Plot
After the death of a close
friend, Harris, Kira and Sid reunite at the graveyard for a final farewell
which soon turns into a night of heavy drinking. However after reading a
warning on a gravestone and dancing on the graves of those resting nearby,
they soon become haunted by three very angry and vengeful ghosts: a violent
rapist, a child pyromaniac and a pianist who was murdered with an axe. They
turn to a paranormal investigator who informs them that they must rid
themselves of the curse before the next full moon or they will be killed.
Review
I must say I'm a big fan of this film. It's been a while
since I've seen a horror film based around ghosts. I tend to go for the
splatter and gore flicks which guarantee the schlock goods. It was a nice
change of pace to sit down and watch a film that didn't have a guy in a mask
or a genetically enhanced monster killing people. The Gravedancers
channels the spirit of the likes of Poltergeist, The Entity and
The Haunting to create a reasonably atmospheric, tense and edgy affair
which won't send pulses racing too much but delivers effective jolts of
fear when required. I get the feeling that the budget was just about right
for this one - too much more money and the special effects would have taken
centre stage but more on that later. But it's been a while since I saw a
non-Japanese ghost story and it's nice to see that they can still make them
when they want to in this era of torture porn films.
The
Gravedancers takes it's cue from the classic ghost
stories of the past, playing up things like sound to get across it's scares.
I don't scare very easily anymore as I've been totally de-sensitized with
horror films to the degree that I can read a lot of scares before they
happen. However the beauty of this film is that, although the scares are
predictable enough, it's the build-up which works brilliantly. In one scene,
one of the characters is in the house on their own and hears the piano
playing in the other room. Slowly he walks through the house until he
reaches the room, opens the door and the piano suddenly stops playing. It's
almost as if you can sense the ghost present in the room with him as he
checks the room out. The feeling of fear is genuine as you know something is
there and watching him but you can't see it. There are other scenes like
this scattered throughout the film where you can literally feel the presence
of the ghosts. It's no surprise that once the ghosts start to appear in
traditional form that the film loses some of it's impact. There are elements
of J-horror borrowed here including a freaky long-haired ghost crawling
across a bed and the menacing axe-wielding piano-playing ghost who floats
above the ground, moves around like her neck is broken and is generally a
rather unsettling thing to look at. At no point does the film turn into an
out-and-out splatter fest which I guess is one of the reasons why this isn't
as appreciated as it should be.
If there is one thing that spoils this film,
it's the finale and ending. What had been a rather effective ghost story
turns into a silly special effects-driven mess like some cheap The
Haunting remake wannabe as all manner of giant floating heads and hands
chase the survivors through a large mansion. I don't know why they couldn't
have kept it low key like the rest of the film and it really feels like they
didn't know how to end it properly so just threw whatever they could out
there.
It's good to see a film with adult actors in it
taking the lead roles. Too many times have we seen teenagers be the main
focus of these horror films so it's refreshing to see a group of adults be
the ones to take their turn in peril. It works better too because there's no silly
teenage plots to worry about (like meddling siblings, jocks and high school
shenanigans, falling in love for the first time, etc) and instead the film can focus on proper adult relationships to
build the characters around. The dynamic between the trio is pretty
believable even if the acting isn't up there to match. I just can't shake
Dominic Purcell's character of Lincoln Burrows on Prison Break every
time I see him on the screen and it's not going to go away anytime soon. You
watch him and all you can see is that character. It's no disrespect to
Purcell's ability as an actor but he needs to pick roles which go against
type a little so that he isn't just remembered as that guy from Prison
Break. The rest of the cast do well in their roles and French actor Tchéky Karyo
is on to provide a little comic relief as the ghost-busting paranormal
investigator who hopes to solve their problem.
Verdict
The Gravedancers is a solid, tight and
effective ghost story which may be a little slow-paced for those weaned on
flashy MTV-style horror films but delivers more scares than a dozen rehashes
of My Bloody Valentine ever could. We don't get to see nearly half as
many ghost stories as we should do because they're not fashionable enough
but do yourselves a favour and check out The Gravedancers to show
that there is a demand for serious, non-splatter, non-torture porn films.
