Grave Encounters 2
Grave Encounters 2 is a 2012 Canadian-American psychological horror film, directed by John Poliquin, written by The Vicious Brothers and the sequel to the 2011 film Grave Encounters.[1] It is shot in found footage style like its predecessor and follows a group of devoted fans who break into the same psychiatric hospital to investigate whether the events of the previous film actually happened, quickly becoming the targets of the hospital's malevolent entities. The film was released on iTunes on October 2, 2012 and received a limited theatrical release on October 12, 2012. Grave Encounters 2 became a commercial success, but unlike its predecessor, it was a critical failure.
| Grave Encounters 2 | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Poliquin |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | The Vicious Brothers |
| Based on | Grave Encounters by The Vicious Brothers |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Quynne Alana Paxa |
| Cinematography | Tony Mirza |
| Edited by | |
Production company |
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| Distributed by | Tribeca Film Festival Arclight Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | Canada United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.4 million |
| Box office | $8.2 million |
Plot
Film student Alex Wright and his friends Jennifer Parker, Trevor Thompson, Tessa Hamill, and Jared Lee decide to produce a documentary about the original Grave Encounters film, which the entire public aside from Alex believes to be fictional. Alex posts an online plea for any information about the film and receives a message from someone named "DeathAwaits6". The message leads him to the mother of Sean Rogerson, the actor who played Lance in Grave Encounters. She believes that Sean is still alive but they discover from her caretaker that she has severe dementia and does not realize that her son is actually dead.
Alex realizes the cast and crew from the first film are all missing or have died (except for the directors, The Vicious Brothers, who we learn are actually interns of the first film's producer, Jerry Hartfield, and were not directly involved thus sparing their lives). Alex then receives a mysterious message leading him to Hartfield, who confesses that the film was actual found footage. Discovering that the Collingwood Mental Hospital from the film is actually an abandoned asylum in British Columbia, Canada, Alex and his friends travel there to meet DeathAwaits6, where they discover a Ouija board. Using it to communicate with spirits, they realize that their online contact is not a person, but a paranormal entity, which turns violent and forces the group to flee. Alex decides the group should leave but not until they gather all the cameras.
The group unsuccessfully tries to escape, resulting in the deaths of Jared (who is violently hurled out of the room with the cursed window and falls to his death) and Tessa (spinal cord severed). The survivors also witness the death of the asylum's security guard by electrocution. Fleeing from one of the spirits, the group manages to escape the hospital and return to the hotel, at which point they decide to abandon the project and flee.
However, to their dismay, the hotel's elevator leads the group back to the tunnels beneath the hospital. There, they meet the actor Sean Rogerson, who played Lance Preston in the first film, and discover that he has been trapped inside for over nine years, lobotomized and driven insane. Rogerson explains that the reason the hospital is like this is due to Dr. Arthur Friedkin's satanic experiments and rituals which merged the spirit world and the physical world. He then shows them a red door in one of the rooms and tells them it is the only way out, but it is wrapped in chains. The surviving members of Alex's group mention they had a chain cutter, but it's in a tool bag left behind by Trevor in one of the rooms. They are eventually able to retrieve it.
While the group sleeps for the night, Rogerson, compelled by Dr. Friedkin's demonic voice, kills Trevor, then steals the team's equipment to cut the chains on the red door. He goes through it, only to realize that the door leads nowhere. In a mental frenzy, he begins talking to the entities, who instruct Rogerson to continue killing.
Having woken up and realizing Rogerson and their equipment are missing, Alex and Jennifer explore and stumble upon Friedkin's satanic altar as he performs a lobotomy, then the sacrifice of an infant. The couple flees and encounters Rogerson, who demands them to hand over their tapes in order to "finish" the film, which is the only way to escape the hospital. Alex refuses and Rogerson tries to kill him.
During the struggle, a void opens up on the wall and sucks Rogerson in. Realizing that Rogerson was being honest in how to escape, Alex kills Jennifer thus completing the film. He then exits the hospital through the red door, which leads him to the outskirts of Los Angeles. He is soon arrested while walking down the street at night. The last scene shows that the footage has been made into a film, with Alex and producer Jerry Hartfield claiming that everything the public sees has been staged and that it is "just a movie". However, Alex tells the interviewers not to go anywhere near the hospital because "it's not worth it".
The film ends, cutting to a black screen with the numbers "49, 14, 122, 48" appearing on screen for a split second, which, if searched on a service such as Google Maps, comes up as the approximate latitude and longitude coordinates of Riverview Hospital, near Vancouver, BC, Canada (actually at 49.25,-122.81) where most of the film's story takes place.
Cast
- Richard Harmon as Alex Wright, a university student and filmmaker who becomes obsessed with the previous film.
- Leanne Lapp as Jennifer Parker, a fellow student who is in love with Alex.
- Sean Rogerson as himself/Lance Preston, who survived the events of Grave Encounters, but has gone insane after being trapped in the hospital for nine years.
- Dylan Playfair as Trevor Thompson, Alex's best friend and cameraman.
- Stephanie Bennett as Tessa Hamill, Jennifer's friend.
- Howard Lai as Jared Lee, Alex's second cameraman and Tessa's boyfriend.
- Sean Tyson as the guard stationed at the hospital.
- Ben Wilkinson as Jerry Hartfield, the producer of Grave Encounters.
- Arthur Corber as Dr. Arthur Friedkin, a doctor at Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital.
- Brenda McDonald as Mrs. Rogerson.
- Collin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz as the Vicious Brothers, the directors of Grave Encounters.
- Dalila Bela as Kaitlin, a former patient at Collingwood.
- Christopher Paul Hill as Vlogger
- Roy Campsall as the emaciated demon.
- Melissa Valvok and Brenda Anderson as nurse demons.
- Dale Hall (IV) as an operated patient.
- Maddox Valvok as an infant.
- Merwin Mondesir (uncredited cameo) as himself/T.C. Gibson, the cameraman for Grave Encounters.
- Mackenzie Gray (uncredited cameo) as himself/Houston Grey, the psychic for Grave Encounters.
- Juan Riedinger (uncredited cameo) as himself/Matt White, the technical expert for Grave Encounters.
- Ashleigh Gryzcko (uncredited cameo) as herself/Sasha Parker, an occult specialist for Grave Encounters.
- Reese Alexander and Meeshelle Neal as Los Angeles police officers.
Production
Grave Encounters 2 began production in late 2011 and was released on October 12, 2012. Early in production it was revealed that the film would be directed by John Poliquin, and only written by the Vicious Brothers. The first trailer was released on September 4, 2012.[2] The film's budget was $1,400,000. It was released on October 12, 2012 in a limited theatrical run, but released earlier in the month on iTunes for download.
Critical response
Grave Encounters 2 received negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 20% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 4.46 out of 10.[3] Although it was panned, some critics praised the acting, especially Sean Rogerson's performance.
References
- Buchanan, Jason. "Grave Encounters 2 (2012)". New York Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.
- Turek, Ryan (September 4, 2012). "Exclusive Trailer Premiere: Grave Encounters 2". comingsoon.net.
- "Grave Encounters 2 (2012)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 11 June 2020.