It's fairly common to see B-and-below-movies with a decent script and some good ideas, but lacking in resources that turn out a disaster. The Graves on the other hand seems to have plenty of resources to hire established actors and get good equipment, but script and direction are lacking.
Two sisters, one very dominant over the other, end up driving around Arizona, stop at a diner, and decide to go visit the local ghost town and mines. As soon as they get there some guy kills a tourist. The girls run and are found since their chaser is always nearby no matter how fast they run and how slow he walks, but then they kill the killer. Only to meet his brother who's just as crazy. They have to run and hide from him. One oddity is that all the killed people are attacked by a swarm of flies.
Later we find out that the town is under the yoke of some crazy pastor who sacrifices all these tourists to "the savior" which is the swarm of flies, for the sake of the town's prosperity. Ultimately, the girls will have to confront the town people, but a strange thing happens in the relationship between the town and the savior.
The Graves has an impressive cast- our two very attractive leads, and horror icons Todd and Moseley. The movie looks great, is mostly filmed during the day, the colors are gorgeous. Eventually of course as things unfold, they happen at night. Locations are also excellent. And the movie is also pretty gory at times and those scenes are also very well made.
The story, though, is remarkably unfinished. So many things don't make sense and force the actors to do nonsensical things. But the story had potential, had a more experienced writer gotten a chance to revise it. The direction, too, isn't up to par, and you see takes that are very odd and that you don't usually see in films.
With the resources and enthusiasm they had available, the producers should have hired an additional writer and an established director and this movie could have been pretty good. As it is, it's your slightly-below average 'run and hide from a crazy redneck killer' movie, of which there are just a few too many. American horror really needs to start thinking of new ideas.
