Directed by John Poliquin and written by ‘The Vicious Brothers’, Grave Encounters brings us another dose of ghost investigation horror with its sequel Grave Encounters 2.
In Grave Encounters 2 we focus on Alex Wright (Richard Harmon- Trick R Treat), a teen away at film school, shooting movie reviews on Youtube and currently filming his own horror film. Alex reviews a film called Grave Encounters and soon starts receiving strange messages as well as offer of help with his research on the movie and asylum from an account called “DeathAwaits”. Alex becomes obsessed by the messages and goes to see the film’s producer, Jerry Harland (Ben Wilkinson), who he secretly interviews in an attempt to get behind the reality that the movie could be real as Alex believes.
Alex and his filmmaking pals Trevor (Dylan Playfair), Jennifer (Leanne Lapp), Tess (Stephanie Bennett) and Jared (Howie Lai) become compelled to find out what happened to the first video crew. They decide to shoot a documentary film for their work on the possible legitimacy of the original Grave Encounters movie.
The group travel to Vancouver Canada and arrive at Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital where a security guard turns violent, asking them to leave and trying to take their camera tapes from them. Coming back and sneaking inside after hours the group soon wish they had never came.
With more objects moving, loud thuds, hospital mazes and creepy dead asylum patients, Grave Encounters 2 delivers more than a few scares, or at least tries to. And, while the stretched out demon scream faces are getting a little bit old, I still love the look and it can give a good jump-scare when done correctly.
The start of Grave Encounters 2 is totally different to the first and I enjoyed the Youtube vlogger movie reviews which were a nice change. All the main actors are typically obnoxious teens in their characters and all did a good job in their roles.
While it hasn’t had the best reviews, I actually enjoyed Grave Encounters 2 just as much as the first. If you liked the first I think you’ll like this too. And if you didn’t like the first, you may prefer the second. Death Awaits. Step inside.
WICKED RATING: 6/10
Title: Grave Encounters 2
Director(s): John Poliquin
Writer(s): Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz (as The Vicious Brothers)
Stars: Richard Harmon, Shawn C. Phillips, Jennica Fulton
Year: 2012
Studio/ Production Co: Death Awaits Cinema, Twin Engine Films, Pink Buffalo Films
Budget: (unknown)
Language: English
Length: 95mins
Sub-Genre: Found Footage
