GRAVES END

US, 2005, 90 minutes, Colour.
Eric Roberts, Steven Williams, Daniel Roebuck, Valerie Mikita, Fairlie Tull, Skye Soleil.
Directed by James Marlowe.

Graves End is a low-budget thriller, the kind that goes straight to television or DVD. It is the kind of film that its star, Eric Roberts, has made for over twenty years, a great number of them.

Here Roberts plays a wealthy man whose baby was kidnapped and then found dead. His killer is freed on technicalities. He himself had gone with the ransom money and failed to stop the kidnappers. In the meantime, an FBI agent, played by Steven Williams, comes to investigate. He had been in charge of the kidnapping proceedings. He recognises that the local sheriff is a man who was involved in an anger incident as a policeman and relegated to this town.

The agent seems to be a model of upright justice. However, halfway through the film, it emerges that he is the mastermind of the kidnapping and the failure of the court case. His psychotic accomplice, Skye Soleil, comes to join him in the search for the ransom money which was buried. In the meantime, the people of Graves End welcome criminals after they have been released from the justice system – and then they disappear. They had killed the kidnapper when he returned to the town.

The plotline is interesting in itself, with the touch of intrigue, especially with the revelation of the agent as the villain. However, there is rather a great deal of indulgence in some brutal and violent sequences and some irrelevant sexual scenes involving the wife of Eric Roberts.

However, this is one of those undemanding films that people can let their brains go and just simply relax and enjoy.

1.The popularity of this kind of thriller? For television? For DVD release?

2.The mystery, the kidnapping, the town and its killing of criminals? The blackmailing schemes? Murders, vengeance, violence?

3.The town, remote? The mansion owned by the Graves family? The sheriff’s office? The downbeat motel and Maudie in charge, her flirtatious behaviour, her contact with Tag and giving information?

4.The kidnapping, the visualising of it? Tag and his wife, tag going with the money, his being beaten, the money disappearing? His wife not forgiving him? The finding of the child dead and tortured?

5.The sheriff, his background, telling his story, his friendship with the doctor? His meeting Rickman, Rickman recognising him? His trying to do the right thing? To intervene? The threats to Tag, his going out to the mansion, his being welcomed? His final interventions?

6.Rickman, his arrival, the dapper FBI agent? Maudie and her behaviour? His visiting the family, the clash with Tag? His investigations? Coming to the house, the phone call to Tadesco, linking up with Billy? The revelation that he was the mastermind? His cruelty? His killing of Tadesco? The search for the money, Tag and his being wounded, his failing, his death?

7.Krissi, her relationship with the worker, going into town, the note giving him permission to spend money, it being found by Billy and his using it? Her involvement in the final confrontations?

8.Billy, mad, his killing the repair workers, coming to the house, infiltrating? Linking up with Rickman? His being wounded, his pursuing Krissi throughout the house, her using her wits against him? His death?

9.The kidnapper, his being let off the charge because of technicalities, his return to the town, the sequences with the town people confronting him, the assumption that Tag killed him the revelation about the doctor? His burial?

10.The doctor, friendly with the sheriff, friendly with Tag – and his role in the lynch-law behaviour of the people?

11.Tadesco, the lawyer, double-dealings, his part in the plot, his death?

12.The character of Tag, wealthy, his place in the town, audiences assuming that he was the mastermind of the killings? His being wounded, almost dying? The revelation that he was not the leader?

13.The brutality of some of the sequences – too visual and visceral for this kind of film or not?

14.The popular ingredients for an easy thriller entertainment?