Directed by: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego

Starring: Sharlto Copley, Joseph Morgan, Thomas Kretschmann, Erin Richards

For a horror-thriller, Open Grave bravely decides to throw high-octane ‘thrills’ out of the window in favour of a slow-burn tale of trust and discovery. This dark, harrowing story sees South African actor Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-Team, Elysium) regain consciousness in a pit full of rotting corpses, with no idea who he is or how he got there.

Think of Open Grave as ‘The Hangover’ as written by Cormac McCarthy, and you actually wouldn’t be too far off – although Copley’s amnesiac stranger’s ‘night before’ is less about zany misadventures with Mike Tyson and more about the steady discovery of atrocities he may or may not have committed before the sudden memory loss.

Despite employing an unusually dodgy American accent, Copley shines as the panicked ‘John Doe’, who isn’t sure if he’s a victim of circumstance or the man responsible for everything that’s happening in the first place. Supporting performances from Thomas Kretschmann (Wanted, King Kong) and Erin Richards (Merlin, Being Human) as similarly forgetful strangers are spot on too, particularly Kretschmann’s portrayal of a man who’s emotional stability slowly unravels as the truth becomes clearer.

Although Open Grave is noticeably low budget, Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego’s camerawork is suitably grimy and uneasy, effortlessly complimenting the creepy eastern-European forest setting with it’s ‘guerrilla’ feel. The script, although it begins to sag somewhere in the centre, also succeeds at feeding you regular piecemeal nuggets of information that keep the story rolling even in the more plodding sections of the film.

It helps a lot with the character development that you are forced to question your gut from the start on the ‘survivors’ – for example, you want to trust that Copley’s stranger is ‘good’, but every fact that comes to light appears to prove otherwise. Are these seemingly damning facts to be taken at face value, or are they simply in the wrong context? You are never quite sure, and this leads to an increased level of distrust and investment from the viewer as well as the characters themselves.

Casual viewers may find the lack of thrills and set-pieces at the centre of the film frustrating, but it’s surprisingly easy to invest yourself in the unnerving mystery, all of which culminates in an ending so beautifully bleak that it makes the opening scenes look like the work of Walt Disney.

Much of the success of the film is due to Chris Borey and Eddie Borey’s tight script (as well as a stunning leading performance in Copley), but Lopez-Gallego was also certainly the right man to have behind the lens. It will be interesting to see what he can create on a bigger budget and a grander scale, because the mood he creates here is almost perfect for the kind of story being told.

At it’s core, Open Grave is deliciously twisted and full of unsettling imagery – not least of all the titular burial site – and should satisfy fans of intense mood and intriguing mystery alike.

4/5