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| Release: 2012, Rating: NR, Rating: 95 min. |
The next on the shaky cam, found footage plate, is the sequel to Grave Encounters, Grave Encounters 2. The movie pulls a slight Blair Witch 2 on us, by making the first movie be just that, a movie. However, it decides to spin things up a little and give a fresh idea for a sequel, albeit with way more problems than the first one….
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: A film student who is obsessed with the movie Grave Encounters sets out with his friends to visit the psychiatric hospital depicted in the original film.
The first movie, Grave Encounters, is out and the critics are rolling in with either rave reviews or harsh ones. One viewer, Alex, liked the movie, but felt it left too many questions open. It isn’t long before he gets an email from the user “Death Awaits”, who shows him a video of one of the first movies victims, Lance Preston. Alex starts investigating into the movie more and finds out maybe it isn’t a movie after all, but something entirely real. Hence, him and a group of people heading back to the asylum and checking everything out for themselves. Cue the ghosts!!
I’ll come out and say that I did enjoy Grave Encounters 2. They took a neat idea, the first movie being real and rolled with it. We got to go back to the asylum and find out what exactly happened and we also get a few surprise guests and one kick ass ghost attack. However…
The movie doesn’t lack problems. It goes overboard with the CGI, unlike the first one, which only had minimal CGI, which even then, I didn’t agree with. They must’ve got a bigger budget, as it shows in some of the effects, but they still are a little hokey. The tension does take a bit of a beating, which is understandable, as you’ll have a been there done that feeling. However, the asylum becomes even more of an enjoyable character. We get some more information on the place and I had a warm feeling of the movie Cube come up, which is always a good thing.
Sadly, things kinda fall apart come the end, where like I said above, the CGI goes into overload mode and once that happens and everything is all said and done, we get some giant plot holes. I can’t really get into the specifics, as that would spoil the shit out of everything, but I can say that there is no way certain characters would be able to do what he or she is doing at the end, without some sort of repercussions.
For being a sequel to a low budget, but highly enjoyable movie, Grave Encounters 2 manages to give us a fun sequel, that has it’s fair share of problems. Still, the scares are still present for most of the run time and we get some more enjoyable story on the best character of the movie, the asylum.
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