Open Graves (2009)
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Wow, what a horrible cover. Anyway, originally titled "Mamba" (named after the board game our leads play) the pic was completed back in 2007 and once had a release date for sometime in '08. Of course it never got proper distribution until September of '09 when it premiered on the dreaded SyFy channel. Naturally if a movie makes its debut on that channel it pretty much means only one thing -- it sucks. That's not always the case, but for Open Graves, that's exactly the reason.
The story is your standard clichéd and easily predicted tale of a group of friends who somehow get their hands on an old board game called "Mamba" that will supposedly grant the winner a wish, while the losers would suffer fates at the hands of the cards they dealt, which give a generalized idea as to how they will die. As expected from a film in this sub-genre it offers nothing we haven't already seen before.
The deaths are all fairly unimpressive and lack the creativity that could have made the movie somewhat more entertaining than it actually was. Although, I have to admit that death by dragonfly (you heard right bitch!) proved to be quite hilarious. Apparently the dragonflies are connected with the curse behind the game, so whenever someone's about to die the camera follows some crappy little dragonfly as it makes its way to the next victim *rolls eyes*.
The cast of young and easily forgettable actors (minus the lovely Eliza Dushku of course) try their hardest to bring believability behind the events that unfold for each one of the group members, but with the lack of character development it leaves us viewers to care little towards the demise of the characters.
Any avid movie-watcher could easily guess the "twist" towards the end of the pic, which sadly is as clichéd as they come. Had it not been for Eliza I doubt I would have even bothered with this wasted effort of filmmaking. Sadly, I've seen worse than this; MUCH worse in fact, and given that it somewhat kept my interest through most of the running time (started to lose interest towards the end) I have to say that it wasn't a complete waste of time, but it sure as hell came close.
Aside from the old board game aspect, the rest of the story is pretty much your standard tale of a game somehow killing off its players. Clichéd and incredibly predictable, not worth a viewing unless you're a die-hard fan of Eliza. Avoid.