Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Nigel P Set in a suicide forest in Japan (but filmed in Canada), it is the location that elevates this film beyond the ordinary. It looks wonderful, eerie, beautiful and is effectively lit.The characters unadvisedly exploring the forest are a fairly likable bunch of teens (which isn't always the case) – there are the 'nice' kids (Maiko, Kyle, Terry and Amber) and there are the 'idiots' (Craig, Brody and Skylar - who think it's a good joke to pretend to be a hanging corpse) – but as it turns out, the 'idiots' are more entertaining than their more saintly counterparts, especially as Maiko is, sadly, the least interesting of them all. Inexplicable, gory deaths and imaginative set-pieces abound.The storyline doesn't appear to make any sense other than our group of young friends are all victims of 'a curse'. At one time it seems as if the police are involved, but events ensure they are as much victims of the curse as anyone. And yet, as the final reel reveals, they are at least in league with the evil. The confusion starts to become enjoyable toward the end, as if there is a dangerous chaos on display, but the film ends before this takes a satisfactory hold.

Leofwine_draca GRAVE HALLOWEEN has an EXCELLENT setting: the real life Aokigahara Forest in Japan, also known as the Sea of Trees or the Suicide Forest. It's a place at the foot of Mount Fuji where people commonly go to kill themselves, a bit like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. A shame, then, that this low budget ghost flick was filmed in a Canadian wood instead; despite the attempts at authenticity this is a film that feels fake throughout (a Japanese university entirely inhabited by westerners doesn't help).In any case, the story turns out to be a disappointment as well. A teenage girl and her buddies travel into the forest to discover the site of her mother's suicide, only to find themselves picked off messily one by one by a vengeful spirit. Yes, it's the usual long-haired Japanese ghost nonsense again, except it lacks any kind of thrills whatsoever in this Canadian TV movie. You have the SyFy Channel to thank for that.The script is derivative, the dialogue a disappointment. The mangled childhood tragedy, revealed through poorly-edited flashbacks, is a non-starter, and there isn't a single member of the cast to get interested in either. The mildly Asian-looking American actress in the lead role, Kaitlyn Leeb, is best known for playing the three-breasted woman in the TOTAL RECALL remake, so that gives you some idea of her acting ability...

TdSmth5 Some half-Japanese girl named Maiko (pronounced "Michael" in the movie) wants to find the place where her mother committed suicide to give her a proper burial. She has nightmares and visions of a forest, of her childhood. Along for the ride come some friends of hers, foreign exchange students in Japan, who are going to...film the whole thing for a class project. Off they go then to the suicide forest, a forest in Japan where lots of people commit suicides by hanging themselves from trees. All they have to go by is a picture she has of the tree where her mother killed herself. I guess Maiko thinks it shouldn't be too hard to find a single tree in a forest. Who took the picture of the tree we don't know. She also has a box with two pieces of jewelry that belonged to the mother. She needs those for whatever ceremony she's going to perform that night, which happens to be Halloween night.When they arrive, they find a sign that bans cameras, still they film. They hide from police (why police?) that removes the corpses. And then they meet the strange stranger who knows about the forest, who makes sinister pronouncements, who warns them not to do this or that, and who recognizes (!) the tree and will guide them to it. But quickly they run into some classmates who pull a prank on them. The pranksters then go their way and run into trouble. They steal a watch from a deceased man in a tent (?). But then the guy who takes the watch is attacked. The other guys run back to the other group. At this point it's night.Maiko starts seeing things, we get to see some flashbacks from her youth about her mother, her violent father, and her sister. The stranger disappears. Maiko and the cameraguy end up arrested and handcuffed in the police station's morgue (?). Then something kills the cop, they escape, they find the tree, and more ghosts. Some of the other kids end up in trouble and injured. Then the sun comes up.Grave Halloween has a good concept. It has a gorgeous setting. The Canadian forest they used is truly beautiful. The scenes filmed during the girl's childhood also look stunning. Overall, direction is very good. But that's all this movie has going for it. While making a movie about a real-life suicide forest sounds like a good idea, you've got to have a good script to work out the idea. And here's it just doesn't work out. It's not easy making a movie about a ghost story and this one sure doesn't succeed. Things get messy and unclear. The ending comes out of nowhere. Nothing is answered. The childhood scenes don't clarify things either but create more questions. And finally a fatal flaw is the weak lead actress.

brianskeet 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