Tag Archives: movie review

The Possession

The Possession

 

In 1973, it was a girl’s relationship with a Ouija board in The Exorcism. Today, it was a girl’s relationship with a box in The Possession. The topic of possession is a common horror film subject. It is like the disease or virus common in many modern day Horror-Sci-Fi blends.  Possession is a sickness that once caught is dangerous to the individual and everyone nearby. It is even possibly contagious. Yet, with a horror-film virus like zombie-ism, or possession, characters are skeptical of the affected person, because it cannot possibly be something foreign that is ailing the individual and causing disruptive mood swings. It must be something more quantifiable; crumbling relationships, a mood disorder, or maybe even simple adolescence? Yet, we all know, as shown in every modern day horror movie regarding possession, that evil is at the core and this evil can only be defeated with God. Now, many of you are not religious and I am always very careful when I speak of religion as I respect everyone’s belief, whether they believe in religion, or just God, or do not believe in either. This blog post is about the film The Possession, the purported true events around the film, and the overall belief of possession. Continue reading “The Possession” »


Chernobyl Diaries

Chernobyl Diaries

The Undertaker and I have been quite busy as the summer months bring about increased activity. The grounds must be kept watered continually, and as you can imagine, working outdoors during high temperatures tends to drain one’s energy.

Yesterday evening, we had planned an outing to the cinema to see Casablanca at this lovely movie theater nearby restored to its near 1915 condition.  Unfortunately, due to being so overwhelmed with work, our dates were wrong and next weekend is indeed the weekend where they will be showing the black and white masterpiece. However, as we were already there, we opted to see another film, Chernobyl Diaries. Now, the reviews for the film have been poor and therefore, I chose to originally stay away, but as that was the next screening we decided on seeing it.

The plot for Chernobyl Diaries is quite simple: A group of friends visiting another friend in Europe decide on doing something interesting – partaking in an extreme travel tour of Chernobyl. For those unaware,  in 1986 reactor number four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine experienced a failure during tests  that led to several explosions. The explosions led to the immediate deaths of dozens and the evacuation of thousands. Continued deaths from radiation exposure are estimated to reach into the thousands. Continue reading “Chernobyl Diaries” »


The Cabin in the Woods

cabin in woods poster

 

There are things that lurk in the dark that you and I will never understand.  Sometimes the monotony in our lives leads us to believe that the routine of it all cannot possibly mean that there is something out there larger, but I believe there is.

There were times when I fought with logic and reason but there were also many nights when I lay in bed and out there, in the cemetery I could hear the wind that sounded more like whispers, and look out over the tombstones to see shadows that seemed to be more than just shadows. The Undertaker of course, does not believe in any of these things. One night, when I descended to the morgue to bring him tea I could have sworn that I saw…something. When I dropped the tea cup and saucer the Undertaker stepped into the hall, looked at the disaster at my feet, shook his head and retreated back to his client. “For a Gravedigger you shouldn’t be so spooked by this place,” he grumbled before demanding I clean the mess and get him another tea.

The next day the Undertaker took me to the cinema to see a film titled The Cabin in the Woods. The premise seemed pretty formulaic; five chaps escape their mundane lives for a weekend of revelry in the woods with drinks and debauchery. During the whirl of ale-enabled silliness, a secret is uncovered, a Latin incantation is uttered, monsters emerge from the woods…and well…there is much, much, much more than that because all is not what it seems.

The true horror movie genre sometimes falls victim to dank monotony, just like we all may fall into routine in our lives, but I assure you this film and yes, even your life is so much more than schedule and routine.

Please do see this film. It was a true delight.

-Gravedigger

Continue reading “The Cabin in the Woods” »


FINAL DESTINATION 5 Contest

For many, this right here, where I work, where I live, is their final destination. I work quietly, and in the shadows so as not to disturb friends and families as they come to visit their dead. Sometimes I run into our visitors because we are crossing the same path, or perhaps they have come near a headstone where I am working and at that point there is very little I can do to be unseen.

Visitors are common here, at all hours of the day, when the gates are open that is. Once the gates are closed, and night falls, our class of visitor is well, let’s just say different.

