THE GRAVEDANCERS

Pre-credits, the film opens with a scene that plays like a more aggressive take in THE ENTITY: a woman is thrown on to a bed by an invisible force and slapped about a bit, before being dragged across a landing and hung from a banister. As the life ebbs away from her, a black envelope floats gently to the ground.

Then we're into the main storyline, introduced with the familiar onscreen indicator "One Year Later". Here, we meet Harris (Dominic Purcell, PRISON BREAK). He's at his friend Devin's funeral with partner Allison (Clare Kramer).

Afterwards, Allison decides to leave but encourages Harris to stay for the wake and catch up with his old pals Kira (Josie Maran) and Sid (Marcus Thomas).

The three of them retire to a bar, where Sid suggests they go to the graveyard and toast Devin's grave. Reluctantly, Kira and Harris follow him.

At Devin's grave, Sid finds a black envelope with an anonymous poem inside it. He reads the poem to his drunken friends and all three agree it seems to be saying "live for today". Taking it's advice the only way they know how, the trio proceed to dance on graves while a Ramones-esque song plays over the soundtrack.

The following morning, Harris returns home hungover. As he heads for the shower to freshen up, the family cat snarls at him. Allison's not too pleased with him, as she checks out his muddy clothes. Was she really wise to leave him drinking with ex-girlfriend Kira?! The action then shifts to a fortnight later, and weird things have started happening around Harris' home. Doors are slamming by themselves, wedding photos are being found smashed and the piano appears to be getting played when there's no-one in the room.

Events come to a head one night when Harris hears noises in the house, and Allison wakes to find a strange female lunging towards her in the bedroom. The cops are called to the house, but their search finds nothing.

Allison is convinced that Kira - who has constantly been ringing Harris since their night of gravedancing - is behind the odd events. She drags Harris with her round to Kira's home, where they make a shocking discovery that only serves to amplify the mystery.

Cue paranormal investigators Frances (Megahn Perry) and Vincent (Tcheky Kayro), who turn up to inform the luckless trio that they are now being pursued by murderous spirits, since the night Sid inadvertently read aloud an evil spell …

THE GRAVEDANCERS is a slick film visually, with competent if unimaginative camerawork and performances that never fall below adequate. It looks and feels like a half-decent TV movie.

Purcell is an odd choice for the lead, as it's hard to shake off his PRISON BREAK persona - his acting consists largely of the same old confused brow that he's made his own. An unknown would have been better suited in the role.

Still, as I mentioned above, he's just about passable as a credible character. The rest of the cast do their best with what is a fairly by-the-numbers script.

While there's little in the way of surprises and the storyline does follow convention too comfortably for my liking, it does at least manage to hold the attention and is at times unexpectedly tense.

Director Mike Mendez employs standard horror clichés (POV shots; characters creeping slowly around dark houses) to fairly good effect.

But the film's overall impact is not dissimilar to one of those lesser Stephen King adaptations (you know the ones), where everything feels watered down for potential TV airing. It's competent but tame, slick but unimaginative - it even builds to a low budget fiery climax, just like countless other third-rate horror films that run out of ideas and then resort to flames for their cheap finale.

The use of rock songs on the score (along with some Chopin) works alongside the saturated colour schemes to make this look very much like a feature-length episode of some US TV drama a'la SUPERNATURAL. The predictably young and attractive cast further reinforce this feeling.

Ultimately, THE GRAVEDANCERS can't be dismissed as a terrible film. It's something arguably worse: distinctly mediocre.

The promo disc available for review came minus extras or even menus, so I can't comment on final specs for this UK retail DVD.

As for the film itself, it was presented in a nice anamorphic 1.66:1 transfer with strong sharp images and good balance of those deliberately saturated colour schemes.

The English 2.0 audio was equally serviceable.

Although there was no scene-selection menu, the film did boast 8 chapters.

This review feels very short, but there's little left to say about a film that just about passed an hour-and-a-half then disappeared into insignificance immediately afterwards.

Although no details of extras were available at the time of review, it is worth noting that the US release from Lions Gate boasts a good selection - commentary track, Making Of featurettes, trailer, storyboards gallery, deleted scenes etc.

Review by Stuart Willis