Overall, the movies of the 2006 After Dark Horrorfest weren’t that great, but this one wasn’t bad. Now I realize that the movies weren’t big-budget films, but that’s okay. Movies don’t have to cost a lot of money to be good. To say it another way, just because they cost a lot of money doesn’t mean that they will be any good. They might be horrible.

In this case, we see a few friends at a funeral, and after, they decide to drown their sorrows and make what – by most estimations – would probably be a bad decision. They dance on some graves to celebrate the fact that they are alive. Why would they do this? Because they were told to do so. Not directly, mind you, but because while they were mourning the death of their friend, they found an envelope at the grave, and upon opening it, they were told to “dance upon graves and celebrate life”. A poem of sorts. So they did. It wasn’t written to them – someone had just left it, they read it, and that’s what they did.

Over the next few days, their lives are haunted by the spirits of the graves that they danced upon. Of course, they don’t know this right away, but it becomes clear soon enough, and throughout the movie the remaining friends fight the spirits as they try and overcome them. Eventually it becomes clear that they have to re-bury the bodies, in order to calm them once more.

Unfortunately, some of the group dies in the interim, but then if they didn’t it wouldn’t be a very good attempt at a horror movie, would it? Still, some survive, as you would expect, and eventually things settle back down and the surviving members go back to what appears to be the same graveyard to mourn the newly-dead members of their group.

There, they see the caretaker, but dismiss him, since he is just doing his job. Too bad, because if they had paid attention, they would have seen him stoop over a grave and place a small envelope there, for some unknowing person to pick up and read. It’s actually not a bad ending. Somewhat fitting for The Twilight Zone, perhaps.

Rated R for strong horror violence/terror and some language.

Tagged with...
Actor: Bob McHone, Actor: Brad Batchelor, Actor: Clare Kramer, Actor: David Lowe, Actor: Dean Lyons, Actor: Dominic Purcell, Actor: Dustin Thomas, Actor: Geneva Avarett-Short, Actor: Jack Mulcahy, Actor: Jim McKeny, Actor: Josie Maran, Actor: Les Puryear, Actor: Lonnie Burchfield, Actor: Lulu Brud, Actor: Marcus Thomas, Actor: Martha Holland, Actor: Megahn Perry, Actor: Oakley Stevenson, Actor: Reid Dalton, Actor: Robert Bartusch, Actor: Samantha MacIvor, Actor: Tchéky Karyo, Actor: Tina Murphy, Director: Mike Mendez, Rated: R, Year: 2006