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...

At Yamanashi International University in Japan, Maiko is struggling with her mother's suicide two months earlier in the 'suicide forest'. Amber leads a class project with Kyle and Terry to look for her body. Ghostly apparitions start appearing in the background. They see two policemen carry out a body. Cameras are not allowed. Lone hiker Jin warns them and offers to guide them to the supposed site. Three classmates play a prank on them.

It's strange to shot in BC with a bunch of white young adults and call it Japan. Kaitlyn Leeb is at most half-Asian. I'm sure they could have picked one Asian as part of the group. Some of them are definitely cannon fodder anyways. It's great to have a solid actor like Hiro Kanagawa but it's not enough. The ghosts don't count. There are way too many idiotic dudes acting idiotically. This is a no-budget horror that starts with minor creepiness and then turns into overblown horror shlock.

For the SyFy Channel, who have produced countless bad movies with the odd tolerable one, Grave Halloween is not so bad at all. It is filmed and edited competently and the setting is quite creepy. The music does have the appropriate amount of eeriness, the death scenes are gory and really very chilling and the acting especially from Cassie Thomson and Hiro Kanagawa is above-average. Extra plaudits also for the details of Japan and the Japanese laws and customs being spot on, and for the homages paid to The Evil Dead, The Ring and The Blair Witch Project without blatantly ripping them off. Grave Halloween is not without its flaws though. The characters are not very well-defined at all and at the end of the day there's not really anybody despite the acting that you find yourself caring for. The dialogue lacks flow and can sound downright embarrassing at times("that's super comforting" is something you'd hear a stereotypical high school student say). And with the story, there is a good idea somewhere that is not translated quite so well on screen, the back-story and the Japanese culture are intriguing but the mystery and horror elements- which are more important- are not. The mystery elements are not paced very securely and feels too predictable and lacking in suspense and tension to really convince, and the horror suffers also from predictability and not everybody looking as though they properly care for their predicament. Grave Halloween wisely uses its special effects minimally, but when they are there at best they are just okay and too many times also rather shoddy. The ghosts evoke some chills, but did anybody else think that they looked a little more like zombies rather than ghosts? All in all for the SyFy Channel, Grave Halloween is not bad but as a movie taking that it's SyFy out of the equation for a minute it is one that is alright but left wanting. 5/10 Bethany Cox