Grave Encounters 2

*½ / *****

Yet another found footage paranormal film, a sequel to Grave Encounters, a minor hit when it was released. Film school brats (director, camera operators, boom mike operator, babe co-host) decide to return to the setting of Grave Encounters, a mission wannabe director, Alex (Richard Harmon; about as expressive as a corpse with personality to match), is obsessed over due to his inability to locate anyone who worked on that film alive besides the producer (in Hollywood still making poo product to shit upon the marketplace). When he confronts the producer (after a mysterious "call sheet" tells him of the producer's latest project and location), Alex is at first met with security and kicked out. However, later the producer agrees to a disclosed, private talk in his office, but Alex records his admittance of knowledge in the loss of everyone who worked on Grave Encounters. So Alex, inspired by a curiosity most timid and fearful folks would avoid, is adamant about driving to Vancouver where the (real) mental institution is located where the first film was shot. Contacted by someone who calls himself "Death Awaits", Alex hopes this know-it-all (he seems to live not far from the location and knows a lot of information and history on the place) will provide the goods to help him develop his documentary/horror film school project. What the group encounter is far more real than they could have possibly imagined.


Yawn. This bored me to tears. Running through the clichés, the group runs into (and from) pale spectres with faces that distort and elongate, a "spiritual vortex" that opens from one of the walls, rooms and doorways that vanish with walls replacing them, bodies pulled away while attempting to evade the evil wanting to gain control over them, characters freaking out with the typical bickering and tears, human darkness in the aftermath of the building's terrorizing of those trapped with its walls, a lunatic the group comes across that has been stuck in the building for nine years (the beard, rags for clothes, matted long hair, propensity to eat things only desperate starving individuals would, repetitive pieces of sentenced words while talking to himself, and restless confusion), and levitating objects and people.

If your expectations are low, and you just like what the film provides, purposely looking for this kind of usual paranormal fare, Grave Encounters 2 might keep your attention and hold onto your interest until its conclusion. I believe the proclamation--"We are going to die in here"--was made five times. Weeping and concern over no escape are the norm. There's even a "false escape" that seems to indicate that some of our heroes are able to remove themselves from the building only to take an elevator located elsewhere right back to the institution, creating a sense of hopelessness and despair. Sean Rogerson (the paranormal show host in the first film) wears out his welcome not long after he appears. His batshit crazy routine grated on my nerves fairly quickly.

 

It starts with a college party as drunken college kids enjoy themselves during a costume Halloween shindig, and immediately I wasn't looking forward to spending time with the characters introduced to us. Alex is a cold, aloof oddball that is fortunate enough to have a nice-looking lead actress in his no-budget horror film school project (which is basically a re-hash of horror fare such as the slasher film and torture film), named Jennifer (Leanne Lapp) who has feelings for him. Alex's obnoxious buddy, Trevor (Dylan Playfair), is always emerging because of his association with the director, a small camcorder sometimes used to get a different perspective through a different person's lens. Also included in the gang is another camera operator, Jared Lee (Howard Lai) and hottie boom mike operator, Tessa (Stephanie Bennett). You get what you expect: numbers dwindle as the fun and games come to a screeching halt thanks to an out-of-control "spirit board" that levitates off the ground after a little bit of Ouija play gets out of hand and the appearances of ghouls chasing after them. Characters not taking their project seriously, living it up and goofing off, have a tendency to leave a bad taste, so when they soon encounter spirits at unrest, there's that thought that pops up, "They are just getting what's coming to them." Eventually Alex makes a decision to save his own skin that alerts to us that he's a cretin willing to resort to despicable lengths.

Some potent violence like a camera smashing a face in, a person lifted off the floor and tossed out a window by an invisible presence (and especially where it lands and the later appearance of him on the hood of a car), a slow and devastating strangulation as the victim's face and eyes asphyxiate, a security guard's frying through electrical shock before bursting into flames, and the eating of a rat are included with the ghosts and haunted building shenanigans to satiate the audience looking for both.

I can imagine that many a horror fan will see the film sitting on a shelf in the horror section or come across the title in Netflix and give it a shot because it will look like a creepy time to be had, but I don't endorse the effort to go out of your way to find and see it unless you just like the Paranormal Activity type films. Paranormal found-footage completists are sure to get something out of this, I imagine. Like the zombie genre before it, found footage has popped up countless product over the years and eventually all these movies (the demon possession/paranormal stuff) start to look and feel the same. Because cost to make them are low compared to what Hollywood spends millions on these days, horror filmmakers see found footage as a way through the door. Opportunities are few and far between, so when options are limited but available, filmmakers take them when they get them. I guess the GE films are an example of this.