Grave Danger

When I’m watching a movie, I usually try to allow for deficiencies in its budget. If a filmmaker doesn’t have James Cameron’s money to make a movie, there’s no way the effects will be as good. Still, you have to have some talent to overcome the lack of a budget, and I’m afraid Grave Danger falls short.

A woman alone at home receives a phone call, from an unknown caller who tells her he’ll kill her if she doesn’t do what he says. You would think no one would be stupid enough to fall for this, but every day you hear stories of people doing weird and demeaning things in response to prank phone calls. The caller mainly wants her to take off her clothes, which she does, but they also trade scary stories for no apparent reason. This is an anthology movie, you see, and each story is a separate part. There’s a guy who is paranoid about being watched, who turns out was really being watched. There’s an old ventriloquist and his dummy, who is harassed by his audience (SPOILER: It turns out the dummy is alive and murderous. Betcha didn’t see that coming.).

The plot is by-the-numbers, as you can tell. The movie is a technical disaster beyond its low budget limitations – every outdoor scene is overexposed, probably because they didn’t use the right filters. One actress plays two different characters in the same segment, and not on purpose. The acting is worse than a high school play, with the actresses apparently being hired due to their willingness to disrobe (every actress in the movie except the one playing two parts gets naked.). Pass on this one.

Plans have been announced on a sequel, which may center on the murderous dummy. Sigh.
.