Review by CJ

Director:
Hunter Adams

Starring:
Samantha Isler, Ted Levine, Danny Goldring, Troy Ruptash, Mark Lancaster, Dean Evans

Other notable appearances:
Ryan Kitley, Ben Schneider, Kara Zediker, Gabriel Cain

Running time:
85 minutes

Watch this if you liked:
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, The Woman in Black

Jake (Isler) misses her recently deceased brother dearly. So much so that she begins to consider a strange offer made by local moonshiners. An offer that will change how she sees herself and the world forever.

Dig Two Graves has some great ideas behind the story. I was fascinated by the idea that this young girl had to make an actual life or death choice and the way she chose to go in the end.

What Dig Two Graves doesn’t have, in this reviewers humble opinion, is the direction, acting talent or editing prowess to make the story live up to its potential.

Despite the great story idea, I found myself quite bored throughout Dig Two Graves. There were lots of statement shots that didn’t add anything to the film except time that could have been better spent creating likeable or interesting characters.

Frankly, my dear, I didn’t give a damn about what happened to any of the characters. Neither the writing or portrayals gave me any reason to care what happened to them. The only almost likeable character is Jake’s grandfather who is portrayed by Ted Levine but he is merely 2.5 dimensional compared to the other characters who remain stuck at 2 dimensions.

Dig Two Graves is spliced together in a way that feels choppy. In some films a sudden stop start motion fits and is executed well, but in Dig Two Graves it is distracting and doesn’t flow.

Overall, if you’re going to bring uninteresting characters into a film of this nature, there needs to be a lot more suspense, action or scares than Dig Two Graves has to offer. If you love arthouse films or have a lot of patience then the story is worth a look, but otherwise I would give Dig Two Graves a miss.

Rating:

“We can bring your brother back to life, but somebody has to take his place.”