**_Craig Sheffer, Gabrielle Anwar and a hidden treasure in the sweltering rural South_**

With a name like “The Grave,” I was thinking this might have a horror/supernatural bent, but the lighthearted ‘redneck’ music right out of the gate dismissed this assumption. The beginning is reminiscent of the first act of “Runaway Train,” just switching the locale from a remote prison in the Far North to one in the Deep South. Eric Roberts even shows up for a bit part.

But, really, this is a precursor to “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, albeit more serious and tragic, not to mention with less agreeable characters. Another comparison would be “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” if it were a short ’n’ sweet Southern Gothic made thirty years later. David Gordon Green’s “Undertow” (2004) is yet another parallel, but this isn’t as solemn or artsy. There’s a hint of amusement, but it never devolves into a comedy.

While it’s not a mind-blowing masterpiece like “Runaway Train,” it’s at least on par with the other three and better in my opinion; in some ways anyway. Perhaps the best thing about it is its unpredictability. I walked away thinking, “I’ve never seen this movie before,” which means it's original, a hard-to-find quality these days. I don’t want to say more because it’s best to go in this knowing as little as possible.

It’s undeservedly obscure, but worth checking out if what I said piques your interest.

It runs 1h 27m and was shot in Jun-Jul 1995 in the swampy woodsy flatlands of eastern North Carolina by the Cape Fear River between Erwin and Wilmington.

GRADE: B+