Grave Encounters 2 Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After giving a negative review to the first "Grave Encounters" on his blog, a film student is contacted by a mysterious individual regarding the reality of the first film's events.

Review: After the surprisingly successful first entry, was this sequel able to live up to the original? Not a chance. Just like the first film, they continue with a found-footage style even though it is not fully realized in this instance which is noticed especially by the end. I was greatly disappointed because I really liked the first "Grave Encounters" and this film started off really strong with a somewhat original premise; the use of youtube reviews in the beginning of the actual movie is genius especially considering how effective youtube was in spreading interest in the first film! Likewise, the concept that the first film is, in fact, just a movie was creative while not entirely original and led to some interesting paths the story could go. As my plot summary suggests, the main guy, named Alex, thinks that GE sucked and was fake and is later contacted by a mysterious individual with the net handle: deathawaits6. This individual shows an alleged extended ending to the first film to entice Alex into investigating whether there was any truth to the first film. The more Alex investigates the actors, the show, the production company, etc. the more he becomes convinced that there may be truth to the notion that the movie is real. Alex then becomes borderline obsessed as he ignores his workload and his student film in favor of pursuing the truth. All of this character transition and investigating takes up about a third of the film which, while I appreciated the mystery, detracts from the scares and pacing. Eventually, Alex gathers enough evidence that the film was real with some acknowledgement from the producer and tracks down the mental hospital's location. Bringing along a bunch of friends, and cameras of course, Alex attempts to make a video blog regarding his own investigation in GE's realness at the actual hospital. At this point is when the film really falls apart as we see old scares being tread back over and introducing a nonsensical plot line that there is an overall spirit to the hospital that will only release one person if they promote more individuals to come to the hospital. The lack of new scares and an overall sense of unoriginality hurts the film drastically at the point that should have been the highlight. Alex and crew also run into Lance from the first film explaining that he has been surviving off rats in the hospital for almost a decade. I don't know how to explain it, but it's just presented so stupidly and feels out of place. Toward the end, only Alex and the girl who has a crush on him remains in which Alex kills her so that he can be the one to escape; this part was especially annoying because this whole "crush" plot line was useless and felt tacked on to add some kind of depth. The film simply ends implying Alex and the producer from the first film conspire to release a sequel that they emphasize is not real in a wannabe scary way. Eh, there were some cool moments and, like I said, the film starts off strong, but other than that, this is just a mediocre sequel that went nowhere. The acting is decent, there are some nice scenes, and it did have a decent twist at one point, but all I can say is that it was wasted potential and lost its way at some point. It's worth a view if you liked the first film, but if that didn't even do it for you, don't even think about this one,

Notable Moment: When the group meets where "deathawaits6" had said he wanted to meet within the hospital. They discover a quija board carved into a table and communicate with what appears to be the actual spirit calling itself "deathawaits6."

Final Rating: 5.5/10