GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2 (2012) movie review

Grave Encounters 2 (2012) d. John Poliquin (Canada/US) (95 min)

Grave Encounters, written and directed by “The Vicious Brothers,” was a fairly standard found-footage flick about a gang of wannabe reality-TV ghost hunters exploring the “infamous” Collingwood mental institution. It had a few scares and generated a bit of buzz, but was nothing exceptional in the pantheon of POV horror. The sequel (penned by the VB and directed by Poliquin) earns a few more points, adopting a meta approach by having our main character Alex (Richard Harmon), a video blogger and an aspiring horror filmmaker himself, review the 2011 original whilst mocking anyone who believes the onscreen events to be (scoff) real. (Shades of Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows.) Of course, when he receives an anonymous online comment, insinuating there is more to the GE story than a simple low-budget venture, he rounds up his posse of insufferable film student pals and they head off to Collingwood to shoot their own documentary about the “maybe/maybe not” fictitious documentarians.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL (2014) Blu-ray Review

Extraterrestrial (2014) d. The Vicious Brothers (Canada)

Tasked with taking a few snapshots to put her parents’ summer cabin on the market, April (Brittany Allen) is surprised to learn that her boyfriend Kyle (Freddie Stroma) has invited a group of his friends (Melanie Papalia, Jesse Moss, Anja Savcic) to join them for a weekend bash. Their bacchanal is interrupted by a blazing streak of fire in the sky which explodes in the woods nearby. The group venture out to the crash site where they discover the remnants of an honest-to-Scully U.F.O. … and the big-eyed, spindly-limbed former occupants haven’t exactly come in peace or seeking Reese’s Pieces.