As seen in GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2, a film directed by John Poliquin and written/produced by The Vicious Brothers. Picture courtesy Tribeca Film. All rights reserved.
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Production Company:
- Death Awaits Cinema
- Pink Buffalo Films
- Twin Engine Films
* Most external filmography links go to The Internet Movie Database.
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Grave Encounters 2 (2012)
Opened: 10/12/2012 Limited
| Limited | 10/12/2012 | |
| Village East | 10/12/2012 - 10/18/2012 | 7 days |
| DVD | 03/12/2013 |
Trailer: Click for trailer
Websites: Home
Genre: Horror
Rated: Unrated
Synopsis
GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2 is set in in the real world where GRAVE ENCOUNTERS exists as a film that people know about. The trailer is a viral phenomenon on YouTube and has garnered over 21 million views. The sequel focuses on film student Alex Wright, who is a fan of the first film and comes to believe that it may not just be a movie. It is done in a student-documentary style along the lines of CATFISH, filmed from handicams, cell phones, web cams, etc.
Alex is contacted online by a mysterious blogger with the screen name "Death Awaits 666", who links him to a strange video clip that appears to show Sean Rogerson - the lead actor from GRAVE ENCOUNTERS - still alive and trapped in the building. Alex researches the real life whereabouts of Sean Rogerson and finds there is little information about him or any of the other cast or crew.
Finally, Alex manages to track down GRAVE ENCOUNTERs purported producer, Jerry Hartfeld, who reveals that the events of the film were in fact TRUE. Jerry took the doomed crew's footage and released it as a "found footage" style horror film he could exploit for profit. He settled out of court with the crew's families and made them all sign non-disclosure agreements.
Death Awaits 666 alerts Alex to the fact that the mental institution from GRAVE ENCOUNTERS is actually only a few hours drive away from his campus. Determined to find the truth, he and some of his friends drive to the building, where Death Awaits 666 has agreed to meet them. Armed with video equipment from the film school, they break inside and begin their own paranormal investigation.
To their horror, they realize that Death Awaits 666 is not a person...but the building itself, which lured them there and now has them trapped. They are relentlessly attacked from all sides by the horrifying ghosts of former patients and have to try and use their knowledge of the first film to find an escape.
The students discover that Sean Rogerson is still alive, having survived for years alone inside the building. He agrees to try and help them, but may have his own insidious motives.
The film's climax builds to a fever pitch that is so shocking it will have to be seen to be believed.
Director's Statement
When I signed on to direct GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2, I was excited to work in the found-footage genre. And when I read the Vicious Brothers' script, I knew this was going to push that genre in a direction it has never been before. The meta-nature of the story is something truly fresh and unexplored and I knew that I would have a lot of fun with it.
Mixing between various formats of cell phone footage, webcam, pin-hole, Contour and video cameras, the film really takes you on a journey from a raw, low-res in the beginning and ultimately builds towards a cinematic climax. The concept behind this is to start the experience by basing the audience into what feels like a true reality, only to slowly push them to extend their disbelief and accept the exceptionally abnormal situations that are to come in the second and third acts. When our characters eventually enter the insane asylum, the film shifts drastically in tone. The ride begins as we buckle up and take the audience on a roller coaster ride. We revisit the same style of scares that the audience loved in the first GRAVE ENCOUNTERS but this time we load them up with even more, putting our characters through a living hell. Except that most of them don't end up living through it.
Directing a found-footage film is a challenge because there are many limitations that do not exist in conventional filmmaking. Showing more on-camera scary imagery and effects than other found-footage franchises is a creative choice that will likely be criticized, but I say bring it on. In the end, the ultimate goal is to entertain the audience and take them on a terrifying ride that will leave them with nightmares, but still have them wanting more.
-- John Poliquin, Director
Writer's Statement
With GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2, our intention was to push the limits of what a sequel can be further than ever before. Although the first GRAVE ENCOUNTERS presented a fresh take on the genre and delighted audiences with its shocking scares, we did not want to re-trace our footsteps with a "conventional" (and predictable) follow up.
Instead, inspired by the self-aware nature of the SCREAM series, we decided to do something audacious: Make a sequel set in reality that acknowledges the first GRAVE ENCOUNTERS is "just a movie"...and then propose that maybe it's actually not. By blurring the line between fact and fiction and presenting something set in the "real world," we hoped the audience would be more engaged then a more run-of- the-mill story.
As fresh of a concept that the sequel's setup is, we also did not want to ignore the key to the first film's success: The haunted asylum, which, along with Sean Rogerson, is a returning main character. The building's ever-shifting rubik's cube nature is further explored in the film as is its dark history. We were excited about the possibilities of furthering the mythology of the first film, as well as expanding it. Not only is the asylum haunted...it has an agenda.
Most importantly, we wanted to make a scary film - a scarier film then the first. Having access to greater resources this second time around, we aspired to craft some never before seen images that will stay in the mind of the viewer for days afterward. Sequels are notoriously known as usually being inferior films...not so with GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2. The movie is bigger, bolder and even more intense than the first.
GRAVE ENCOUNTERS was once quoted as being "PARANORMAL ACTIVITY on steroids". We think it's fair to say that GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2 will be called "PARANORMAL ACTIVITY on speed". And - much like actually doing speed - after it's over, you won't be able to sleep very well.
-- The Vicious Brothers, Writer/Producer
Trailer
