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.
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.