Grave Halloween (2013) - SYFY Halloween Month Movie

 Each year, either for punishment or amusement, I watch at least one SYFY movie. They are typically lousy, and I didn't feel "Grave Halloween" (2013) was any different. Maiko (Kaitlyn Leeb) leaves her foster parents in San Francisco to find her birth mother's body in the Suicide Forest (Aokigahara), a seemingly vast wilderness in Japan (at the bottom of Mt. Fuji) where folks go to die...by their own hand, it would seem, for the majority of them. Maiko has a documentary crew, with "director" and friend, Amber (Cassi Thomson), sound mic operator, Terry (Dejan Loyola), and replacement camera operator, Kyle (Graham Wardle), following her on this journey for a special project. Three goofballs (Jeffrey Ballard, Jesse Wheeler, and Tom Stevens) they know later prank scare them -- Ballard wears a mask over his head and pretends to be hanging from a rope, freaking Leeb out -- with an older Japanese man found in the woods, Jin (Hiro Kanagawa), warning them not to disrespect the seriousness of the beliefs and customs often associated with the location. When a watch is found on Wheeler's obnoxious goof, Jin pretty much condemns him, even if he claims he didn't steal it. There are two cops tasked with removing suicide victims they encounter, warning them to get out of the woods, while Jin insists they also leave...or else.

Some of the (not so) special effects are quite unspectacular including the corpses of suicides hanging from ropes emit this bright light and white cloud before eventually emerging as decaying spirits that can move about the forest as they please. They can grab you with their hair -- right out of "The Grudge" or "Ringu" it would seem -- and rip your arms off. Ropes can just appear and hang you. Jin appears as perfectly human, if a bit odd, and later a ghoul (his body found in a police station cooler with other corpses, as Maiko and Kyle are taken their by cops, one of whom is later carried by some kind of "spirit wind") telling one of the goofs his bad behavior warranted his doom. Maiko's mother was actually disturbed, responsible for the pick axe murder of her sister. This led to Maiko being sent away. The mom actually mauls Kyle and snaps his neck as Maiko begs her not to. I'm not really sure how all this spirit forest business works but cursed ghouls seem to exist within this as a sort of limbo realm, popping up every now and then. So despite being set in Japan, you can really tell this is Canada. The bizarre and silliest death sequence involves flies exploding out of Amber's mouth into Terry's face, "battering" him until his face is mush...I seriously don't understand the reason why flies had anything to do with the forest. I thought the flashback that emerges in Maiko's mind, unlocked by her experience in the forest, really is reminiscent of "The Grudge". I have noticed viewers bring up "The Blair Witch Project" as well when describing the film's setting. The characters do get lost in the woods and seem to be walking around in circles. And the trees reach way up high and the camera captures them as if getting lost in the forest could be less than ideal. Yet, the setting is breathtaking and idyllic even as it is claustrophobic, all encompassing, and far reaching. Lots of tripping, folks getting split up, and specters at a distance, gone in a flash. The Halloween part of the film doesn't really mean a whole lot since a majority takes place in the Suicide Forest. 

Leeb has a lot of closeups. And I can't blame the director at all since she's a stunning, beautiful woman. Even if her character gives off this loneliness, this forlorn sense of rejection, hoping that finding her mother will give her some sort of peace and allow her to come to terms with the woman who seemed to have abandoned her. Too bad, this journey proved to be anything but a success. 1.5/5