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59%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #4,593
...out of 20,698 movies
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After the funeral of a old friend who died in a car accident, former school friends Harris, Kira, and Sid break into the local cemetery after dark, and after Sid reads a mysterious incantation he finds on one of the nearby tombstones, they dance on the graves. Soon, the three of them find themselves haunted by three different ghosts whose graves they desecrated. Harris and his wife Allison find themselves haunted by a deranged female pianist/ax murderer. Sid gets haunted by a child pyromaniac. And Kira haunted by a sadistic rapist. All of them turn to a paranormal investigator named Vincent Cochet and his assistant Frances to try to help them break the curse they imposed on themselves before the next full moon when they will be killed by the ghosts' wrath.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: April 22, 2007
I've already said my piece about how I think that the After Dark Horrorfest was a great idea and I've already harped on the fact that I'm hoping that it continues for at least a couple more years. I'm not going to continue heaping praise upon it in every one of the last six (seven including this) reviews though, so let's just get straight down to business with the title at hand.
The Gravedancers is about a group of teens who go in to a cemetery late one night and - shock! - dance upon a couple of graves. This incident occurs after they decide to spend one final evening drinking and partying "with" their now-deceased friend, and while doing so, one of them finds a note that basically says that people should live for the moment and dance upon the graves of the dead. Taking it quite literally, the trio - Harris (Dominic Purcell), Kira (Josie Maran), and Sid (Marcus Thomas) - crank up their stereo and commence getting their collective grooves on. The party eventually winds down, and they all head back to their normal lives.
Our story then decides to focus on Harris and his wife Allison (Clare Kramer), and we discover that the two have been experiencing some odd events around their house: it's almost as if the place is haunted (imagine that!). To make a long story short, they and the other two gravedancers soon discover that by dancing on those graves, they pissed off the spirits of the people whose final resting spots were desecrated. As if that wasn't bad enough, the spirits who are now haunting our heroes just so happen to belong to an axe-murderer, a pyromaniac, and a sadomasochistic rapist... and all three of them are hellbent on revenge by way of their special traits. Helping our gang out is a pair of paranormal investigators by the names of Vincent (Tchéky Karyo) and Culpepper (Megahn Perry), but will they be enough?
The Gravedancers was a refreshingly original horror film that proves that you can stray away from the tired, clichéd elements of horror that seem to be so prevalent in most new releases and still wind up with a damned good film. The scares are effective, the villains are believable, and the storyline is extremely original, but at the same time, it's a simple horror film that is entertaining enough to keep the audience interested from start to finish. This, my dear readers, is what the horror genre is all about.
As a matter of fact, my only true complaint about the film was some of the silly costumes and effects found towards the end of the movie. I thought that the female spirit looked extremely creepy and I had no complaints about her, but the pyromaniac just looked downright stupid and should have either been left unseen or had a serious revision before going in front of the camera. I also wasn't a "huge" fan of the "big" finale; I can't complain about the look of things in those scenes, but the entire idea was just a little too far out there in my humble opinion. However, both of these items are minor complaints: the pyromaniac is only visible for a minute or two and the ending doesn't ruin the entire movie, so both can be overlooked in the grand scheme of things.
Those two things can easily be overlooked when the overall movie is as good as this one turned out to be. I haven't seen all of the films from the After Dark Horrorfest just yet, but this one is an early candidate to wind up as my favorite of the bunch. 8/10.
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#1:
bluemeanie
- added April 24, 2007 at 1:05am
The After Dark Horrorfest was not something I was
excited about. I caught two films, "The
Hamiltons" and "The Abandoned", and didn't really
care for either, so I didn't see any more. I just
caught "The Gravediggers" on DVD and thought it
was a very strong horror film. As for the idea of
After Dark Horrorfest, I think it was a good idea,
but needs better films if it wants to keep going.
I know that kind of goes against the whole idea,
but some of these films look just awful. Higher
quality horror films might lend itself to higher
revenues, and that's what the bottom line is,
isn't it? "The Gravediggers" was a good film.
7/10.
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#2:
grain of sand
- added April 24, 2007 at 2:26am
this was a better one in the series, I loved 'The
Abandoned' also, didn't really enjoy much of the
rest of the series but I like the idea of After
Dark Horrorfest
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#3:
Tristan
- added April 24, 2007 at 11:54am
The Gravedancers, not diggers.
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#4:
Tristan
- added September 3, 2008 at 11:07pm
So I watched this again today, and while I thought
it was a nice original horror film, it definitely
had its flaws. There were a few too many moments
where I was getting annoyed by the characters -
especially Sid and his one-liners - and there were
a few hokey parts in the third act. All that
aside, it was exactly as Chad described it,
refreshing and original.
7/10
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#5:
Nirrad
- added September 3, 2008 at 11:23pm
Not a bod movie. The third act was pretty lame,
and I totally agree with you on Sid. But yeah, the
ghosts looked pretty creepy and they were actually
scary. 7/10 as well.
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#6:
Nirrad
- added September 3, 2008 at 11:47pm
Bad! I meant bad! SHHIIITT!
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#7:
Crispy
- added March 29, 2009 at 4:17pm
Eh, this one didn't do too much for me. Started
out decently strong, but after a while it turned
to 'count the cliches.' And like the Chad said,
the ball was dropped badly in the last five to ten
minutes. Did a lot more damage to the movie for me
than it did for him though. Kind of sad when the
best scene is an inconsequential bit in the first
three minutes with only the smallest relevance to
the plot as a whole.
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#8:
Dametria
- added June 2, 2009 at 11:34pm
Well I saw this when it first came out and I cant
remember anything about it except that the ghosts
were creepy looking as all hell. Seriously, the
plot was so weak that I cant recall a damn thing
about it on my own. Just look for the ghost
pictures (kinda a cross between pumpkinhead and
the creepy priest from poulterguist 2) and youve
seen the best thing this movie has to offer.
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