Grave
Halloween (2013/Anchor Bay DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: D Film: C-
Grave
Halloween delivers an interesting premise and a strong first act
but falls short and ends up being just another second rate ghost
movie. It also has little to do with Halloween and could have
truthfully been set on Thanksgiving for what its worth.
The
story is about a group of Americans in Japan that venture into a
forest that is known for the high number of suicides that have been
taking place there. Maiko (played by the beautiful Kaitlyn Leeb) is
there to return her dead mother's belongings and to perform a
ceremony to grant the spirit of her dead mother final rest. Though
the evil forest seems to be unending and plays tricks on those who
venture inside not to mention cooks up plenty of strange characters
and bizarre hallucinations, Maiko is haunted by hallucinations and
determined to find an answer to her bizarre childhood.
Choosing
a tight knit group of friends and an outside film major with a
camera, they decide to document the search for the truth behind
Maiko's mom's mysterious death and to help document the truth behind
the creepy sight.
There
are plenty of deaths and supernatural horrors in the film to keep the
casual horror moviegoer interested but the special effects never
quite deliver and the makeup feels pretty generic for the paranormal
involved. The ending scene of the film is pretty predictable too so
don't expect to have your life changed by watching this film.
Some
of the special effects like flies buzzing out of wide mouthed ghosts
or spirits being sucked from corpses feel pretty CG. There are
scenes where buckets of rain shower down on our main characters in a
very stylized fashion and lightning strikes more than it ever should
in real life with no explanation.
Sound
and Picture on the disc are standard for the format with a standard
definition transfer preserving the original anamorphic-enhanced
widescreen aspect ratio in 2.35:1. The sound isn't bad either for
the format and is a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track.
No
extras on the disc.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv
