Open Graves

Open Graves
Open Graves Promotional Poster
Directed by	Álvaro de Armiñán
Produced by	Antonio Cuadri Billy Dietrich Juan Carlos Orihuela
Written by	Bruce A. Taylor Roderick Taylor
Starring	Eliza Dushku Mike Vogel
Music by	Fernando Ortí Salvador
Editing by	Alchemedia Films Manufacturas Audiovisuales Open Pictures
Distributed by	Voltage Pictures
Release date(s)	7 September 2009 (Semana Internacional de Cine Fantastico Estepona)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	USA Spain
Language	English
Budget	$6.5 million

Open Graves is a 2009 horror film, directed by Álvaro de Armiñán and written by Bruce A. Taylor and Roderick Taylor, the film stars Eliza Dushku, Mike Vogel, Naike Rivelli and Lindsay Robba.

Plot

An old game named "Mamba", with a mysterious past, falls into the hands of a group of students. After a good day of surf and a celebration interrupted by a storm, curiosity leads the group of young people to play, although they do not know anything about it - neither its sinister origin, nor its inherent powers. The young people who lost in the game begin to suffer horrible deaths. One after another they start dying in strange circumstances, related to what the cards that force them to lose say.

The survivors, terrified, learn that these deaths are related to the game and its malignant force: "Those who participate in the game and lose will die; those who are able to win will be able to request a wish".^[1]

Jason (Mike Vogel), the young North American who found the game and introduced it to his friends, decides that he must risk his own life to undo the course of the game and to save his friends.^[2]

In this task he will be accompanied by Erica (Eliza Dushku), a beautiful surfer girl whom he's just met and with whom he has fallen in love. Jason and Erica continue to play the game after their final friend dies by being shot in the head by the mad man who is after the game as well. As Erica and Jason continue to play, Jason wins as Erica draws the card that tells how she will die. Jason then must decide which snake head to place his playing piece in. One, he will lose, and the second he will win and receive his wish, or suffer the same fate as Mamba, being skinned to death. He chooses right, but is unable to make his wish until Erica dies. She re-reads her card to learn her fate and after Jason falls asleep returns to the water she loves so well, only to drown. Jason wakes up and follows after her, only meeting the man who wants the game. Jason hands over the game and the witch Mamba, the witch of whom the game was made from and cursed by. Her appearance frightens the man off. Strangely enough Mamba has taken on the form of Erica. She asks Jason his wish, and he says all he wants is to go back before they found the game and everyone died. Mamba grants his wish and he goes back in time, remembering nothing of the day that would have happened, as such, he and his friends are doomed to keep repeating the same days over and over again.^[3]

Cast

• Eliza Dushku as Erica/Mamba
• Mike Vogel as Jason
• Jose Casasús as Novio
• Lilliam Kouri as Malek's Wife
• Boris Martinez as Pablo
• Alex O'Dogherty as Malek
• Ander Pardo as Miguel
• Gary Piquer as Detective Izar
• Iman Nazemzadeh as Tomas
• Naike Rivelli as Elena
• Lindsay Caroline Robba as Lisa
• Martxelo Rubio as Police Officer
• Enrique Zaldua as Detective / Police Officer

Production

The film was shot in Spain from October to November 2006^[4] under the working title Mamba in Getxo, Sopelana, Mundaka, Vizcaya, País Vasco and Madrid.^[5] The movie has been picked up for distribution by Voltage Pictures and will be released in 2009. The official trailer and poster were released on February 26, 2008.^[6]

Curiously, this movie has not been released in Spain yet.

Soundtrack

The rock band Showpay recorded seven songs for the soundtrack, and shot a music video in which their members played "Mamba" and died. The soundtrack has been composed by Fernando Orti Salvador and recorded in Bratislava with the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Hernando.

http://www.fernandoorti.es/http___www.fernandoorti.es/EXTRAS/Entradas/2010/4/14_Proyectos.html

Release

The film premiered on Syfy on 19 September 2009.^[7] Lionsgate released the DVD on 23 February 2010.^[8] The UK DVD was released on 15 February 2010 over Icon Home Entertainment.^[9]

Mamba board game

In the movie's universe, the fictional game's board and pieces were made from the skin and body of a witch named Mamba Mosamba who was tried, convicted and executed of witchcraft during the Spanish Inquisition under Torquemada. The game consists of a wooden case with a dragonfly motif, a board with sequential spaces laid out in a spiral, an instruction sheet, small wooden playing pieces, two dice, a set of cards, and a central tower with two snakes and a dial.

The object of the game is for a player to get their playing piece to the center space, and then place that piece in the correct snake's mouth. Spaces are either safety spots known as "Windows of Heaven" or spaces with Grim Reapers shown known as "Open Graves", which cause the player to draw a card. If the card is an Epitaph (a card with the words Vae Victis written below), the player who drew it is dead. If the card is not an Epitaph card, that player is safe.

Even if all but one player is dead, that player must continue playing until they reach the center. They do not need to reach the center space by exact count. Once there, they must ask the tower one question and place the playing piece in either the mouth of the black snake Spatium (Space) or of the white snake Tempus (Time). If they choose correctly, their wish comes true. If they choose wrongly, they suffer the same fate as the witch: being skinned alive. Even if they choose correctly, the wish does not come true until all the players are dead from the effects of the Epitaph cards drawn during the game.

References

1. ^ Sexy Cover Art for Lionsgate's Open Graves
2. ^ Variety reports Open Graves
3. ^ Spanish Newspaper 20minutos visits the Open Graves set
4. ^ http://www.truefan-eliza.com/film/m-og.html
5. ^ Spanish Laguiatv.com visit the set
6. ^ Hoycinema.com visit the set
7. ^ Syfy fall schedule
8. ^ Lionsgate Set to Open Graves
9. ^ UK Set to Discover Open Graves

External links

• Open Graves at the Internet Movie Database