Just this afternoon I overheard the conversation of a young woman and a young man who had come to the cemetery to visit a recently deceased friend of theirs. The young couple was clearly in the early stages of mourning. Yet, the man seemed more distraught. The man told the woman how he felt guilty for not having reached out to his friend the night of the accident. He broke down into tears and shared a story with the woman he had not told anyone else. The man claimed to have been visited by the apparition of their living friend shortly before this person died. He initially attributed the apparition to a hallucination.  Later, that very evening, he received a phone call indicating that his friend died in a traffic accident. He had wondered desperately since then if there was something he could have done to have prevented the car accident.

There are many superstitions surrounding death and there are indeed reports of people seeing the apparition of a living person shortly before that person dies. Some people who do believe in death omens believe that there is very little to stop death. After all, the only guarantee in life that we have is that we will die. Therefore, can we really ever cheat death for long?

This all made me wonder. Are there people out there who have cheated death? Have you had a near death experience? Were you saved by a friend? Do you believe luck, or something else, saved you from an appointment with the Grim Reaper?

Because your Gravedigger likes to hear ghastly tales, tell me about your chilling close call with death.

For those of you in the following cities; Chicago, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami, if you share your terrible tale of escape from death, your thrilling near death experience,  with us you will be entered for your chance to win advance screening passes to see FINAL DESTINATION 5!

FINAL DESTINATION 5 is the fifth Final Destination film in the terrifying franchise. Death has once again returned to claim its victims, one-by-one.

Please share your escape from death/near death experience with us by sending an email to [email protected]. Provide your email address and your city for a chance to win advance screening passes to see FINAL DESTINATION 5.

We will post the winning tales of near death on our site.

The more thrilling the tale the better! Be honest and keep it clean folks!

Check out the trailer here.

-Gravedigger


Haunted houses are truly insidious

Curious things occur late at night on these cemetery grounds and believe me when I tell you stranger things happen in the day. Sometimes I am charged with running errands inside the funeral home. Recently Undertaker had to make a house visit and he requested that I sit in the funeral home and attend to any phone calls that may come through in the business office. I prefer my own work outside, with the dead, as opposed to work with the living via telephone, but nonetheless I agreed.

The house is immense, and the operations parts, such as embalming rooms and crematorium are located on the lower level. As soon as I eased myself down onto Undertaker’s chair in his office the telephone rang. I answered but no one responded. I hung up, and again the telephone rang. I picked up the telephone, gave my proper introduction and was greeted only by dead silence.

Then the doorbell rang.

With no one on the other line I hung up the telephone and made my way to the front door, where there was also no one present. Quite perturbed by it all I stomped back over to the Undertaker’s office and found the telephone off the hook, on the desk with the busy signal blaring. I hung up the phone again calmly, sat down and leaned back in the chair.

“I will be outside momentarily,” I said. “The Undertaker has requested that I sit here and attend to any business needs, but I assure you that I will be out of your house and back to the grounds as soon as possible.”

With that said, the strange incidents ceased.

Later that night I went to the movie theater to see the recent horror movie, Insidious. The movie began with a family of five;  a mother, father, two little boys and an infant daughter, who had all moved into a rather large, old house. The home fit the classic haunted house mold, with multiple levels, and rooms, an impressive stairway, nooks and crannies and the must-have dark and shadowy cob-web-covered attic. After a fall off a ladder in the attic, one of the son’s, Dalton, falls into an unexplained coma. When the family starts hearing things, seeing things, and after the mother is attacked by a ghost in her bedroom it is time to move out of the haunted house.

However, sometimes the dead follow.

On moving day into the new home new ghosts appear. Quickly, the experts are called in. With the assistance of a paranormal investigative team the family learns that it is not either house that is haunted, but their comatose son, Dalton.

This film busts open the haunted house genre. There are plenty of unexpected moments, and there were also frightened screams throughout the movie theater. The film is intelligent, well planned, and overall well-paced.

I am very familiar with haunted houses. I grew up in one. I work on the grounds right outside of one, and I certainly know that they can surely be terrifying, but then again, I am the Gravedigger and so it takes a lot to scare me.

Go and see Insidious dears. You will be pleased.

-Gravedigger