The Gravedancers

Plot synopsis:
An unidentified young woman, alone in a room, is attacked by an invisible assailant, who hangs her in the stairway of her house. As she dies, she drops an ornate black envelope.
A year later, former college friends Sid (Marcus Thomas), Kira (Josie Maran), and Harris (Dominic Purcell) go out drinking after a funeral. They break into the Crescent View Cemetery to say their final goodbyes to the departed. Continuing their revelries, they get quite drunk. Sid finds a black envelope tucked behind a garland of flowers at the grave. It contains a poem urging those present to be joyful and to dance upon the graves. In their drunken state, the three regard this as a celebration of life, and they dance.
Afterwards, mysterious things happen. Harris and his wife Allison (Clare Kramer) are frightened by unexpected visions and odd sounds. Then Kira is attacked by a demonic force. She is severely bitten and sexually assaulted, and her house is ransacked. Sid is plagued by unexpected fires. They enlist a pair of paranormal investigators, Vincent Cochet (Tchéky Karyo) and Frances Culpepper (Megahn Perry), who determine that the three friends inadvertently invoked a powerful curse by dancing on the graves. They are now being haunted by three wayward spirits—a passionate axe murderer, a child pyromaniac, and a serial killer and rapist—who will kill them at the next full moon.
As the full moon approaches, they return to the cemetery to disinter the remains of their tormenters, hoping to bury them anew and put the curse to rest. Not all of the critical parts make it back into the ground, however, and on the final night the three friends experience renewed attacks, more powerful and furious than any previously. They are trapped together with the investigators by the malevolent spirits. Sid is incinerated by his firebug ghost, and Kira is murdered and her body is possessed by the axe murderer who is pursuing Harris.
Under duress, Culpepper admits that she foiled the burial plan by hiding the skulls of the corpses, the better to gather hard evidence of ghostly activity. Harris takes the axe murderer's skull and tries to return it to its body to break the curse. He helps Allison escape the house through an attic window.
The spiritual force in the house coalesces into the form of a demonic head. Smashing through the walls and out of the house, it pursues the characters' fleeing vehicle. Barely eluding the head, Allison and Harris return the skull to its corpse, and the raging spirits disappear.
Later, Allison and Harris walk through the cemetery after the funerals of their friends. As they leave, the groundskeeper carefully places an ornate black envelope on one of the tombstones.

Tags: paranormal, murder, sadist

Review:
"The Gravedancers", one of the 8 Films To Die For at the After Dark Horrorfest, is a surprisingly original little supernatural horror movie.
Definitely one of the better films to be part of the After Dark Horror Fest, "The Gravedancers" is a pretty original movie that captures the style of '70s and '80s supernatural horror films.
There are a few typical scare moments in the movie though (and there are some clichés that abound), but for the most part I thought this film at least tried to avoid most of the clichéd horror set-ups, which was a real benefit here.
The director took good advantage of those "things that go bump in the night" kind of scares, and they are effectively used and really creepy.As far as the acting goes, it isn't bad.
And the CGI blowout during the last ten minutes of the film was a little overdone I felt, but I'm not going to complain too much, I'd rather just take this movie for what it is.Overall, "The Gravedancers" is a horror movie that is worth watching.
In some respects it's a bit corny (mostly with it's special effects usage), but the film is done in a style that is reminiscent of past horror films, so these things are forgivable considering that it's a throwback-type of movie.
This movie reminds me of why I am not the biggest fan of the horror genrebecause I always end up with my muscles tensed up for two hours and I sit on the edge of my seat and am left feeling completely exhausted.
Anyway, the story is pretty interestinga group of college friends reunite after a few years and accidentally call upon some spirits of the dead that end up haunting them after a fateful night in the cemetery.
