THE GRAVE (1996) A "Turkey of the Week" film review by Justin Felix. Copyright 1998 Justin Felix.
Rating: *** (out of five)
Story by Jonas Pate, Josh Pate, Michael Wexler, Peter Glatzer. Screenplay by Jonas Pate and Josh Pate. Directed by Jonas Pate. Starring Craig Scheffer, Gabrielle Anwar, Josh Charles. Rated R (contains violence and profanity) 90 mins.
Synopsis: A raspy-voiced prisoner about to be executed tells a priest a story about a bunch of exconvicts, parolees, and crooked cops who plunder graves to find the key to a fortune.
Comments: THE GRAVE runs like a movie-length episode of "Tales from the Crypt." Whether or not you like this movie would depend largely upon whether or not you like the gory antics, which are often played humorously, of the Cryptkeeper's comic book stories. It's certainly not for everyone. THE GRAVE, like one of those fables from "Tales from the Crypt," features dumb-as-rocks, surreal characters who greedily screw each other over to gain treasure. The plot's mystery is laughably, almost painfully, obvious. The humor, dark as it is, comes from watching despicable characters bumble around, trying to figure out things which normal people would easily grasp. One must throw realism out the door to appreciate a movie like this.
THE GRAVE, once the shadowy narrator has begun the tale, opens in North Carolina. Upon hearing about a grave which holds the key to buried treasure, two convicts escape their prison and trek around the countryside in a mini-odyssey to get to this grave. One of them doesn't make it far due to a gunshot wound. In the meantime, a number of dimwitted characters come in and out of the picture. Each one has a remarkedly disgusting tale to tell, but most of them, surprisingly, have something rather insightful to say somewhere in their blatherings.
The storyline, though inconceivably unrealistic (the convicts, for example, *easily* escape prison and hang out in obvious places which authorities would check out), plays out interestingly enough. The secret of the grave is comically apparent even though it takes three moonlit trips to the graveyard for the bad guys to figure it out. The mystery of the narrator's identity will keep most people guessing until it's revealed at the end, though.
The actors do a suitable job for a film of this nature. They seem universally unappealing, which is exactly how they should be viewed. The attractive B-movie actress Gabrielle Anwar does a particularly nice job portraying the smarmy girlfriend of one of the convicts. Veteran film actors Anthony Michael Hall and Eric Roberts also put in enjoyable performances here.
Even if one likes films of this genre (a suspense film, bordering on comedy, populated by anti-heroes in darkly cartoonish situations), he would find faults with this movie. Some of the scenes which try to be morbidly humorous fall flat. Plus, the exaggerated country / Southern dialects become tired at times and prove hard to follow at other times.
All in all, however, THE GRAVE is an entertaining cheap turkey for those who like black comedy. Between the goofy hick characters and the soundtrack (a catchy, eclectic mix of fiddles, banjos, guitars, mandolins, and harmonicas), it seems somewhat unique. I'll give it a qualified, passing recommendation.
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