Open Graves
Encyclopedia
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.
Cut to now, the old game "Mamba", falls into the hands of a group of students. (They receive it from a man who lost his brother to the game, he was skinned alive.) After a good day of surf and a celebration in which the main character, Jason, meets a young surfer named Erica, 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. Just the ramblings of the man who sold them the game. 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 they draw say. One, is killed after falling off a cliff and became tangled in barbed wire. Another is killed after recklessly driving, due to the fear of the game.
The survivors (Jason and Erica), 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".
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.
Jason and Erica continue to play the game even after their final friend dies by being shot in the head by the mad man who is after the game as well in order to receive the wish. As Erica and Jason continue to play, Jason wins as Erica draws her final card that tells how she will die. Jason then must decide which snake head to place his playing piece in, in order to win. 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 in the way in which the card determined. She re-reads her card to learn her fate and after Jason falls asleep, she returns to the water she loves so well, only to drown. Jason then 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 appears. Her appearance frightens the man off. Strangely enough Mamba has taken on the form of Erica mixed with a piece of each of her victims and a combination of animals. 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.
, Sopelana
, Mundaka
, Vizcaya
, País Vasco and Madrid
. 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.
Curiously, this movie has not been released in Spain yet.
http://www.fernandoorti.es/http___www.fernandoorti.es/EXTRAS/Entradas/2010/4/14_Proyectos.html
on 19 September 2009. Lionsgate released the DVD on 23 February 2010. The UK DVD was released on 15 February 2010 over Icon Home Entertainment.
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.
2009 in film
The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, directed by Álvaro de Armiñán and written by Bruce A. Taylor and Roderick Taylor, the film stars Eliza Dushku
Eliza Dushku
Eliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress known for her television roles, including recurring appearances as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse...
, Mike Vogel
Mike Vogel
Michael James "Mike" Vogel is an American actor and former fashion model. Vogel began acting in 2001, and has since appeared in several films and series, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Grind, Poseidon, and Cloverfield.-Early life:Vogel was born in...
, Naike Rivelli and Lindsay Robba.
Plot
In the medival era, a witch named Mamba is tortured and skinned alive in punishment for her crimes. Her skin and organs are then used to make a cursed game in which the object is to win the game and receive a wish, or be skinned alive like Mamba.Cut to now, the old game "Mamba", falls into the hands of a group of students. (They receive it from a man who lost his brother to the game, he was skinned alive.) After a good day of surf and a celebration in which the main character, Jason, meets a young surfer named Erica, 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. Just the ramblings of the man who sold them the game. 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 they draw say. One, is killed after falling off a cliff and became tangled in barbed wire. Another is killed after recklessly driving, due to the fear of the game.
The survivors (Jason and Erica), 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".
Jason (Mike Vogel
Mike Vogel
Michael James "Mike" Vogel is an American actor and former fashion model. Vogel began acting in 2001, and has since appeared in several films and series, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Grind, Poseidon, and Cloverfield.-Early life:Vogel was born in...
), 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.
Jason and Erica continue to play the game even after their final friend dies by being shot in the head by the mad man who is after the game as well in order to receive the wish. As Erica and Jason continue to play, Jason wins as Erica draws her final card that tells how she will die. Jason then must decide which snake head to place his playing piece in, in order to win. 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 in the way in which the card determined. She re-reads her card to learn her fate and after Jason falls asleep, she returns to the water she loves so well, only to drown. Jason then 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 appears. Her appearance frightens the man off. Strangely enough Mamba has taken on the form of Erica mixed with a piece of each of her victims and a combination of animals. 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.
Cast
- Eliza DushkuEliza DushkuEliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress known for her television roles, including recurring appearances as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse...
as Erica/Mamba - Mike VogelMike VogelMichael James "Mike" Vogel is an American actor and former fashion model. Vogel began acting in 2001, and has since appeared in several films and series, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Grind, Poseidon, and Cloverfield.-Early life:Vogel was born in...
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 NazemzadehIman NazemzadehEthan Rains is an Iranian-American actor, best known for his portrayal of Dr. Leo Julian on the second season of SOAPnet's General Hospital: Night Shift, a 13-episode prime time spin-off of the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital.Rains' brother Dominic Rains had played the role in the series'...
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 under the working title Mamba in GetxoGetxo
Getxo is a town located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the north of Spain.It is part of the metropolitan area of Bilbao , and has about 83,000 inhabitants...
, Sopelana
Sopelana
Sopelana is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain....
, Mundaka
Mundaka
Mundaka is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. On the coast, Mundaka is internationally-renowned for its surfing scene....
, Vizcaya
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...
, País Vasco and Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. 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.
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 SyfySyfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
on 19 September 2009. Lionsgate released the DVD on 23 February 2010. The UK DVD was released on 15 February 2010 over Icon Home Entertainment.
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 InquisitionSpanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
under Torquemada
Tomás de Torquemada
Tomás de Torquemada, O.P. was a fifteenth century Spanish Dominican friar, first Inquisitor General of Spain, and confessor to Isabella I of Castile. He was described by the Spanish chronicler Sebastián de Olmedo as "The hammer of heretics, the light of Spain, the saviour of his country, the...
. 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
Vae victis
Vae victis is Latin for "Woe to the vanquished " or also "Woe to the conquered "....
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.