Grave Encounters (Franchise)

Synopsis

  The film begins with Jerry Hartfield (Ben Wilkinson) the producer of Grave Encounters, a famous ghost investigation television series. Jerry introduces the host, Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson). Hartfield explains that Grave Encounters was cancelled after the fifth episode, when the footage for episode six mysteriously went missing. The footage was finally recovered in 2010 and brought to Hartfield.

   The film stars Lance Preston, Sasha Parker, an occult specialist, Matt White, cameraman T.C Gibson and Houston Grey. They are investigating the abandoned Collingwood

My Thoughts

   I was very excited when I finally got the chance to watch Grave Encounters. When I began watching it though I could tell that I was not going to like it; but I still had hope. For a majority of the movie, nothing scary really happened. The Grave Encounters crew searched throughout the entire hospital for paranormal activity; nothing that interesting. What I did like about Grave Encounters is the parody-like humour towards their job and their audience/fans; but it did not suit the genre that this movie identifies as.

   Some of the characters in Grave Encounters were not my favourite either. Houston Grey for example, I felt as though his character was very dramatized and maybe that was the whole idea in the script for him to be like that to bring some humour into Grave Encounters, but Houston Grey was a little over the top; if he had toned it down just a little bit I might have liked his character more. Now Sasha Parker, apparently she had a lot of roles as a crew member. She was the camerawoman, she asked the spirits questions, she did a lot. I just felt as though Sasha Parker did not fit into the movie, if she was not in the movie there would not be any difference. Plus she was the weakest in the group so that did not help in my fondness of her.

   Towards the last twenty minutes of the movie is when the scare begins. Finally I got scared, yes they were cheap jump scares but I could not complain because I knew that it was all I was going to get. The angry spirits were actually the best part of the movie because I felt like they were the best characters. They were frightening but I was so bored since the beginning of the movie that when they finally did appear I was not even in the mood to jump from fear.

RATING: 1/5

Synopsis

   Film student Alex Wright and his friends want to produce a film about the original Grave Encounters movie. Alex believes that the first film was real. He posts an online plea for any information about the film and receives a message from someone named "DeathAwaits666." The message leads Alex to Lance's mother, the original movie's director, who states Lance's real name is Sean Rogerson, the actor who played Lance in Grave Encounters. She believes that Sean is still alive but they discover that she has severe dementia.

My Thoughts

   I can say that the second installment is much better than the first. The demonic entities did not take that long to make an appearance and it also did not take that long to get to the core of what Grave Encounters 2 was going to be about.

   I felt as though the first installment got too much hype which made me hate it more; and since I did not know much about Grave Encounters 2 I was not as disappointed. When I do not know much about a movie I tend to like it more because all of the scares are so unexpected.

   I liked how the Vicious Brothers brought comedy into this installment and actually involved their own name to tie everything together. It was not like any of “camp” horror film out there; it was subtle humour that did not distract from terror in the rest of the movie. I also appreciated how the Vicious Brothers tied the second installment from the first; it did not seem pushed or random from the rest of the dialog.

   Opposite from my review on the first installment of Grave Encounters; What I like the most about this installment is the characters. The characters were twisted, manipulative, vulnerable and cruel. The characters had a purpose whether they had a role in the crew or not. There was a reason for them to be in the movie; which I did not feel for some of the characters in the first installment.

RATING: 3/5

   Don’t let the demons bite or do, YOU FREAKS!!!