Grave Encounters 2 will be available VOD Oct 2nd and will be in Select Theaters Oct. 16th
The concept behind the “Grave Encounters” movies is a solid one. Take the current trend of television shows featuring faux-ghost busters traipsing around in the green-hued dark and suppose what would happen if they actually found something sinister lurking there.
While the idea is good, the execution comes up short. Amateur performances and dialogue that repeated the same thought hindered the first film. Example of repeated dialogue: “Oh f@%k!! What the f@%k? What the f@%k was that? F@%k!” I think they may have been improvising. “Grave Encounters 2” improves on the formula with tighter acting and a plot that is not as one note as its predecessor. The effects are markedly better and the frights are numerous. This time around the major flaw is lack of originality as the “homage” list is too long to list. Regardless, I will name a few.
-You begin things with a raging party that resembles another recent “Found Footage” flick, “Project X”. During the festivities, aspiring horror auteur Alex (Richard Harmon), waxes deep about the current state of the Genre. We need to get back to the basics, too much computer graphics, no one knows how to make a real horror movie anymore and etc. This seems like a statement direct from the filmmakers themselves and yet the movie goes on to rely heavily on computer graphics, looking much like all the films they are calling out. Weird.
-Like “The Blair Witch Project,” Alex and his friends go to investigate if the occurrences shown in the original “Grave Encounters” are, in fact, real. Of course all of these first person flick owe something to “Blair” but this one even has a tearful confession straight to the camera that is way too close to the one Heather Donahue delivers. Homage bordering on plagiarism.
-Once at the abandoned asylum location explored in the first “Grave,” the sequel begins pulling too heavily from the first film and nothing plays new or exciting. Cameras used to capture the footage begin to float on their own (like in the reconstructed superhero movie “Chronicle”) and, without spoiling, I will say there is death-by-camera scene that could easily attributed to the Michael Powell killer classic “Peeping Tom”.
One more. Does this poster look a little bit like the one from “Quarantine”? C’mon Guys.
And besides all of the reference and thievery to other films, “Grave Encounters 2” is set up to be repetitive by design. As the whimpering victims walk the halls of the hospital, they inevitably meet up with something scary, run away and then repeat. This happens so many times that it is impossible to separate one moment from the next.
Both films were written by The Vicious Brothers (Actually named Collin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz with no direct relation to Sid) and they do show promise. These films feel handmade with a love for the genre easily apparent. They have strong ideas and obviously have a desire to make important horror films. The “Grave Encounter” movies have yet to deliver on that promise. They have shown us who has influenced them. Now they need to make their own story that may one day inspire someone else.