Grave Encounters 2 Movie Review

Grave Encounters 2

                                                 

Grave Encounters 2 is a Canadian-American horror movie released in 2012. As the name suggests, it is sequel of the 2011 found footage style horror movie Grave Encounters. Like its predecessor, this movie is also shot as “unintentionally caught on tape” style. Grave Encounters 2 is directed by John Poliquin and written by The Vicious Brothers. The major roles of this movie are played by Richard Harmon, Dylan Playfair, Stephanie Bennett, Howie Lai, Leanne Lapp and Sean Rogerson. 

Grave Encounters 2 continues the story of its prequel Grave Encounters, where a group of teens become curious about the fate of the actors and crews of that movie and tries to investigate by going to that location.

A scene from the movie Grave Encounters 2

Plot:

The plot starts after 10 years from the release of Grave Encounters. A vlogger named Alex, who is also directing a horror film himself, releases video blog about the review of the movie ‘Grave Encounters’. He leads a regular teen life with his friends with partying and all other stuffs. He suspects the footage of  ‘Grave Encounters’ is real. In his youtube video, he receives a comment by a suspicious user named ‘death awaits’ who send him a number, which later on turns out to be the coordinate of a mental asylum in Canada. The name of this hospital is not given in the movie, but he learns that this is place where the ‘Grave Encounters’ shooting was done. He does some research and finds information which supports the authenticity of the movie ‘Grave Encounters’. For example, none of the crews of that movie have not worked on any movie after that one.

He becomes obsessed with it and starts to investigate more about that movie. He meets the mother of a crew to talk to that crew, but finds that the mother has gone insane and that crew is missing for last few years. Then a mysterious page gets printed on his printer which gives the schedule of the producer of Grave Encounters (whom we see at the beginning of that movie). Alex goes to meet him. At first he doesn’t want to talk to Alex about it, but later on, gives him an appointment on the next day. On that appointment, he tells Alex some secrets about the movie Grave Encounters. Alex tapes his words by a hidden camera.

Then his friends agrees to join his investigation and they goes to Canada to visit that hospital. They find the hospital as a restricted area, guarded by security guards. Being thrown out by the security guards, they brakes in that hospital at night. They set their equipment and try to communicate with the spirits. Soon they start experiencing paranormal events and like Grave Encounters, the ghosts start to kill them one by one. On their attempt to survival and getting out of that place, they find a crew of Grave Encounters alive, who seems to know some secret about that place.

My review about Grave Encounters 2:

Although I’ll not mark Grave Encounters 2 as a perfect horror movie, but anyone will agree that this movie is much better than its predecessor.  Here, the director has done praiseworthy improvement over Grave Encounters considering all the weaknesses of that one.

For start, the plot of Grave Encounters 2 is much better. Its not just a ghost-attacks-and-kill- all type of plot which is the most common plot of horror movies. The director has spent time to show the teens’ regular life and that time is well spent. The plot does not jump into neither the horror scenes nor to the main story soon after the movie starts (which we saw on Grave Encounters). The plot consists of enough non-horror parts, horror parts, finding answers, fighting for life, betrayal and success. So I’d say, the plot of Grave Encounters 2 has enough suspense to keep you attached to the movie for the whole time. And also, the plot feels more solid than the prequel. The screenplay and direction also seems better here.  

The acting and the dialogues are okay. Same goes for the make-up.

The director has successfully reduced the number of scenes where the ghost was directly seen, which has also improved the quality of Grave Encounters 2.  So here, there is less overdoing of special effects or ghost scenes like its prequel.

In my review about Grave Encounters, I wrote that the idea of a building changing itself and the idea of time stopping seemed ridiculous. But here in Grave Encounters 2, they have used the concept of the building’s changing so frequently that it seemed more normal (or less peculiar) than ago.

I liked the ending of Grave Encounters 2. Its not that it has a big twist, but the ending was not what everyone could predict. And the producer’s statements at the end seemed interesting.

Grave Encounters 2 has used it’s predecessor all over it. In every few minutes, it refers to Grave Encounters (you should have noticed how many times I’ve also used it in this review), specially on the first half. To get the complete essence of this movie, you must watch Grave Encounters first. Otherwise, you may not enjoy this movie at all.

But like it’s prequel, Grave Encounters 2 also has its weaknesses. Like, the ghost commenting on Alex’s video or using his printer to give him producer’s schedule is too much, even for fantasy.

