available, the producers should have hired an additional writer and an established director and this movie could have been pretty good. As it is, it's your slightly-below average 'run and hide from a crazy redneck killer' movie, of which there are just a few too many. American horror really needs to start thinking of new ideas.

I honestly wanted to like this movie, but I had to turn it off after awhile. It was that bad. I love Bill Moseley and was absolutely smitten with Clare Grant, who should be doing porn if she isn't already. Two sisters go on a road trip and end up in an old mining town where a killer lurks. There also may be a supernatural force at work. But I never got that far. As sexy as Grant was as the older of the two sisters, and as much fun as Moseley can be in any movie, this was so amateurishly made as to be a student film. Which it may well have been, for all I know. The acting is terrible, the plot goes nowhere that I could tell, and ... why bother to go on? Avoid this WRONG TURN/HILLS HAVE EYES/Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE knockoff. Stick with the tried and true. But I gotta tell ya, Grant was incredibly hot. She's a natural. She's the kind we boys all had a turn with back in school, but didn't marry. She's the girl next door if you live next door to a strip club. I could watch Grant read the phone book for 90 minutes.

Everyone knows what "After Dark Horrorfest" is. Every year, Lionsgate and After Dark films release eight films into select theaters for a limited time. While there have been some real winners from this line up-"The Gravedancers", "Reincarnation", "The Abandoned" and "Mullberry Street" for example-by the time the second Horrorfest came around, we started getting movies that one is amazed got any sort of theatrical release. For every winner in Horrorfest, there will be mediocre to disappointing movies like "Tooth & Nail" and "Dying Breed", to really awful fair like "Lake Dead" and "Slaughter." Well, you can add "The Graves to that third category, as it may be the worst Horrorfest movie yet.The Graves sisters-Abby (Jillian Murphy) and Megan (Clare Grant)-are two comic book, punk rock (well, as the director sees punk) and horror loving girls aka. two girls you will never meet in the real world. Well, Megan is headed to ASU with a marketing degree, so as a last hurrah, they decide to go looking for a fun roadside attraction. They instead end up going to Skull City Mine, a Ghost Town. Of course, it's not really abandoned, and soon the sisters find themselves fighting for their lives against a psychopath named Caleb (Bill Moseley) and a religious cult lead by Reverend Abraham (Tony Todd.) Can they survive? What's with the supernatural evil living in the town? Why should we care? How on Earth would stabbing a man's thigh kill him? "The Graves" is nothing more than a failure. Writer and Director Brian Pulido is a horror comic book veteran (he is the creator of "Lady Death"* and "Evil Ernie"), but for a guy with such a pedigree, his movie comes off as rather clueless as to what makes horror movies like this work. The whole thing feels too much like Pulido was thinking to himself "well, horror fans like this in horror movies", but that he had no idea as to what makes such movies work. In fact, the whole thing feels artificial, as if it comes from somebody who has no understanding of the genre, but wants a quick buck. That's last part obviously isn't what Pulido intended, but that is how it feels.It also doesn't help that our protagonists are completely bland and obnoxious. The film wants you to like the Graves sisters, but they are so dull, unrealistic and annoying that you keep hoping for the whole movie to come to a merciful end. Even worse amazingly, are the performances from Moseley and Todd. Here, Bill just plays another variation on the psychopathic killer he's played in far superior films, only really bad. It makes you wish he would have played someone else. Todd meanwhile, is so over the top and overacts so much that it becomes laughable. The fact that these two beloved genre veterans are even in dreck like this is depressing as hell, especially with the underwhelming performances they give.I wish I could say "The Graves" is worth watching, but it's not. Instead, it's a cheap, superficial imitator that clearly wants to be loved, but lacks any of the elements that makes horror like this fun. Instead it's a headache to watch, more appropriate for Hot Topic shopping kids than genre fans. Avoid.*At one point, the Graves sisters start going on about their love of Chaos Comics, one in which pretty much plugging "Lady Death" in a groan inducing bit of shameless self promotion. What the hell Brian?