I came to this film with very mixed feelings . GRAVE ENCOUNTERS wasn't only the best lost footage horror film I'd probably ever seen but also the best full length horror film I'd seen over the last few years and caused me to jump out of my seat several times . Any anticipation I had in looking forward to the sequel was tamed in the knowledge that the original directors The Vicious Brothers had been replaced by John Poliquin and on top of that lost footage film isn't a sub-genre that has much scope so decided to watch it with expectations rather low

Just as well because even in sequel terms CLOSE ENCOUNTERS 2 is a massive let down . What I found strange is the meta-fictional quality the way the film starts in which the original film is now a DVD movie unleashed upon the public . In other words it has now become a film within a film which isn't really what the original film was about . Is it post modernist in this approach ? Maybe but for a few seconds I honestly thought I wasn't watching GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2 but rather a montage of youtube reviews of the original film which is bizarre to say the least . No doubt this was the makers intention but I don't really think this worked

The post modernism - or should that be post post modernism - continues well in to the first half of the film as we're introduced to a bunch of a film students who want to go and film at the location of the first movie and before we get there we have to endure lots of footage of the students own attempt to make horror movies . Again it doesn't come of very well and isn't nearly as clever as it thinks it is as characters knowlingly refer to other lost footage movies . It lacks the wit Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson could have brought to it and it tries a little too hard to to appear spontaneous and amateur , though that said it's a difficult thing to get right so I shouldn't judge too harshly . When we do get to the second half it's just more of the same with night vision , people splitting up , loud noises and jump scares . I don't know if it was because I saw GRAVE ENCOUNTERS recently but the scares and unearthly horrors seen here weren't as effective as they were in the original probably down me knowing what was coming next . It also probably illustrates that once you've seen one of these movies you've seen them all . In that case maybe I should be charitable and say this sequel isn't so much bad , just very predictable while the original is something of a standout

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2, mainly because I thought the first one wasn't all that great and how often are sequels superior? However, this turns out to be just that, a funny, realistic and above all entertaining little found footage movie that tackles its genre with gusto and aplomb.

The first half of the film is all set up as the writers work really, really hard to convince us that this is all real. There's more self-referencing here than in SCREAM and I think the guys portray the Youtube generation pretty well; certainly I was entertained by it. Sure, the characters are lousy and one-dimensional, but watch it through half-closed eyes and you can almost believe it. It's like the CATFISH of found footage films in a way.

Once things return to that old abandoned hospital, it once again becomes more predictable, with cast members offed by CGI ghosties. Still, the scare scenes are effective if over the top, and I really liked that whole sequence with the creature coming in through the window. Yeah, the ending is pretty bad, what with the whole riff on EVIL DEAD 2 and everything, but up to that point I was engrossed and above all enjoying myself. It's everything you need from a good B-movie, really.

The cinema student Alex Wright (Richard Harmon) researches the movie "Grave Encounter" In Internet and receives an anonymous e-mail to the coordinates of the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital depicted by the team of paranormal investigators in the first movie. Alex head to the place with his friends and soon they discover evil.

The great achievement of "Grave Encounters 2" is to be capable of being worse and worse than the original "Grave Encounters", what seemed to be impossible. The style of "The Blair Witch Project" seems to be the cheapest way to make a horror movie and barely works. "Grave Encounters 2" is among the worst movies in the style "reality show" and I do not understand why we can't give "zero" stars in IMDb to garbage like this. My vote is one (awful).

Title (Brazil): "Fenomenos Paranormais 2" ("Paranormal Phenomena 2")