Grave Halloween (2013)

Instant Favorite.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

At Yamanashi International University in Japan, Maiko is struggling with her mother's suicide two months earlier in the 'suicide forest'. Amber leads a class project with Kyle and Terry to look for her body. Ghostly apparitions start appearing in the background. They see two policemen carry out a body. Cameras are not allowed. Lone hiker Jin warns them and offers to guide them to the supposed site. Three classmates play a prank on them.It's strange to shot in BC with a bunch of white young adults and call it Japan. Kaitlyn Leeb is at most half-Asian. I'm sure they could have picked one Asian as part of the group. Some of them are definitely cannon fodder anyways. It's great to have a solid actor like Hiro Kanagawa but it's not enough. The ghosts don't count. There are way too many idiotic dudes acting idiotically. This is a no-budget horror that starts with minor creepiness and then turns into overblown horror shlock.

Director Stephen R. Monroe actually shot this film in Canada but he has captured all that is Japan with incredible power and accuracy. Featuring a very strong cast and with a script that depicts the grimness of the forest with stunning terror, this is a film that is deeply disturbing as well has horror laden. It is the environment of sheer horror and overwhelming angst that will engulf the audience in a dark cloud of unrelenting dread that grips up to the startling conclusion. Beautifully written and expertly realized with artistic vision, Grave Halloween is a film that will be appreciated by horror fanatics and general viewers alike. A Haunting and Powerful motion picture experience.

A genuinely creepy movie that captures some of the best bits of "Blair Witch" but with very good acting particularly from the leads.I like the fact that it captures some of the Japanese horror sensibility with an American spin.The scenes towards the end are genuinely creepy and the living dead have never been so unwelcoming.I genuine recommend this film which is better than the overrated "Shrooms" and the last "Hatchet" which did not deliver.As a film maker myself (www.joanproductions.com) I am currently making a horror film and know how hard it is to pull it off and I think this director did and extremely good job. Not and excellent job

"Grave Halloween" is sort of a very odd mixture between Japanese and Western horror. And the end result is entertaining enough, although not particular scary.The story is about a group of Americans in Japan, who venture into a forest that is known for the high number of suicides that have been taking place there. Maiko (played by Kaitlyn Leeb) is there to return her dead mother's belongings and to perform a ceremony to grant the spirit of her dead mother final rest. The forest seems to be unending and plays tricks on those who venture inside.As entertaining as "Grave Halloween" was, then the movie never really got off more than a mediocre launch. The hybrid between traditional Japanese ghost movies and Western horror didn't really pan out as nicely as it could have been. And as much as I enjoy zombie movies, then the spirits haunting the forest should have been ghost entities, but they were more zombie than ghosts. And this ultimately took something away from the story.The acting in the movie was alright, given the story and the script that the actors and actresses had to work with. Kaitlyn Leeb really carried the movie quite nicely."Grave Halloween" is actually one of the more nice SyFy horror movies, but it was just lacking something crucial to make it outstanding.If you enjoy the SyFy original movie line and are somewhat familiar with the Asian ghost cinema, then "Grave Halloween" could be entertaining for you. It was well worth a single watch, although the movie hardly has enough material to sustain more than a single viewing."Grave Halloween" scores a mediocre 5 out of 10 stars.