TRAILER (quicktime)

My budget was only allowing me to see one film this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, and luckily, my keened horror senses guided me to something pretty damned cool.  Gravedancers, directed by Mike Mendez (The Convent), is on the surface, a film about three friends who desecrate the graves of three very unforgiving ghosts.  But what you get when you milk this baby is one frightening, well made ghost story that will give you good scares and chills without cheesing it up with one-liners or insulting your intellectual capacities.  If this film doesn't make it to theaters, then there's something we all need to address about which films make it to the big screen because The Gravedancers is one great landmark horror film for 2006.

The first success of this film is playing off something that most of us have done while growing up - gone out to a graveyard, had a few beers, ran around in the night, doing things we aren't proud of to people's headstones and burial mounds.  In this case, after a mutual friend is killed in an auto accident, Harris (Dominic Purcell) inadvently reunites with some old college friends, Sid (Marcus Thomas) and Kira (Josie Maran).  After the burial one night, the three enter the graveyard and find a poem written on a card, left on the grave.  In the spirit of the funeral moment - drinking and reminiscing goes overboard - and soon theyre dancing around and on the grave, singing the poem to music.  This isn't some song.  Its an ancient "gravedancing" curse - and much like those poor suckers in Evil Dead who end up raising the dead in that cabin - these three people are going to find their lives cursed and involved in something evil and WAY out of their control.

This effort from Mike Mendez is a success for some key reasons.  The actors and actresses were convincing in portraying the fear and confusion - much above the standard you'd expect from television role stars.  The writing is taken seriously, appealing more to my adult, psychological facets as well as tweaking the fear factor excellently.  The first hour of the movie is almost flawless.  The ghost story is standard in some senses, if you consider how its a curse unleashed, hauntings, running for your life and then a final confrontation against the evil.  But Mendez pulls it off and hits his target.  The characters were more complex than a teen horror film - but this took nothing away from the shock value, as the audience reeled from scenes at least three times that I can remember.  And, much like Dawn of the Dead (2002) had a slap-in-your-face, shocking opening - this one hit hard as well.

CGI got into the mix toward the end, and in all truth, in my opinion, it slightly loosened the claws Gravedancers had in you before it came to the forefront.  But it doesn't, at all, destroy the quality of the ending.  The showdown in the house with the ghosts was pulled off well, and seemed to have everyone in the house visibly tense.  This aint no Frighteners or Ghostbusters.  These ghosts are some evil shiot. Hopefully this film will be pulled into distribution as horror thrives and ghost stories become the theme this summer (Fragile, An American Haunting).

Final Analysis:  If you are a fan of ghost stories, do not miss this.  Make an effort to try and catch one of its final showings this week at the Tribeca Film Festival - because it may not see theaters.  With this story, sound fx, acting, fright level, effects, and the overall horror elements that it offers - it would be a shame if its not offered to the movie-going public.  Gravedancers was a horror treat that I wasn't expecting and proof that there are some awesome films out there that are as far off the remake track as anything you can hope for.  Gravedancers is one of the must see horror films of 2006.

If youre near NYC - you can still catch The Gravedancers at these times and showings...

Sat, Apr 29 / Midnight
Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11
$12 

Tue, May 2 / 10:15 pm
AMC Loews 34th Street 13
$12 

Fri, May 5 / 11:30 pm
AMC Loews Lincoln Sq 5
$12 

Sat, May 6 / Midnight
AMC Loews Village VII 3
$12 

For more information, visit the 2006 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL's website
or check out the OFFICIAL WEBSITE for The Gravedancers