The Writer's Life 10/18 - Open Grave

Open Grave (2013) was another of those titles arriving from Netflix that puzzled me. I’d probably added it to my list, months ago, because it‘s rating was decent. Given the title, it was obviously a thriller. I was pleasantly surprised. It combines horror, mystery and sci-fi, and features creepiness rather than gore. The premise is simple: four men and two women find themselves in an isolated area where dead bodies abound, and five have no memory of how they got there. The other is a mute who doesn’t speak English. The main problem with such fare is the resolution. I was pleased that it actually made sense. Is the film perfect? Hardly. There are elements that remain a mystery, although they are open to interesting speculation. The cast is fine. Although all six have significant credits, I recognized only two: Thomas Kretschmann, who has logged 118 credits including being the ship’s captain in King Kong (2005); and Erin Richards, currently playing Jim Gordon’s fiance in Gotham. Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, a Spaniard, did double duty as director and editor. I was unfamiliar with his previous work, most of which was done in his homeland. Eddie and Chris Borey wrote the screenplay, the third from the former, first from the latter. I’d be interested to see what they come up with next. 15,000+ users at IMDb forge to a rating of 6.3 of ten. I say 3.4 of five. Most of those who posted in the commentary section were negative, overly harsh. It is certainly above average for this kind of flick. I did not pause the DVD once during its 1:42 running time. Fans who prefer gore would probably be disappointed.

My thanks to the young man who purchased three thrillers, and to the grateful woman who overpaid for Estoy Bien by JJ Benitez. I just visited its Amazon page, which is a blend of Spanish and English, and discovered it's about communicating with the dead. It is listed under the category: Ciencia ficción y fantasía. Born in Pamplona, Spain, where The Running of the Bulls takes place, the author, 68, has more than 50 books in print, fiction and non. As far as I could tell from the list of credits at his Wiki page, he writes exclusively in his native tongue. The aforementioned work is his latest, published this year. Arriba!

Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/rP7o9

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/