I saw the DVD cover, normally when there a good DVD cover the movie is not that good, so I didn't think this movie will be any good or scary.The story two men and Girl go to a graveyard at night after there friends funeral and they start to drinking and dancing on graves.Then not long after, strange things start to happen as the Doors are opening and shutting and piano is playing while no in the room They soon find out that each one of them are being haunted by ghost because they were dancing on there grave but worse is that they have danced on grave of Insane people.This is really good movie, It's the best movie to watch by your self in the Dark, the movie did make me Jump which was Great and did like how the movie start of when we could not see the ghost, it was more creepy as we don't when it will attack, also did like the ghost in movie were really scary looking too.A really good scary ghost story movie with great acting too but the ending did the let the whole movie down.I give this movie 8/10.
It all boils down to a silly ending and overall, while I really did like the special effects, this is a disappointing horror film and I do not recommend it..
Yeah some of the CG is cheesy, and some of the acting is ham, but nearly every movie you watch these days is.This film has an excellent script, with characters that, well I did, you like.
I recommend this film to anyone looking for a good horror type film that doesn't have to have blood coming from all angles to make you feel a little spooked..
I don't know how they're planning to market the DVDs, but anything less than a box set would not do all the awesome entries to this great event justice, plus I'm sure a lot of us didn't get the chance to see all of them at our local theaters.And please keep supporting R-RATED HORROR MOVIES with your patronage!
Hee Hee.After doing the drunken deeds, our heroes: Dominic Purcell (Primeval, Equilibrium), Josie Maran (Van Helsing) and Marcus Thomas (Edmond), are getting their reward - crazed spirits after them.This spooky film has it all: creaky sound, apparitions, super special effects, blood and gore, and perversion in what i would call a traditional horror film.
May it be that it is a matter of taste whether you like or dislike this movie, but i read an awful lot of comments here about this movie that i think really treated it way to good.You can say as positive aspects that considering the obviously low budget of the movie the cinematography and some visual effects are quite OK, but this couldn't save the rest for me...I can just say; you are not missing anything not watching this flick!.
They have to break the curse or survive for an entire cycle of the full moon when the curse would finish, while the ghosts are getting stronger and stronger.Yesterday I saw "The Gravedancers" on cable and I really liked this horror movie.
First of all, I'm one of those people who go into horror movies and ending up laughing at every little thing in it.
My chief complaint with the movie is the way it devolved toward the end and payed good homage to the the original Evil Dead film (it's one of my favorite classics, but goes a bit overboard toward the end).
"Gravedancers" is a unique take on the rather stale "haunting" formula, and is full of self-aware characters in a well rounded script that doesn't send stupid people into stupid situations.I was shocked at how great the film looked, if you held this film up next to any of those crappy bloated multiplex horror flicks starring some blonde ditz from a forgettable UPN/WB show, I think you'd have a hard time figuring out which cost more.
This movie is by no means not the best horror film ever made, BUT its light hearted sarcasm make a nice comedy touch, whilst the scary moments are quite chilling, and the effects made me jump.
It has great special effects and all of the scare elements that make a horror film what it is supposed to be.
...till I'm sure that you're dead!(B.Dylan) Profanations have become frequent nowadays and it is a burning subject which deserved a responsible writer and a reliable director.The movie fails twice: mediocre story,poor acting,awful directing relying on horrible (and non-scary) special effects.The movie hits rock bottom when they hire ghost busters (from a famous university of course),one of them is the unfortunate Tcheky Karyo in what is perhaps the worst part of his career;he is abetted by a bubble head assistant (collaborator,she says)."The night of the living dead" has still no contenders in this field..
Well the movie begins as a promising, serious scary experience, but as the plot unfolds it unravels into sheer comedy and makes fun of itself, which was kind of amusing to me, but may be not so for other people, specially if one is looking for a scared-the-s**t-out-of-me movie and this is why I rated it 5/10.
The impression one gets by watching this movie is that either the director did not know where he was heading while the scenes were being shot or that the editors really tried hard to assemble their own version of the story, considering the discrepancy of how the movie begins and the way it ends, since it goes from aural depiction of the ominous into Ghostbusters-like cgi effects..
Dominic 'Prison Break' Purcell gets drunk with two of his friends and they all dance on graves which doesn't sit well while the insane dead people who's graves they're dancing on and the ghosts decide to haunt these fools.
