Weekly Review -- Being suckered... I mean, sequeled

Grave Encounters 2 (2012) -- The state of today's horror films seems to be in direct proportion to a steep decline in the audiences' attention span. For every Paranormal Activity and The Strangers, there pops up a decidedly less brilliant Hostel and The Collector, as well as numerous sequels that try to capitalize on any innovative original's success. In the case of the Vicious Brothers' Grave Encounters 2, the film is a repeat of the first one's shenanigans, with some meta elements thrown in for laughs.

Student Alex Wright (Richard Harmon) is obsessively poring over every sequence of Grave Encounters in order to prove to his friends that the film is far from fiction. One day he gets a message from a blogger named Death Awaits, indicating that Sean Rogerson -- the lead actor from the original -- is still stuck in the ominous tunnels of the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital. With his friends in tow, Alex travels to the asylum, where they soon discover that you should be careful what you wish for... 

The first film was what one would possibly get if one threw The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and House on Haunted Hill into a big cinematic blender and hoped that their experiment might result in a tasty concoction. It sort of did, actually. Although slightly derivative, the first one was a fun ride, boasting some cool scares in the context of a chilling ambiance. We do not find that kind of escapist vibe here, though. The references to the previous story are quite unique and the reality-versus-fiction concept is amusing, but that is where the efforts end. First of all, the film cheats its audience by using too many cheap scares, courtesy of the original blaring through the characters' iPads. Seriously, guys? Never have I seen a sequel that borrows its scares -- quite literally at that -- from the original. Second of all, if you want plot holes, you are in the right place. If the principal character had been such a connoisseur, he and his friends would not have done the exact same things that Lance Preston's crew had done. Why not stand next to the window? Why not split into groups? Oh, look, EXIT means NO EXIT! For crying out loud, this entire quest is predicated on the fact that these characters have seen the first film. In this sense, the sequel is one gigantic plot hole in itself. I am surprised that the hospital did not swallow it whole.

There really is no point in talking about the cast and the acting. While Grave Encounters used its reality show crew as the audience's eyes, enhancing the story through the team's reactions, the second one simply uses its actors as props to show the ghosties. Anyone could have filmed the "footage" and anyone could have been stuck in those tunnels for ten years. Harmon does all right as Alex, alternating between smug hipster and smug know-it-all, but the rest of the cast is truly interchangeable.

You will like Grave Encounters 2 if you are a die-hard fan of the original. You will not like it if you are looking for a sequel that expands upon the story's mythology, which is what it should have done. Had I wanted more of the same, I would have re-watched Grave Encounters. Repetitions and cheap thrills are not the way to respect a built-in audience, just like watching a different franchise entry is not supposed to bring us back to the same old spot.

5/10