Religious cults, ghost towns, homicidal hillbillies, stranded twenty-something year olds; Brian Pulido’s The Graves has it all, for better or worse. While The Graves doesn’t rewrite the book on any of these themes, it should be given due credit for mixing several sub-genres of modern horror into an interesting B movie that at least tries to feed horror hungry fans something new in a market of foreign remakes and glittering vamps.

The Graves (cleverly titled after the film’s protagonists and not a set of corpse cubbies) revolves around the adventures of Megan and Abby Graves, two comic book-loving, ass-kicking sisters on a last road trip before Megan (the eldest) moves from Phoenix to New York for a job opportunity.

The girls find themselves on a quest for Arizona’s oddities and stumble upon a remote desert town, whose claim to fame is the abandoned ghost town Skull City Mines. Of course in a much predicted twist in these types of movies, the town’s occupants turn out to be agents of a religious cult that kill visitors to feed their souls to some sort of creature that could have come straight from the mind of H. P. Lovecraft.

From numerous foes that range from demented priests to serial killers, it quickly becomes apparent that the occupants of Skull City Mine are prepared to have the Graves sisters as permanent guests.

The Graves is comic book author Brian Pulido’s directorial debut, and is accompanied by many first time slips and successes.

As an avid horror film lover, I understand Pulido’s desire to fit so many different themes into a story to add a little punch to an at times predictable genre. However, I felt that at times I was watching two completely different movies (both with leading scream kings). There was the religious fanatic theme starring Tony Todd as the villain; and then there was the backwoods kind of hillbilly serial killer theme starring antagonist Bill Moseley. I could see what Pulido was attempting to do with the combining of the separate themes, but overall, I found myself getting lost. Note that I am not complaining about the content of each “story” in the movie, just merely stating that two different full lengths could have been made out of the film’s intricate plot.

What makes or breaks any indie horror film are the actors and the special effects. Luckily, Pulido has enough tricks up his sleeve to make up for the moments in the film that either have mediocre acting or lack greatly in the visual “wow” department.

I felt that though not always perfect, the actors in The Graves were able to display the intensity that I believe Pulido intended for them to do in order for the film to have its overall creepy vibe. Kudos to Clare Grant and Jillian Murray for not falling completely into the “hot girls running scared” stereotype and for making their roles as tough, monster slayers believable and not a random plot twist. One scene in particular involves Grant and Murray turning the tables on a rather sinister character and moving swiftly from injured victim to completely in control of a messy situation, quite literally. Grant and Murray pull this scene, and several others like it, off very well and have this reviewer looking forward to the predicted 2012 sequel.

I had mentioned earlier that fan favorites Tony Todd (Candyman, Hatchet) and Bill Moseley (House of 1000 Corpses, Dead Air) appear in the film as two of the main villains. Both Todd and Moseley portray their characters to the greatest extremes and are able to deliver their usual top notch, scary performances that have brought them to the top of horror fans’ acting lists. Sadly it is these performances that are forced to carry the film. While the supporting cast in the film also adds to the eeriness of it all, (including an interesting though not quite captivating performance by metal frontman D. Randall Blythe from the band Lamb Of God) sadly, there is a strong sense of familiarity felt in their personalities to other film favorites. Think the Hewitt family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets the Firefly family from Rob Zombie’s films House of 1000 Corpses and The Devils Rejects.

According to the DVD and the film’s IMDB page, The Graves is rated R for bloody violence. Going into the film, I was expecting A LOT more violence than the five or six mainly off camera shots that look like they were snatched out of a TV-14 Syfy feature film. I was extremely disappointed in the effects, or lack thereof in the film. One major disappointment was the ghosts that have their souls eaten by the cult’s object of desire. They really looked like they were shot on a green screen and took away from the intended amazement of the effect.

In my opinion, the scenes were more effective when the audience heard only sounds and the action took place off camera, leaving the imagination to create true horrors. I really hope for the inevitable sequel that Pulido spends more time thinking about how his special effects will look on screen. However, do not write The Graves off completely. There are definitely some good makeup effects toward the end of the movie.

Though this review may seem negative, it is not intended to drive audiences away from an overall fun one-timer. Yes, The Graves is not perfect, but all of its imperfections are what make a B movie ultimately enjoyable to a welcome audience. Go into watching The Graves with an open mind and knowing that it will have its flaws. Nevertheless, through some great characterization, excellent scenery, and a fairly original story, The Graves manages to not dig itself into a six foot hole, and is at least worth a couple viewings.