Grave Encounters 2 (2012)

**SPOILERS AHEAD**I was a big fan of Grave Encounters.  I know, I know, we "real horror fans" are supposed to be totally over found footage movies, but I think that flick caused a bit of a revival.  The ending didn't really leave too much open for Grave Encounters 2, but hey, here we are.

I like the premise of this sequel.  It behaves as if Grave Encounters was an actual movie release, and some film students are trying to dig up some background on it.  As they are looking around, they soon realize that the story was real, and that those involved with the movie are still missing and presumed dead.  Determined to get to the bottom of it, they head to the hospital to investigate, much in the same way that the reality show crew did before.  However, they are being urged on by a mysterious YouTube commenter, claiming that he will meet them in the hospital.  But he never shows.

Much like the first movie, they set up their equipment and begin to see strange occurrences.  But in a surprise twist, they happen upon Lance Preston, who has been living in the hospital for several years, subsisting on rats and toilet water.  He claims to know the way out of the hospital, and leads the students on a wild goose chase throughout the grounds, with people dying along the way.  The group seems to escape at one point, but just take a hotel elevator back to the hospital.

Finally, Lance reveals what they must do to escape.  It seems that there may be only one survivor, so that they can complete the film and draw more "tourists" can come and be sacrificed to the entities in the hospital.  The film "visionary," Alex, decides that this must be him, and he will continue the trail of Grave Encounters and the story of the hospital.

Although I liked the ghosts, effects, and general story, this definitely didn't have the same kick as Grave Encounters.  It definitely was an enjoyable flick though, and is worth a watch if you liked the first one.  There is also a lot more random filler in this sequel, like scenes of partying and driving.   So you kind of have to hang on through those parts to stick it out for the ghosts and scares. 

Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet (2009)

If Bill Moseley is in a movie, I'm going to watch it.  If Bill Moseley AND Danielle Harris are in a movie TOGETHER, you couldn't pry me away from it.  Therefore, even though most reviews on Netflix and IMDB warn me against this movie, I'm going in full speed.

If you've heard rumors that there is a topless girl in this movie, you would be correct.  However, fair warning that girl is not Danielle Harris, but is Samantha Facchi/Siong, who plays the adult Mary.  The premise is that in 1979, on Long Island, Mary Mattock/Hatchet killed her whole family, and then was put in a mental institution, where she is raped by a security guard and becomes pregnant.  After her baby does not survive the birth, she escapes and goes on a murderous rampage throughout the hospital.

Years later, local teens celebrate the anniversary of Blood Night with the normal stuff like drinking, partying, and underage sex. Oh, and also bombing people with tampons, bloody handprints, and eggs.  While screwing around in a cemetery with an Oujia board, they run into Graveyard Gus (Bill Moseley).  He tells them a Mary Hatchet story, and sends them off to party.

Finally, Danielle Harris (Alissa) arrives and tells this ridiculous gang rape story, which is fake!  Um, what?  Much like any teenage slasher, everyone proceeds to get hammered and have sex, which of course is the perfect opening for a vengeful spirit.  Luckily, Graveyard Gus is still in the picture!  I'd like to think that the cheesy lines and overacting in this movie are intentional, and that this slasher is a bit tongue in cheek.  It seems to be giving a little nod to a few horror standard -- the digging up of the ghost's body, death from behind during sex, and even Graveyard Gus himself, who was apparently modeled after Crazy Ralph.  There's even a little Halloween-esque twist, which was clever in light of casting Jamie Lloyd herself. 

The death scenes were pretty awesome.  We've got some decapitation, face slicing, and even a girl's intestines getting wound around a pickaxe.  I do agree with other reviewers that maybe Mary should have used a hatchet for most of her killings, after her moniker.  All in all, this was a fun slasher flick that obviously took some cues from some teen scream classics.  I can't say I've ever seen a killer that runs around in the complete nude, but hey, if you've got it, flaunt it, girl.  

Session 9 (2001)

I'm a bad horror fan, but I just did not like this movie.  I've heard a lot of hype about it, and it looked really promising.  But I just did not get it.

Session 9 is the story of an old mental hospital, which is being refurbished to house some city offices.  However, in order to do so, a bunch of dangerous asbestos has to be removed.  Being a government agency and all, they have to bring in different contractors to review the job and bid on it.

Enter Gordon (Peter Mullan) and his crew.  Gordon is really struggling at home.  His new baby is sick and he and his wife are not getting much rest.  He really needs this job in order to make ends meet, so he makes the guy a ridiculous offer.  They'll finish the job in a week....where other contractors were quoting 3-4 weeks.  His co-workers are none too happy about finishing this job in a hurry, but with a bonus in their sights, they press on.

The mental hospital is definitely a creepy place, and this movie definitely did not fail in the way of ambiance.  As the men go to work, Mike (Stephen Gevedon) a law school dropout, begins to dig around the records, researching the case of Mary Hobbes.  He becomes enthralled by listening to the tapes of her interviews, which exhibit her multiple personalities.  I found these scenes to be seriously freaky, and I thought that the movie would focus on ghost/possession of Mary or somesuch thing, but this definitely went in a totally different direction.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is doing their own thing.  Phil (David Caruso) is angry at Hank (Josh Lucas) for stealing his longtime girlfriend.  He has taken up smoking pot, and becomes concerned about Gordon's mental condition.  Hank on the other hand, is a compulsive gambler looking for an out from the job and his girlfriend.  He finds this in some hidden treasure in the asylum's walls.  Jeff (Brendan Sexton III) is the youngest of the crew, and is terrified of the dark...therefore he should probably not be working in an old asylum. 

Strange things start happening on the job, beginning with Hank going missing, presumably running off to casino school in Miami.  The generator fails, and the men are left scrambling in the dark, all seeming to be chased by something.  But by who? 

I found this movie to be really slow moving and actually not very scary at all.  I felt like it really kicked off the creepiness with the freaky old building and the chilling multiple personality voices, but then it just never really continued from there.  The ending was seriously weak, and I had to look it up on Wikipedia just to even figure out what happened.  So sorry to all that liked this movie, but I found it to be a fail.

Deadgirl (2008)

What a bizarre movie this was.  Not sure why this is characterized as horror...maybe because the main (?) character is kind of dead? 
This movie is about two teenaged boys who go exploring an abandoned mental hospital.  While running around in there, they find a dead girl laid out on a table.  The duller one of the pair (JT) suggests that they start having sex with her.  Rickie peaces out but JT goes through with it. 

He's visiting there and sort of living there and having sex with this supposed corpse every day.  He gets a little lonely and invites some friends in on the action.  Then they all discover that maybe she's not as dead as they presumed.  It doesn't matter to these deviants, as they keep up their little rape game anyway.

There's a bunch of gross stuff and then of course the predictable battle between JT and Rickie over what's wrong and right.  Let me make it easy for you.  Rape is wrong, whether you think the person is dead, or whether they are some sort of zombie or something.

Honestly, I felt like this movie was sick just for the sake of being sick.  And I have a stomach for most of this stuff, but unfortunately this flick didn't even have a point.  It was just a couple of hours of teenage horniness and necrophilia.  I don't recommend.


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The Devil's Chair (2006)

Dropping acid in an abandoned mental hospital and having sex in some weird random electric chair is not exactly my idea of fun. But apparently there are individuals in this world (especially England) who are into this kind of thing.

Jason Statham look-alike Nick West takes his girlfriend to a decrepit mental hospital to take drugs and have sex. What, do they not have an apartment to hang out in? Something goes wrong with said chair and the girlfriend is crawling around bleeding and screaming.

Fast forward to four years later and Nick is just getting out of the mental institution (not the one they dropped acid in, another one) Some smarty pants psychologists decide to take him back to the scene of the "incident" to see if he can remember what happened. So they all kind of just hang out in the mental hospital and even sleep there. One of the genius staff members (Rachel) wakes Nick up in the middle of the night and insists on sitting in that stupid chair. Apparently this is to prove that this whole crazy event had nothing to do with the chair. In predictable horror movie fashion, the chair awakens and attacks poor Rachel. In my opinion, that's what you get for tempting this damn chair and doubting its intentions.

So apparently sticking your finger in this little hole with a needle in it (which I would obviously never do) activates the chair. Even though everyone who comes near this chair ends up in a bloody mess, everyone in this movie just keeps sitting in it.

There's bugs everywhere in the movie, there's some kind of crazy devil-creature that looks like Predator, and eventually they give up on the blood and gore involved with the chair and make peple just vanish when they sit in it.

All of the scenes end in this weird freeze frame with this stupid-narration thing. The narrator even spend like 3 minutes screaming at the end about how stupid and badly-acted this movie is. Seriously, I could barely leave this movie in my DVD player for the full 90 minutes. It was that bad. The ending made absolutely no sense and I could not even explain it to you if I tried.