Although Sharlto Copley's will probably always be linked to director Neill Blomkamp, having starred in District 9, Elysium, and the upcoming Chappie, he's done a pretty good landing high-minded films on his own. Earlier this year we saw him in the underrated science-fiction film Europa Report, and next month he'll take part in Spike Lee's Oldboy remake. But one film that could be the most promising of the bunch is the horror Open Grave, from Apollo 18 director Gonzalo López-Gallego.
The first trailer has been released and it suggests a major step forward for Lopez-Gallego, and boasts a very intriguing concept. Copley leads a mostly unknown cast as a man who wakes up in a shallow grave surrounded by dead bodies. He has no idea how he got there, and when he encounters others who were in the same predicament, paranoia and fear breaks out as they try to discover what's really going on. What looks like an intense psychological horror-mystery loses a little steam as what appear to be zombies (of the 28 Days Later variety) start turning up. The film opened in Italy awhile back and the reviews have been pretty average, with the major sticking point that the story unravels far too quickly.
Open Grave hits theaters here on January 3rd 2014.
