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[BD Review] ‘Grave Encounters 2’ Takes A Little Too Long To Get Going

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Reviewed by Michael Ferraro

It’s impossible to name a found-footage movie that doesn’t take forever setting up its premise. Even passable titles, like The Blair Witch Project or [Rec], take a while to get going (although the exposition in those films are way more interesting than others to follow). The first 25 minutes of Cloverfield are almost impossible to get through, as well as Paranormal Activity (1-3), with only slightly more interesting openings. What all of these films have in common, however, is that once they do finally get going, those moments aren’t too bad. But is it worth it to sit through half of a dreadful film just to get to a few good moments?

Grave Encounters, directed by The Vicious Brothers, is such a film that might have slipped under your radar. The film follows a television crew into an abandoned asylum to record some paranormal phenomenon. The film begins slowly, almost painfully slow, building to a pretty good last half hour of some decent thrills. It shouldn’t take that long to establish the characteristics of the crew (as each fit some sort of stereotype) and would have been infinitely better if only the scares started sooner. It’s not a bad film, but it does fail to live up to the premise it spends so much time building upon.

Grave Encounters 2, this time directed by first-timer John Poliquin, is more of a meta-extension of the first film. It opens with numerous video reviews from people all over the internet, commenting on the validity of the film (both positive and negative), before cutting to a Halloween party where we meet our new characters. Alex Wright (Richard Harmon) is a film school kid obsessed with the horror genre (we haven’t seen that before, have we?). He yearns for a time when CG didn’t exist and Wes Craven still made good films. Don’t we all?

Alex writes reviews to get him name out there, when someone known as “Death Awaits”, provides him a video link for a never before seen clip from Grave Encounter. He is a bit obsessed with the film and urges his internet fans to provide him any information they can about the crew involved with the film. This exposition is nowhere near as interesting as the first go-round (thus further cementing the found-footage genre into the grave they have so well dug for themselves). The show’s crew, although familiar, were a touch more interesting, as they were each engaged in the happenings of the asylum. Here, Alex is the only one who cares about the events of the first film being real. Everyone else thinks he is insane.

36 minutes in, Alex and his friends walk through the door of the insane asylum of the first film. The group sets up cameras in almost the exact same places as the crew from the first film. After a few more minutes of exploration (and a thermal fart gag), the film gets going. Strange stuff starts happening a tad more rapidly than the first film (which is a good thing at times). There are elements of this film that ramped up the creepiness factor of the first film in certain respects. Grave Encounters took its time to provide scares. This entry rushes it all out (after that slow opening of course) thrills one after the other in a much more violent fashion.

Though the Vicious Brothers passed the camera on to a new director, they did indeed write the screenplay. At times, the scares feel like leftovers or effects they simply didn’t have the budget for the first time.

If the first Grave Encounters could be compared to the original Blair Witch Project, then Grave Encounters 2 might easily be the closest thematic relative to Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows in existence. It lives nicely in the world created by the first film and expands on the mythology of the asylum in ways you wouldn’t expect. Is it better than its predecessor? It is hard to say. The third act of this film goes so far out there that it is clear the filmmakers didn’t care much about their audience believing this is real anymore. Why then use this style of filmmaking to tell this type of story?

The world may never know.

Score: 3/5

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‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

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Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

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