So, overall, I’ve liked Grave Encounters 2, specially the improvement over Grave Encounters. If you have watched Grave Encounters, you must watch Grave Encounters 2, whether or not you liked the prequel.  But I’d recommend, don’t watch it without watching the prequel.    

What do you think of this movie? Let me know.

You can find my review about Grave Encounters here : Grave Encounters Movie Review.

IMDB link :IMDB Grave Encounters 2

Wikipedia link : Grave Encounters 2 wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, get the best deal here:  Grave Encounters 2 Movie

The Amityville Haunting Movie Review

The Amityville Haunting
                                                                 

The Amityville Haunting is a horror movie directed by Geoff Meed and starred by Tyler Shamy, Devin Clark and Jon Kondelik. This movie is another of the ‘found footage’ style horror film which is getting too common to be interesting (or innovative) in recent times. This movie is released in 2011.

The Amityville Haunting is the story of a family, who moves in to a new house and starts experiencing paranormal events, but the father refuses to leave the house by ignoring all the evidences.

A scene from the movie The Amityville Haunting

Plot:
The Amityville Haunting tells the story of the house of the famous horror movie  ‘The Amityville Horror’, after 30 years of the massacre. For those who doesn’t know that story, a man killed his family of 6 by being possessed by some kind of demon. Watch that movie if you are interested, that one is a good horror movie, at least, much better than this one.

The  Amityville Haunting starts with the video footage of a few teens, who brakes in that house. Then they were attacked by something (it was not shown what attacked them). Some of them got killed and the others’ fate was not shown.

Next a family comes to that house. The husband (an ex-soldier) likes the house and decides to buy it, but knowing the house’s haunted past, the wife doesn’t agree with him at first. Finally the husband convinces her by telling about the cost and other things. They have 3 children where the mid one is a boy who tapes the whole story in his handycam.

One day, the husband finds a door open in the morning which was closed on the last night. Becoming suspicious, the husband installs security cam in the house. Security cam starts to pick unusual scenes. One night, the husband finds her daughter entering through that door with a boy. The husband throws the boy out of the house and he gets killed just outside the house by some strange thing. Oh, I forgot to mention, the agent who sold the house and a one of the persons who helped them to move in this house has already died in somewhat similar way.  These deaths upset the wife and she doesn’t like the house, but the husband doesn’t seem much disturbed by these.

Anyway, the son (the middle one) gets the phone of one of the teens who entered the house and got killed, but his father doesn’t seem to understand the risk either. Then more strange things starts to happen, like the little girl starts to talk with her imaginary friend, another man gets killed, camera picks up the ghost’s image and so on. All of them want to leave the house, except the husband. Finally he gets crazy and that when the ghost hits its final blow.

My reviews about The  Amityville Haunting:
First of all, I didn’t like The Amityville Haunting at all.

We have seen a good number of these ‘found footage’ or ‘caught on tape unintentionally’ horror movies like The Amityville Haunting lately and now they are not only getting boring, but also getting irritating. Most irritating thing of all is, most of these movies are not well made, just like this one. “Paranormal Activity” is still a legend, where none of these can come near to that, even if they are made following it.

I’ve recently written a review of another movie of this kind, ‘Grave Encounters’ (you can read that here: Grave Encounters Review.). Just like that one, here in “The Amityville Haunting”, the director has totally failed to take the advantage of making a movie of this style. The ghost was seen on the screen several times, which has reduced the appeal of this movie.

A horror movie is supposed to be scary, but The  Amityville Haunting has totally failed to scare me at all.

The plot is too simple to impress. The husband’s wish to stay in this house after all these seemed unrealistic.  The acting, dialogue and the make-up were not good enough. Make-up is specially bad for the ghost. The special effects are one of the very few good sides of The Amityville Haunting, although the effect of the ghost seemed pretty cheap. But I must say, when the ghost attacked (pulled) someone, that scene looked good.

There is nudity at the beginning of the movie The Amityville Haunting, and overall, this one is not for children.

The cause of death of the husband seemed ridiculous. Watch the movie and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I have some confusion about some documents shown at the end of The Amityville Haunting. Are they original? If anyone can say anything about it, please share.

Finally, I’d say, it felt like I’ve wasted my time by watching The  Amityville Haunting  If you are looking for a good horror movie, don’t go for it. 

