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"After Dark Horrofest: Gravedancers"
DVD
Too graphic? Too disturbing?
Too shocking for general audiences? Then you must be talking about
the After Dark Horrorfest, eight movies that'll have you wishing
someone wasn't underestimating studio audiences so deeply.
The plot is simple and yet all the more chilling for its simplicity--three
old school chums mourn the passing of a friend by visiting his grave
late one night. One friend finds a small postcard on his old friend's
grave, and, deciding he likes the message, repeats it and follows
it. By dancing on several marked graves. This, of course, gets the
occupants of said graves extremely pissed off. And the results of
that pissing off will be a nightmarish trip the likes of which you've
never seen before.
Now, the first thing you'll notice about this sucker is the DVD
menu. They went all out on this beastie and it shows--it's an animated
menu easily on par with the best I've seen. That's a definite mark
in its favor--at least they took they time to do that much with
style.
They'll throw plenty of freak-out moments into this sucker--in fact,
they'll be coming at the rate of, roughly on average one every four
or five minutes. "Gravedancers" will not keep you longing
in the old shocks and terror departments. In fact, that's one of
the great things about "Gravedancers"--they will keep
things moving and they will do it in grand style.
In fact, the first half hour will be deovted almost exclusively
to moments that will have you questioning your own sanity, or rather,
would if they were happening to you. But even just watching it is
at least a minor-league freakout. More so if you're not used to
this sort of thing.
Plus, there are some truly excellent special effects going on here.
There's a beautiful sequence involving fires that appear seemingly
out of nowhere that is very, very difficult to spot the wires on--in
fact, I can't. Excellent effects work will abound, from incredibly
realistic corpses to amazing fire effects.
Frankly, if this is one of the films "considered too graphic"
for theatres, then I think someone needs to seriously reevaluate
what's "too graphic". This is clearly, clearly one of
the best horror movies I've seen in a good long while. This is on
par with some of the very best--not just the menu but all over.
Movies like these will make it worth going to the theatre again.
If the rest of the After Dark Horrorfest titles are like this, then
man oh MAN I cannot wait for the 2007 After Dark Horrorfest! This
is weapons-grade horror at its unquestionably finest.
The ending is not only an excellent capper to the ninety minutes
of terror, it also includes a last little surprise to round things
out.
The special features include a filmmaker's commentary track, cast
and crew interviews, a making-of featurette, an original trailer,
deleted scenese, storyboard gallery, and trailers for The After
Dark Horrorfest, "The Hamiltons", "Reincarnation",
"Penny Dreadful", and "Wicked Little Things".
All in all, "Gravedancers" is a marvelously forceful work,
full of punch and scary moments that'll make you wonder if, maybe,
the films "too graphic" for theatres may not be just what
the theatres need.
After
Dark Horrorfest: Gravedancers
****
DVD
Directed by Mike Mendez
Written by Brad Keene, Chris Skinner
Starring Dominic Purcell, Josie Maran, Clare Kramer, Marcus Thomas
Produced by Lawrence Elmer Furrmann Jr., Bill McCutchen
R
96 mins
2007
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