There can be no surer sign that a horror movie is hitting its mark when your friend whispers that the film's going to give him a heart attack. Such was the case during the screening of Mike Mendez's The Gravedancers at the 2006 edition of Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival.
Starring Prison Break's Dominic Purcell and Clare Kramer (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) the story revolves around the couple whose lives, along with those of their friends, are invaded by a trio of hostile ghosts after they engage in a drunken bout of gravedancing during a wake for an old chum.
The movie is chalk full of horror delights which, while blatant clichés, work wonderfully under Director Mendez's remarkably talented hand.
Drawing on influences such as The Entity, The Haunting of Hell House, and Poltergeist, The Gravedancers hits the pavement running with a gripping opening scene. Mendez quickly slows things down enough to build plot and characters, only to have the film pick up steam in the second act and never look back.
Mendez doesn't take long to ratchet up the atmospheric tension as things literally start to go bump in the night. Doors creek open by unseen hands. Pianos begin playing by themselves, disembodied voices are heard, shadows flit by, all to great effect. As explained by a pair of paranormal investigators (French actor Tchéky Karyo and Dawson Creek's Megahn Perry), the malevolent ghosts have one lunar cycle to extract their revenge for being pulled back to this dimension, and will grow stronger and more violent with each passing night.
I was particularly impressed by the film's makeup effects, which are some of the most horrific I've seen in decades. Mendez deployed an old-school approach by eschewing CGI (with the exception of one scene) in favor of makeup, prosthetics, and green screen matting effects, all of which render an impressively scary result.
Sure the movie isn't without its flaws. For one thing, I found the ending a bit over the top and in need of restraint. However Mendez did such a great job getting me to that point that I can easily forgive him. It's hard to make a perfect movie, and in comparison to others, the flaws in The Gravedancers are comparably minor.
If you're a horror fan, keep an eye out for this title. It's too early to tell if the studio will give it a cinematic release, or if it will go directly to DVD, but either way, you won't go wrong plunking your butt down for this one. Just make sure you're wearing clean undies.
Starring Prison Break's Dominic Purcell and Clare Kramer (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) the story revolves around the couple whose lives, along with those of their friends, are invaded by a trio of hostile ghosts after they engage in a drunken bout of gravedancing during a wake for an old chum.
The movie is chalk full of horror delights which, while blatant clichés, work wonderfully under Director Mendez's remarkably talented hand.
Drawing on influences such as The Entity, The Haunting of Hell House, and Poltergeist, The Gravedancers hits the pavement running with a gripping opening scene. Mendez quickly slows things down enough to build plot and characters, only to have the film pick up steam in the second act and never look back.
Mendez doesn't take long to ratchet up the atmospheric tension as things literally start to go bump in the night. Doors creek open by unseen hands. Pianos begin playing by themselves, disembodied voices are heard, shadows flit by, all to great effect. As explained by a pair of paranormal investigators (French actor Tchéky Karyo and Dawson Creek's Megahn Perry), the malevolent ghosts have one lunar cycle to extract their revenge for being pulled back to this dimension, and will grow stronger and more violent with each passing night.
I was particularly impressed by the film's makeup effects, which are some of the most horrific I've seen in decades. Mendez deployed an old-school approach by eschewing CGI (with the exception of one scene) in favor of makeup, prosthetics, and green screen matting effects, all of which render an impressively scary result.
Sure the movie isn't without its flaws. For one thing, I found the ending a bit over the top and in need of restraint. However Mendez did such a great job getting me to that point that I can easily forgive him. It's hard to make a perfect movie, and in comparison to others, the flaws in The Gravedancers are comparably minor.
If you're a horror fan, keep an eye out for this title. It's too early to tell if the studio will give it a cinematic release, or if it will go directly to DVD, but either way, you won't go wrong plunking your butt down for this one. Just make sure you're wearing clean undies.