It borrows so much from other films it's almost like watching a 'straight' version of one of the "Scary Movie" comedies.But Gravedancers commits the worse crime of all.
Clearly an influential film, everything that the other 8 films to die for failed to be; namely, scary, credible, and well acted.I am not going to go into all the controversy surrounding this movie, rather let me tell you what I felt during the film.Grave Dancers is a good scary picture which will not only entertain you, but will make you wonder what originally occupied the land where you will be is buried .
Out of all of the films, I felt this one had the greatest potential, and here I am.The story felt OK at first, decent opening story, and an eerie sense about it that might make the viewer think that this movie could be slightly different than your average horror flick.
Great if you're going through a bad time and need some cheering up.My main reasoning behind this opinion: - Bad acting - Low budget looks like it was all spent in the beginning, leaving the CGI to get worse and worse as the movie goes on - Terrible execution of story line, so many plot holes and weird quirks - Another forced addition to the horror genre that gives it a bad nameBut again, they managed to make the movie entertainingly bad, instead of annoyingly bad.
Im not sure what to think having sat through this.It starts quite seriously and could have been a top notch modern horror and it has moments very reminiscent of house on haunted hill, but somewhere along the line the acting and plot line goes evil dead.
This is another bad movie, which surprised me as Tchéky Karyo is a good actor and I really like his body of work.
Aside from some cheesy dialogue (mostly from Marcus Thomas' character Sid) and a few questionable effects (the ghost floating down beside the stairs in the final act, especially - but hey, you can only do so much on a tight budget) the film was quite good.Two of the more outstanding scenes for me were the hospital attack scene and the change in perspective when Josie Maran's character, Kira, was attacked in the mansion.
Both were very good - and very effective - scenes.For anyone expecting this to be on par with a high-budget horror flick may be disappointed, but those of us who are simply looking for a fun time and a few jumps and shrieks along the way will be quite happy.
I expected another dumb Horror flick, like all these movies where a group of people are really dumb & drunk and end up dead because they did something stupid, but what I got was as great as the (japanese) The Grudge, Amityville Horror and all those other really great movies that made me look away mostly all the time!
So, if you have some spear time and want to watch a real good old' horror flick, then go and rent or buy this movie.
Why I am still giving eight stars is because this is a old-school horror movie, with scary looking ghosts (except the final scene which is kinda over-the-top) and nice special effects.
A simple plot (being haunted by ghosts) with some quality casting and decent visual effects.Dominic Purcell (from TV's "Prison Break") stars as Harris McKay, and really carries the film well.
The Grave Dancers was great horror movie, great special effects and very entertaining.
Don't skip this one i really recommended to people who love horror movies just like me is not the best horror movie ever but it work, it is worth watching , well for this bore fest i think is great..
this isn't your normal run of the mill stupid-teenagers-get-drunk-and-pissoff-a-ghost horror flick first reason being that we're talking bout well educated adults in this movie which I personally enjoyed since its a nice change and I'm impressed they managed to pull it off since lets face it ..
its way easier to make a story work with stupid drunk teens raising hell then lawyers and such also this movie has excellent pacing starts out nice and easy giving you the plot and lets the story build up and ends with you glued to the seat wishing you had never started watching this infernal movieand the demon/ghost/evil things are just great..
But don't be fooled, this film actually has some good scares.The plot is somewhat original where a trio of friends dance on a few graves after a night of drinking and become haunted by the ghosts of those in the graves they danced on.
The trio decide to do just that, but of all of the plots in the cemetery, they opt to cut the rug on the graves of three rather particularly wicked souls, a child pyromaniac, an axe murderer, and a sadomasochistic rapist, all of whom take serious offence at the desecration of their final resting places.The Gravedancers starts out in routine ghost-story fashion, with its scary supernatural occurrences taking the predictable form of creaking doors, strange noises, and the occasional, briefly-glimpsed spectral apparition; 'Ho-hum', I thought to myself, 'here we go again'.
