"The Graves": Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Jeremy Wilkinson

Not even the presence of horror icons Tony Todd and Bill Moseley can save “The Graves.” If the trailer is any indication, this looks to be a less than mediocre horror film with minimal entertainment.

Clare Grant and Jillian Murphy star as two sisters on a road trip to Arizona. They eventually become lost, even though the sister who says this doesn’t seem to care. They hear a story about a ghost town, encounter some crazy folk, and have to try and survive in the middle of nowhere.

The trailer gives the audience enough information so you know there are two sisters in a town that is creepy and has some murderers in it. There’s some on-screen text to facilitate one’s understanding of the narrative, but the story itself doesn’t seem all that important. Who cares why they’re there? There are crazies about!

This looks like a popcorn horror film trying to tap the same vein that “Friday the 13th” and its many offsprings sucked dry. It looks a splatter flick with an inverse relationship between the amount of violence and characterization. The problem with that is the scenes depicted are not all that interesting--at least to a long-time horror fan.  Based on the trailer, the acting isn't strong, the two protagonists aren’t interesting, and the villains are bland. Tony Todd ("Candyman") and Bill Moseley ("House of 1000 Corpses") play a creepy priest and a pig nose-wearing redneck, respectively. They’re not as gripping as they have previously been, thanks to the aforementioned weak acting. Two men who know how to be scary in a horror movie where they aren’t scary just isn't right.

If “The Graves” is lucky, it might turn out to be a decent popcorn movie as there could be something special about the film that the trailer doesn’t show, but that’s doubtful--the trailers always show viewers the best parts to lure them in.   And so, it's already likely best to skip this one and seek your horror thrills elsewhere.

View the trailer for "The Graves" below. Thoughts?