Rent Grave Encounters 2 (2012)

Grave Encounters 2 review by Alyse Garner - Cinema Paradiso

Following the success of the first Grave Encounters, a found footage haunted house horror, the film makers have obviously decided it’s a formula worth recreating and have done so here, with little shame or any attempt to disguise the grab for money.

A film student, obsessed with the original Grave Encounters movie, decides to visit the psychiatric hospital visited by the now dead and/or missing crew of the hit TV show “Grave Encounters” in the first movie.

As expected, it is an unpleasant experience not dissimilar to the one depicted in the first movie. And therein lies the key problem with Grave Encounters 2.

During my viewing of Grave Encounters 2 I found myself torn regarding the tone and nature of the movie, at first I expected an homage to the original, similar but perhaps explored with a new vision or a semblance of personal devotion – much in the same way that directors such as Tarantino have played homage to various films and genres in their work – of this there was no sign. Obviously the writers lack the depth and insight to be able to pull off such a feat. This then left me with spoof or copycat, and to this day I’m still not entirely sure which I think it is.

There are incidents that look so uncannily like those of the first movie that you could swear they saved filming time by reusing the footage, whilst there are other incidents where you find the clichés so well avoided in the first movie and indulged in with such abundance that the film makers couldn’t possibly think this was a serious movie. And yet, according to most of what I’ve read, they do.

Audiences disagree however, where the first was applauded for its character depth the second lacks any real believability and is little more than a series of violent and vaguely mysterious acts that mirror the far more popular original.