The Gravedancers (2005)

   
Associate Produced, Edited & Directed by: Mike Mendez

Written by: Brad Keene & Chris Skinner

Starring:

Dominic Purcell .... Harris McKay
Josie Maran .... Kira Hayden
Clare Kramer .... Allison Mitchell
Marcus Thomas .... Sid Vance
Tchéky Karyo .... Vincent Cochet
Megahn Perry .... Frances Culpepper

Release Date: American Film Market: November 3, 2005 (Premiere); Fantasia Film Festival: July 15, 2005; After Dark Horrorfest: November 18, 2006

*Images courtesy at: www.outnow.ch

 

 

 

 

Rating:

 

After an old friend's funeral from a car accident, former school friends named Harris McKay (Dominic Purcell), Kira Hayden (Josie Maran) and Sid Vance (Marcus Thomas) decides to break into a cemetary after dark , and after Sid reads a mysterious incantation he finds on one of the nearby tombstones, they dance on the graves. Soon, the three of them find themselves haunted by three different ghosts whose graves they desecrated and have had criminal records on their own during their lifetime.
They hear sounds from their homes and evil spirits attacking as well. Then, they run to a couple of paranormal investigator's named Vincent Cochet (Tchéky Karyo) and his assistant Frances Culpepper (Megahn Perry) to try to help them break the curse they imposed on themselves before the next full moon when they will be killed by the ghosts wrath.
However, they may be on their way on their death bed when they try to put a stop to this in which this angers the spirits and will try to slay them one by one or turn them into evil spirits as well.

 

Many good camera takes on Sid Vance standing on a tombstone reading a poem out loud about raising the dead along with good camera angle shots on the other tombstones which makes you wonder if corpses will rise up. There's many other shots on him along with Harris McKay and Kira Hayden partying out at the tombstones.
We spot a good shot looking down on Allison Mitchell calling to her boyfriend walking up some stairs as well as a camera shot going up the stairs.
We spot a good shot on her walking by a hall in her house with a sudden ring of the phone which is a good jumping moment.
There's a good scene between Allison losing her temper and acting crazy towards Harris about her thinking he's having an affair and getting demanding with him.
We have a nice camera shot going up the stairs and into the bedroom focusing on both Allison and Harris sleeping in their bed's making it look haunting like along with a good shot on him waking up and then looking around the downstairs living room holding a sharp device for protection. There's also a nice shot on Allison getting up and turning her head looking at a haunted woman kneeling down and then trying to attack her.
There's good shots on Harris and Allison looking around a house with flashlights and noticing the writings on the wall as well as a jumping moment with her by a doorway and then Kira catching her by surprise looking ghostly.
We spot a nice angle shot with Allison standing in a hospital hallway with a corpse in a sheet rising up and grabbing her arm.
There's a good moment with Kira crying and screaming on the other side of the door in the hospital room along with a nurse trying to talk to her and then some great shots on her flying around and hitting walls with wind blowing at her.
There's many good camera takes looking down on the all the main characters digging up some graves and looking into the coffins with corpses revealed. There are many jumping moments showing the corpses moving as well as attacking. There's also a good shot on Kira trapped in a coffin screaming trying to get out while we see the coffin sinking into the mud.
There's some nice separate scene's with both Allison and Kira in a room smoking a cigarette and trying to help one another out and being emotional along with Sid and Harris in another room having a heated dispute and getting physical with one another. These scene's looked very well done.
We spot a great close up shot on Kira lying on the ground with a sharp piece of glass caught in her throat.
There's a nice moment with Frances Culpepper crying after everyone finds some corpses heads she kept and then Allison walking up to her and slapping her which looked quite strong.
We have a nice shot on Kira with her back turned playing a piano while Harris tries to approach her from behind and a nice close up shot on Kira slowly turning around and then showing a ghoulish face and then attacking with her arms springing out. There's a nice camera shot looking up at her holding an axe like she's floating.
There's great chasing scene's with the main characters and Kira attacking as well as a good fight sequence between her and Harris showing great suspenseful shots.
There's a nice car getaway scene with Harris and Allison with good effects on a ghost chasing them.
Bottom line is that I enjoy haunted house type of films and had to tell you this one really seems like a tribute to those old school types like Poltergeist but with killings and more jumps too. It had nice haunting effects to the story ogf the film as that's what we need for a type like this one. I enjoyed the beginning of the film when someone reads a poem of the dead which made me wonder if the dead will rise or not which keeps you glued to the set to see what happens. It's about time we had an original flick like this than so many bloody remakes we spot nowadays and if only more people had creative ideas making films like this one would really make horror films worth checking out again. For anyone who enjoys hauntings but are very fictional and more so than Poltergeist as well as liking ghoulish make up on evil spirits attacking then you definetely want to check this one out in which you won't be disappointed.

The acting is quite good as lead actor Dominic Purcall (Harris McKay) showed a great masculine attitude and looked great with his big guy type of role and a nice seriousness to his part and expressing a nice calmness to what he portrayed too.
Josie Maran
(Kira Hayden) brought a nice tense attitude after encountering a haunting and being put in a ward as well as showing a good calmness when she helps everyone try to put a stop to the haunting in which she shows nice versatality to her role. She was great playing a haunting figure too acting violent and aggressive.
Clare Kramer
(Allison Mitchell) was another one who does well acting aggressive and cries well on set as well as getting physical when she needed to. She showed a nice adventureous part throughout the whole story in which I give her a thumbs up to her performance like the forst two I mentioned. She does well screaming in hysterics when an arm grabs her.
Marcus Thomas
(Sid Vance) does his role well as a goofball type who has an attitude when he wants to as well as not taking stuff seriously plus he had the right look for this too.
Megahn Perry
(Frances Culpepper) knows her stuff as a paranormal investigator showing a perfect seriousness to her part in the film making her role very believeable too. She does well crying on set when needed to which is a plus with her performance.

There's a blanket over a corpse with blood starting to flow from the covers
We spot an open slit throat
An axe is impaled in someone's head

There's some good rumbling music along with many banging sounds. There's also nice low orchestral music which sounded very strong and well done. We hear the odd grumbling music with sounds very terrorising like all done by Joseph Bishara.