I guess the original title just wasn't sensational enough, so Universal slapped this moody horror remake with a corny new title and even cornier box art — you see, Nature's Grave is a near shot-for-shot remake of an Australian late-1970s cult classic called Long Weekend — in hopes of selling to the teen market. But I don't think that demographic would be interested, anyway. There's no Jonas Brother lookalike to be seen, no naked coeds in the woods, and certainly not a soul wielding a deadly hatchet or a machete.
The screenwriting credit remains the same, but the director is Jamie Blanks, who you might remember as the helmer of 1998's Urban Legend. Starring Jim Caviezel and Claudia Karvan as a bickering, crass married couple hoping to reconnect during a camping trip to a secluded beach, Nature's Grave is beautifully filmed, but its message ("Don't mess with Mother Nature!") is about as heavy and inert these days as a beached sea cow. With no new twist on this cautionary tale, it seems hardly worth the effort to remake it.
But what if you haven't seen 1978's Long Weekend? If that is the case, then Nature's Grave might be worth one dig-in. While the characters are indeed nuance-free, Caviezel and Karvan are well-cast and do the best they can teetering between sympathetic human beings and offensive intruders. The trouble begins early on when the pair, along with their mutt, pitch a tent on an ant hill and proceed to start fires, litter with abandon, poison the local wildlife, and make a general nuisance of themselves. All the while, they fight and fret.
Mother Nature can only take so much, and when She is angry… watch out, city folk! Well, I guess that really didn't need an exclamation point, because there isn't one in the movie. Nature's Grave plays out slowly and predictably, and without any massive animal attacks. But at least it looks good in its languidness; the cinematography, and especially the lighting, is really stunning — from inside a dive bar to the surging surf of Victoria, it's a gorgeous movie. The soundtrack (composed by Blank) is also lovely.
The ending is fitting (except for leaving the couple's pooch unaccounted for), and so basically the flick is adequate if you already know what it's about… but if you are hoping for The Passion of the Christ meets The Prophecy meets The Day of the Animals, you will be out of luck.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson