{"id":22714,"date":"2014-10-02T22:04:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T02:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=22714"},"modified":"2016-10-12T22:06:15","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T02:06:15","slug":"grave-halloween-2013-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/02\/grave-halloween-2013-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Grave Halloween (2013) (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gravehalloween\"<\/a>See kids, that\u2019s why whenever you want to honor someone\u2019s memory, sometimes a symbolic ceremony works better than getting lost in woods haunted by demons. You don\u2019t always have to do what dreams tell you to. Despite some flaws in the narrative though, \u201cGrave Halloween\u201d is a solid horror film. It\u2019s a little bit of \u201cEvil Dead,\u201d and a little bit of \u201cBlair Witch\u201d thrown together for a pretty entertaining ersatz Asian horror picture. Albeit one that\u2019s only given the Halloween tag because character Maiko has to commit the ceremony Segaki for her mother, which happens to fall on Halloween.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Deliriously cute Kaitlyn Leeb plays young Maiko, a college student haunted by dreams of her mother whose spirit is restless after she committed suicide in the Aokigahara Forest, a large mass of land infamous for suicides. Leeb doesn\u2019t look Asian, but you just have to go with the flow. She and her friends travel to China and, I\u2019m guessing to add the body count, Maiko agrees to film the journey to find her mother\u2019s resting spot in the woods and perform her ceremony as a documentary. Thus her friends Amber, Terry, and camera man Kyle follow along to film every account. I was never quite sure of these characters went to China for school, or if they traveled to China from school. There\u2019s mention of foreign exchange students, but I find it hard to believe these Americans have been to China for so long and can\u2019t read basic warning signs in landmarks like Aokigahara Forest.<\/p>\n

After her mother committed suicide, Maiko was adopted (I assume by American parents?) and still spends a lot of her time dwelling on the memory of someone she barely knows. When the group ventures out in to the woods, despite warning signs that include visions of demons, disembodied voices, and an ominous guide named Jin warning about curses and getting lost, they still get themselves in to a heaping helping of trouble. Of course the demons are comprised mainly of the ghosts of suicide victims, so imagery gets gruesome even if there\u2019s absolutely no swearing in the film. I found \u201cGrave Halloween\u201d to be a solid bit of horror fodder that comprises a pretty good twist in the finale. It\u2019s not at all what I assumed initially, but the pay off is memorable. I also enjoyed the wicked special effects both prosthetically and CGI wise, as they compliment the attempted atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Despite the unknown cast, the performances are also very entertaining. Leeb pulls in a strong turn as Maiko, along with Cassi Thomson, Dejan Loyola, and Graham Wardle respectively. \u201cGrave Halloween\u201d ends as an above average horror mystery actually worth seeking out if you appreciate ghost stories, and Asian horror. The DVD has no features.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See kids, that\u2019s why whenever you want to honor someone\u2019s memory, sometimes a symbolic ceremony works better than getting lost in woods haunted by demons. You don\u2019t always have to do what dreams tell you to. Despite some flaws in the narrative though, \u201cGrave Halloween\u201d is a solid horror film. It\u2019s a little bit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[275,302,409,477,703,1008,1087,1130],"class_list":["post-22714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-demonic","tag-drama","tag-ghosts","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller","tag-tv-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22716,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22714\/revisions\/22716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}