If you are interested,

IMDB link: The Amityville Haunting IMDB

Wikipedia link: The Amityville Haunting Wiki 

If you want to watch this movie, you can find the best deal from Amazon by clicking here: The Amityville Haunting Movie

Lockout Movie Review

Lockout

                                                   

Lockout is a science fiction action movie released in 2012. It is directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, and written by Mather, St. Leger, and Luc Besson. The major characters of this movie is played by Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, and Peter Stormare.  Don’t confuse this movie with the crime thriller ‘The Lookout’ of 2007.

The movie Lockout is about a man who is falsely alleged for a murder and then sent to a high security prison in the space, where the prisoners have become free and has taken control of the whole facility. The man's mission is to save the President's daughter.  

Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace in a scene of the movie Lookout

Plot:

Lockout tells a story of 2079. A man (maybe a spy) named Snow gets wrongly accused by secret service for killing another secret service agent and for trading confidential data. He is shown evidence that he has killed the agent, but he denies it. He is then sent to jail. But before he gets arrested, he manages to slip a briefcase (which was supposed to have the important data) to his friend, who hides it in a locker.

In the meantime, the daughter of U.S.A. president Emilie goes to visit a prison in space, referred as MS1 (for Maximum Security). She interviews a prisoner (Hydell) but during the interview, Hydell brakes free from the chains and then he frees all the prisoners in that jail. The prisoners start a riot and kill most of the security guards and officers of the prison, led by Hydell’s elder bother. They just keep some (including Emillie) alive as a bait and takes control of the whole prison.

Secret service gets informed about this situation and knows about the condition of the President’s daughter. They convinces Snow to go to a rescue mission to MS1 to bring Emilie alive out of there. Snow agrees to go there knowing his friend was in that prison.

At MS1, Emilie manages to run from the hold-up and hides in a room with her bodyguard. But as oxygen gets almost finished in that room, her bodyguard commits suicide to give her a few more minutes. After she becomes unconscious, Snow brakes in that room and takes Emilie out before the prisoners enter the room by cutting the doors.

Snow then takes Emily to a hidden place and helps her to disguise. Then they starts to look for his friend, but only to find him gone insane. Snow cannot learn anything from him about the briefcase’s location.

The next part of the movie is about Snow’s rescue mission, about his fight to get out of that prison alive, about his getting out of the things he’s accused for.

My review about the movie Lockout:

First of all, I’d say, I liked the movie Lockout.

Lockout is a pretty regular science fiction action movie which is not very rare, but this one is well made and well directed.

One interesting thing about Lockout is Guy Pearce’s dialogues. They are hilarious! Its something like the famous ‘Men in Black’ movie series, which is a serious movie itself, but the hero’s dialogues will make you laugh every now and then. Just like that, there is no comedy scene in the whole movie Lockout and Snow is a pretty badass action hero, but his dialogues are massively humorous. Although by reading this review, you may think the funny dialogues may not properly fit with a serious crime movie, but in this one, the dialogues are enjoyable and have not harmed the Lockout’s seriousness, not even a bit.

The acting of the major characters are okay in Lockout , but I won't say perfect. In a movie like this, there were opportunities and they could be better. Same goes for the make up.

The special effects are also good. There is no lack or no over-do of special effects in Lockout. 

I think the plot is the only thing which has kept Lockout away from being perfect. I mean, the plot is good, but there are a few plot-holes or weakness in this movie which has harmed the solidness of the plot. For example, the security system at the prison (MS1) seemed unrealistic. How come such a high priority prison did not have any proper isolation for the prisoners planned for a case like this? The prisoners could break free and could take control of the whole situation very easily in Lockout (for example, we saw a very good illustration of kind of similar scenario in the movie “Conair”). Someone wanted to use sleeping gas on the whole premise, but failed as the rebel leader killed him. How come there was no option to that from the control room? Snow’s identity was not shown in this movie. He could be a criminal, a spy or a secret service agent, but none of them was explained. The way Snow was plotted seemed very weak. Why the right person was on the right place on the right time is also not shown in Lockout. We also didn’t get to see how the president was put back to his post after being pulled from it.

But don’t let this confuse you, as I said, even with this weakness, the plot of Lockout is good. For the plotholes, screenplay can be blamed, but the direction was good.

Although there is no nudity in Lookout, but for violence and language this one is not a good choice for children.

So, overall, the movie Lockout  is good, if not excellent. I’d recommend it to the action movie lover. According to my guess, you may not love it, but should like it.

What do you think of the movie Lockout? Let us know in the comments.

To know more:

IMDB link: Lockout (2012)

Wikipedia link: Lockout (2012) wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon or to watch online, click here: Lockout Movie