‘Just when you thought it was over… they found more footage’
Grave Encounters 2 is a 2012 Canadian-American horror film directed by John Poliquin from a screenplay by The Vicious Brothers (It Stains the Sands Red; Extraterrestrial).
The film was shot in found footage style, like its predecessor, and follows a group of devoted fans who break into the same psychiatric hospital to investigate whether the events of the previous film actually happened, quickly becoming the targets of the hospital’s malevolent entities.
Plot:
For people who don’t believe the events of Grave Encounters, film student Alex Wright is out to prove them wrong. Alex is as obsessed with the first film as the 20 million people who viewed its viral trailer on YouTube.
While he and his friends research the events and visit the real psychiatric hospital depicted in the original film, they find themselves face-to-face with unspeakable evil, banking on the hope that their knowledge of the original film will help them survive the sequel…
Reviews:
“The setting is still creepy, and the scares work for the most part, but “Grave Encounters 2″ feels too familiar and repetitive, and relies too much on the success of its predecessor, plus, it’s further let down by its messy, boring and often nonsensical third act.” CineMarvellous!
“The end result is a total mess that can’t decide what it wants to be — standard “mockumentary” fare, limp horror/comedy hybrid, or homage to other (and better) flicks […] This movie simply ran out of ideas at about the 30 minute mark, but kept going for 90-plus, anyway.” Trash Film Guru
“Poliquin maintains the approach, look and feel of the original Grave Encounters but layers in his own style and imagery. He manages to make the film both familiar and fresh. The cast is equally impressive and authentic providing a realism the film requires to sell its meta-inspired film about a film concept. They are believable restrained characters, admirable for their drive while still obnoxious enough to be college film students.” Horror News
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“It doesn’t bother to make the film students feel like real film students, or even real human beings, opting instead for the usual movie wonks who are defined by their archetypal characteristics: The brain, the shrinking violet, the slut, the horndog. The characters are so off-putting, it makes most of the scares dissipate.” Crave Online
” …the pacing is brisk, arguably too much so; there’s little breathing room in the script for the kind of atmospherics that made first pic effective despite its paucity of novel ideas. As a result, Grave Encounters 2 isn’t particularly frightening; nor does it elaborate on the original’s backstory in any way that suggests further sequels will unlock a larger mystery, a la the Paranormal Activity series.” Dennis Harvey, Variety
Cast and characters:
- Richard Harmon as Alex Wright, a university student and filmmaker who becomes obsessed with the previous film.
- Leanne Lapp as Jennifer Parker, a fellow student who is in love with Alex.
- Sean Rogerson as himself/Lance Preston, who survived the events of Grave Encounters, but has gone insane after being trapped in the hospital for nine years.
- Dylan Playfair as Trevor Thompson, Alex’s best friend and cameraman.
- Stephanie Bennett as Tessa Hamill, Jennifer’s friend.
- Howard Lai as Jared Lee, Alex’s second cameraman and Tessa’s boyfriend.
- Sean Tyson as the guard stationed at the hospital.
- Ben Wilkinson as Jerry Hartfield, the producer of Grave Encounters.
- Arthur Corber as Doctor Arthur Friedkin, a doctor at Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital.
- Brenda McDonald as Mrs Rogerson.
- Collin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz as the Vicious Brothers, the directors of Grave Encounters.
- Dalila Bela as Kaitlin, a former patient at Collingwood.
- Roy Campsall as the emaciated demon.
- Melissa Valvok and Brenda Anderson as nurse demons.
- Dale Hall (IV) as an operated patient.
- Maddox Valvok as an infant.
- Merwin Mondesir (uncredited cameo) as himself/T.C. Gibson, the cameraman for Grave Encounters.
- Mackenzie Gray (uncredited cameo) as himself/Houston Grey, the psychic for Grave Encounters.
- Juan Riedinger (uncredited cameo) as himself/Matt White, the technical expert for Grave Encounters.
- Ashleigh Gryzcko (uncredited cameo) as herself/Sasha Parker, an occult specialist for Grave Encounters.
- Reese Alexander and Meeshelle Neal as Los Angeles police officers.
