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<\/a>\nThe concept behind the \u201cGrave Encounters\u201d 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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: \u201cOh f@%k!! What the \u00a0f@%k? What the \u00a0f@%k\u00a0was that? \u00a0F@%k!\u201d I think they may have been improvising. \u201cGrave Encounters 2\u201d 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 \u201chomage\u201d list is too long to list. Regardless, I will name a few.<\/strong><\/p>\n -You begin things with a raging party that resembles another recent \u201cFound Footage\u201d flick, \u201cProject X\u201d. 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n -Like \u201cThe Blair Witch Project,\u201d Alex and his friends go to investigate if the occurrences shown in the original \u201cGrave Encounters\u201d are, in fact, real. Of course all of these first person flick owe something to \u201cBlair\u201d 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n -Once at the abandoned asylum location explored in the first \u201cGrave,\u201d 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 \u201cChronicle\u201d) and, without spoiling, I will say there is death-by-camera scene that could easily attributed to the Michael Powell killer classic \u201cPeeping Tom\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n