But as the film developed, it took a delightfully unexpected turn, taking an approach that I can only describe as 'Scooby Doo' for adults, with its well realised spooks and the introduction of a pair of 'ghostbusters' (Tchéky Karyo as paranormal investigator Vincent, and Megahn Perry as his sexy Velma-alike colleague Frances).From here-on in, the film is loads of fun, with a hugely entertaining scene in the cemetery where the friends attempt to exhume the ghosts' corpses (during which Kira is trapped inside a coffin and slowly dragged into the ground), a really creepy bit where the friends are drawn into the killers' virtual worlds (the rapists lair being particularly spooky), and an exciting showdown against the spirits in an old mansion.
"The Gravedancers," one of the "8 Films to Die For" in the 2006 AfterDark HorrorFest, contains some spooky and freaky moments, but it is by no means an unqualified success.After the funeral of one of their college friends, Harris (Dominic Purcell), Sid (Marcus Thomas) and Kyra (Josie Maran) find a note amongst the flowers with a poem telling the to "celebrate life." To that end, they dance on some graves (all three of them are completely wasted at this point).
Much credit to the director, Mike Mendez, who manages to create suspense - a rare achievement nowadays - and good special effects for the spooks and scares despite a probably-low budget.It really makes one think: if the ghosts could look so good on a low budget, why aren't they as such in other B horrors?
Three friends who are saluting a dead friend dance in a cemetery and across the grave of three people who's spirits come to haunt them...and try to kill them.It takes a while for things to get going but once the monsters show up this movie suddenly starts to fire on all cylinders thanks to some really good effects work.
Seriously, all the atrocious marketing BS and even worse movies (Dark Ride, here's looking at you) are officially forgiven in light of "The Gravedancers." The movie is that good.It's hard to make an effective and scary ghost story.
Of course, this being a horror film, they were dancing in the section of the cemetery reserved for "undesirables." The characters in "The Gravedancers" are all well drawn and filled out by the actors and the ghosts are each iconic with unique back stories.
Sid contacts paranormal investigator Vincent Cochet (Tchéky Karyo) who quickly realises that they are dealing with a bad case of burial desecration, with the vengeful spirits of an arsonist, a axe murderer & a rapist trying to kill them Harris, Sid & Kirra must lay the ghost's to rest before it's too late...Directed by Mike Mendez this was one of the so-called Films to Die For at the 2006 After Dark Horrorfest or whatever it's called along with the likes of Wicked Little Things (2006), Unrest (2006) & Penny Dreadful (2006) & isn't the worst of the bunch but The Gravedancers isn't the best either, as a straight supernatural horror film it's watchable enough but it's by means any sort of masterpiece.
Apparently the actor's didn't meet each other until two days before filming, while it's not great I have seen worse acting I suppose.The Gravedancers is an alright supernatural haunted house horror that has obvious influences, the whole story is silly yet it takes itself very seriously which gives it an odd vibe.
The name "The Gravedancers" sounds way too much like something coming out from the 80s low budget b-movie horror era.
Such was the case during the screening of Mike Mendez's The Gravedancers at the 2006 edition of Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival.Starring Prison Break's Dominic Purcell and Clare Kramer (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) the story revolves around the couple whose lives, along with those of their friends, are invaded by a trio of hostile ghosts after they engage in a drunken bout of gravedancing during a wake for an old chum.The movie is chalk full of horror delights which, while blatant clichés, work wonderfully under Director Mendez's remarkably talented hand.Drawing on influences such as The Entity, The Haunting of Hell House, and Poltergeist, The Gravedancers hits the pavement running with a gripping opening scene.
However, I was surprised that THE GRAVEDANCERS does climb a few notches above that, thanks to some nifty special effects, better than your average low-budget horror indie.The story reaches back into the past to dig up a few good scares, culling from such classics as 13 GHOSTS and THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, then going a bit further with scenes that are very similar to parts of THE ENTITY, THE CHANGELING, THE EXORCIST and the EVIL DEAD movies.
I certainly find that commendable, at a time when flayed skin and shredded body parts are what's passing for plotting in most horror films these days.Mike Mendez certainly does know his scary movies, because I could see some of the more "obvious" scares coming from a mile off.
For an indie horror film the effects were impossibly good..