The Gravedancers

Infobox Film
name = The Gravedancers


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Mike Mendez
producer = Jonathan Dana
Brent Emery
Mark Morgan
writer = Brad Keene
Chris Skinner
starring = Dominic Purcell
Clare Kramer
music = Joseph Bishara
cinematography = David A. Armstrong
editing = Mike Mendez
distributor = Code Entertainment
released = 2005
runtime = 99 min (initial release) 96 min (Horrorfest release)
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.gravedancers.com/
amg_id = 1:348196
imdb_id = 0435653

"The Gravedancers" is a 2005 horror film, starring Dominic Purcell, Josie Maran, Clare Kramer, Lorvy Lobo and Marcus Thomas. The film was selected to play at the 8 Films To Die For film festival.

ynopsis

The movie opens with a young woman, probably in her twenties, sitting in her room. Suddenly she is attacked by an invisible assailant. A cord zips through the room, grabbing her by the throat and dragging her across the room and down the hall to a stair case. Something pushes the girl and she flips over the banister as the cord is pulled upwards, strangling her to death. As her body goes limp, she drops a black envelope and the screen goes black.

One year later, a group of old friends, Sid, Kira, and Harris, re-unite at a cemetery where a mutual friend was interred earlier in the day. At the reception, Sid invited them to drink. During the drink, Sid also invited them to go to the Crescent View Cemetery, to say goodbye to their friend together, but they insisted. So he went away andgo to the cemetery alone, only to be followed by Harris And Kira.They propose a toast to him and drink the night away. Despite having a wife, Harris engages in a passionate make-out session with Kira in the graveyard. Sid finds a black envelope behind the flowers on the grave. He decides to read it to the other two. The letter says not to mourn him, but to dance the night away and celebrate life. So the group danced on three graves, not knowing the consequences.

After the drunken night of dancing on graves, strange things start to happen. At home, Harris and his wife Allison hear the piano playing, only to find no one there. Allison is attacked by a woman dressed in a white gown covered with blood who shouts "He said he loved me!". Kira has been calling their house non-stop and Allison is afraid that Kira is stalking them again and trying to rekindle a previous relationship with Harris. In a jealous rage Allison storms to Kira's house with Harris right behind her. When Kira doesn't answer the door, she enters through the back door, to find that the house was destroyed.

As Allison and Harris search the house, they hear noises too. When Harris opens the door to the bathroom, Kira appears, covered with blood and then runs back inside, slamming the door behind her. Harris finds Kira clad only in a t-shirt, shivering in the tub, covered in blood and what appears to be scratches. Kira is rushed to the hospital, where it is revealed that the scratches were actually bite marks and that she has been raped. Harris gets a call from Sid saying that he had to check something out. Meanwhile, allison was attacked again by a bloody corpse, then shouts and the people helped, including a princess named Lorvy Lobo. Allison and Harris meet with Sid who introduces them to paranormal investigators, Vincent Cochet, and Frances Culpepper. Sid tells them that he thinks he is being haunted, only to find out that all of his friends are too. They talk to Vincent who is interviewing them about what has been happening. When Harris and Sid mention the 'gravedancing', the investigators appear shocked. Then noises are heard throughout the house. When out of nowhere, small fires appear in the form of footsteps, one after the other towards Sid, then they stop a few inches away from him.

They are told that they are all cursed by havoc-minded ghosts bent on revenge who will continue to grow stronger until the full moon, when they will be killed according to the book). They return to the cemetery to find out which graves they danced on in order to determine what will happen to them based on who is buried in the graves they danced upon. Frances tells them that where they danced in the section for undesirables such as rapists, murderers, the mentally ill and the socially undesirable. While at the hospital, the nurse who takes care of Kira, visits her. She founds Kira under the bed, and tells her to go away. The nurse wanted to help, not knowing that Kira is being haunted by the soul of the corpse in the grave he danced upon. The enraged soul attacks both the girls and severely injuring the nurse.After visiting the graveyard, Harris and Sid race to the hospital to tell Kira what happened. Kira leaves the hospital to find out who is trying to kill her.

Frances researches those buried in the plots they danced on, and shows the others pictures and stories about them.

Harris danced on the grave of a woman, Emma Westbrook,a piano teacher who was having an affair with a married man. When he ended the affair, she went to his house and killed his wife with an axe and killed the husband when he walked through the front door. When the police came, they found her drenched in blood, playing the piano. This explains the happenings in their house.

Sid danced on the grave of a little boy, Dennis, who had an infatuation with fire. Before he died he had already set a few small fires. Then one day he accidentally caught his father's house on fire and became trapped in the blaze, also killing his mother, father, and two older sisters. Sid then asks why, if it was an accident, the boy was buried in the undesirable section. Frances replies that most of the town didn't believe it was an accident.

Kira danced on the grave of a judge, William Langer, an honored man who was admired by the entire community and died peacefully. Upon his death, they found journals he wrote, which tell of his fetish with sadism and masochism. He would lock women up in cages and tie them with masks over their faces, and eventually kill them, after brutally raping them. Frances then shows Kira a picture saying that he forgot one of the woman in the cage. It was nothing but a few bones of the victim.

The three ask Vincent if there is any way to break the curse. Frances has a suggestion, that if they re-bury the bodies that the soul will be laid to rest and that the attacks may stop. However but it is not a certain they will survive as the full moon only two days away.

They race to the cemetery and begin to dig. Sid, Frances, Kira, Harris, and Vincent dig, while Allison stands guard. As Harris starts to uncover the coffin, Vincent hands him a sack and tells him to make sure he gets every piece of the skeleton. Vincent then goes to Kira and tells her the same thing after handing her a sack. She opens the casket and starts to put the skeleton in the sack.

Suddenly, Harris' corpse springs to life and attacks him. Kira is suddenly knocked back by a gust of wind and is locked into the casket which is now upright and sinking. After Harris beats the corpse and smashes it to pieces, he goes to help Kira. Frances hears Kira screaming and runs to help but is distracted when suddenly, Sid's grave catches fire. Frances then runs back to try to help Sid. While Frances is trying to help Sid, Harris, and Vincent can't open the casket that Kira is trapped in. They then break the top of the casket and pull Kira out. Sid manages to crawl out of the grave and Frances tries to put the fire out on his pant legs. Allison then appears, in screaming that someone is coming. They grab the bodies and run. The person Allison saw turns out to be the cemetery care taker.

The group returns to the house and properly bury the bodies. Relieved that its all over, Harris and Allison return home. They had sex that night and both fell asleep. Harris awakens upon hearing footsteps, and "Allison" embraces her. The "ghost" Harris thought entered the room, and Harris was enraged to see that the ghost was really Allison. He carefully turns the lamp on, and the ghost of Emma enrages them and shatters the glass. They escape and run back to the house where they meet up with Sid and Kira who were also attacked. Frances suggest that they stay in the house saying they'll be safer. As Vincent tries to explain that it's not certain that reburying the bodies will work, Frances cuts him off saying that they will survive even though it was the night of the full moon. Vincent then looks out a window to find a fence that was closer to the house than before.

During the night there, Kira and Allison get into a fight over Harris when Sid confessed what really happened when they gravedanced. On the other room, Harris and Sid also had a fight and when Harris distraught Sid, a wall caught fire. When Vincent put down the fire, a writing appeared saying: "Lay you at rest". The door of the room which contains the two girls suddenly closes and Kira, knowing it was the soul of William Langer, becomes quiet and whispers "Run!!". Allison replied and asked " Its him?? and is then blown backwards as Kira is attacked. Kira runs up the stairs and becomes separated from the others. But the paranormal investigators had equipment set up all over the house with cameras since the first meeting. They watch Kira run up the stairs and then they hear her scream. Harris Sid and Allison along with Vincent run to help. Frances tries to leave the room but the doors slam shut trapping her inside. Kira walks into a room and sees cages, and women bound inside of them. She also finds a woman tied and gagged to a weird torture contraption. In the corner of the room an emaciated man is seen hiding in the shadows creeping towards Kira. Kira begins to float and the creature then begins to grope her. When Harris and the others find Kira they discover her still afloat. However the only thing they see is an empty room, and a shard of glass hovering over her throat. When the ghost slides his finger across Kira's neck, slitting her throat, the others only see the shard of glass slide across her neck. They lift her up and he group attempts to leave the house. . Harris tells Frances to open the door, only to realize the fence is now wrapped around the entire house from the ground to the roof. Frances then becomes upset, saying that its all her fault. Vincent tries to comfort her, saying that everything will work out. Frances then walks behind the desk in the room and pulls out a chest saying that she didn't mean for things to get this bad. The opens the chest reveal the skulls of the bodies they had buried. She admits to taking them out of the bags because she wanted evidence of paranormal activity. Harris becomes enraged and destroys all the equipment that Frances had and grabs the skull of the ghost who is attacking him. They try to destroy the window, and Vincent, together with Allison, invites the others to get flashlight, only to find Kira's corpse gone.

A piano begins to play in a nearby room. Kira is at the piano playing the same song that the woman whose grave Harris danced upon, played when she murdered her lover. They walk closer to Kira and Harris calls her name but she continues to play until Harris calls her by the name of the ghost, Emma. She suddenly stops and attacks them. They manage to escape and flee into another room nearby. But Dennis' ghost causes fire to their room, and they all go out. Frances concluded that the ghost is gone. Suddenly, an axe comes flying from the ceiling and kills her. When the rest of them look up at the ceiling, they see Kira's body held up laughing. before getting away, Allison got the keys from Frances, pants and went out.

As they search for a way out, Sid gets trapped in a room that is covered in toys and a bed, which appears to be Dennis' room.. Everything is dark so he grabs a camera that Vincent had earlier and uses the night vision. When he turns around Dennis is standing behind him. The little boy sets the room ablaze, killing Sid. Vincent tries to open the door, but it then explodes sending Vincent flying through another door. Harris finds a window that the fence didn't reach and tries to get Allison to climb out. As he is slowly lowering her onto the roof, Allison screams as she sees Kira holding the axe. Harris lets go and begins to fight with her and injures his leg.

The fire from the room with Sid is spreading to the rest of the house, so Harris limps as fast as he can only to be confronted by Kira again. Just as she is about to kill him, Allison crashes through the house in the car and tells Harris to get in. As she exits the house, the ghost becomes a huge blue mist-like face. They run outside and Harris tries to limp to a grave that Frances had created outside. A huge blue hand then reaches out and grabs Harris who tries to throw the skull back into the hole and misses by a few inches. As the hand is pulling Harris, Allison is blown back and is struggling to get up and help Harris. The hand pulls Harris into the ground and buries him. Vincent who is alive, but badly burned, appears and throws the skull back into the hole. The spirit is then seen being pulled into the blue mist and disappears. Allison and Vincent then run to rescue Harris who is still alive.

The movie cuts to Harris and Allison walking through the cemetery paying their lasts respects. As they walk away Allison sees someone behind them carrying a shovel. Harris tells her to relax saying that its just the caretaker. The caretaker is the man with white hair and beard that was there when they dug up the bodies. He then places a black envelope that tells those in mourning to dance on graves and celebrate life, on a random tombstone.

Trivia

*The look of the film's ghosts was inspired by the "Drop of Water" episode from Mario Bava's anthology horror film Black Sabbath, Disney's Haunted Mansion ride, and a nightmare that director Mike Mendez had one night, in which dreamt of turning around to see a large monster looming over him and smiling. Mendez felt that there was something more disturbing about a malicious entity that was happy to see you - as opposed to a more traditional angry countenance. Fact|date=October 2007

*Portions of this film was done at the Jefferson-Pilot, formerly the Pilot Life Insurance Company building, located in Greensboro, NC. The best view of this building, and land, is located in the documentary section of the DVD when directors and producers were being interviewed. http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061117/NEWSREC0104/61116021 [WP:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435653/] Fact|date=March 2008

Versions

The 2005 DVD release contains a slightly longer version (3 minutes approximately) than the 2006 AfterDark Horrorfest version.

External links

* [http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/gravedancer/trailer/ trailer] at apple.com
* [http://hollywoodgothique.com/gravedancers2006.html Film Review]
* [http://www.dreadcentral.com/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=621 Review at Dread Central]
* [http://www.yourvideostoreshelf.com/index.php/20070430/mike-mendez-interview/ 2007 Audio Interview with director Mike Mendez]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435653/ The Gravedancers on IMDb]