Grave Encounters - Horror Spot Review
By Jose
Plot:
Lance Preston and the crew of "Grave Encounters", a ghost-hunting reality television show, are shooting an episode inside the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where unexplained phenomena has been reported for years. All in the name of good television, they voluntarily lock themselves inside the building for the night and begin a paranormal investigation, capturing everything on camera. They quickly realize that the building is more than just haunted - it is alive - and it has no intention of ever letting them leave.
Cast:
Sean Rogerson (lance Preston), Juan Riedinger (Matt White), Ashleigh Gryzko (Sasha Parker), Mackenzie Gray (Houston Gray), Merwin Monde sir (T.C Gibson)
Review:
It's a waste of time to complain that movies like this have been done before. Yes, they have and if you don't like them, don't watch them. I don't think I will ever understand why people watch a movie like this expecting something totally new and different and super high art to fulfill their overly pretentious taste and make them feel like true film critics- Please. Just stop over-analyzing, relax and go with it and have fun.
With that said, Grave Encounters attempted to change up the found footage genre a bit by making it seem like it was a new ghost hunting reality show gone wrong. And to me it succeeded in delivering a different and scary movie.
The beginning of the film shows all the behind the scenes type of stuff you would think happens with these ghost hunting shows. Setting up shots and interviews. Making things up and paying people off to say what they want them too to provide a scary story or add a bit of suspense and mystery. Re shooting shots and filming multiple takes. Static and time lapse shots. Etc. Grave Encounters delivers on that and makes it the comedic side of the film. And it is not until the group begins there lock up at the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital that things start to take a turn for the worse.
At first we see the group go and find nothing, just messing around, and getting frustrated that this episode will suck and maybe get the show cancelled. But then the noises start and then things slamming. TC goes alone and gets a door slammed on him. Scary the crap out of him and us. Then Sasha gets her hair tossed. And now things start picking up. As the group decides to call it a night they send their tech guy, Matt to grab all the cameras to leave. Well in one area, where the window opens, he hears something and goes to see what it was. Well he disappears.
So the rest of the film the remaining group goes out to search for Matt. All encountering scary and down right frightening things. They find themselves lost in a labyrinth maze of endless hallways and corridors, terrorized by the ghosts of the former patients. They soon begin to question their own sanity, slipping deeper and deeper into the depths of madness, ultimately discovering the truth behind the hospital's dark past...and taping what turns out to be their final episode.
The scares of Grave Encounters are exactly that scares. They will make you jump and panic. A random woman runs across the hallway into a room. They go and see what the hell she is only for her to turn, scream, and scare the shit out of the cast and the viewer.
Later on we see the recovered photos, which are shown to us soon after they are taken, and we see what they never had a chance to see. All the spirits and mists. The hands and faces in the windows and glass. Then in one room a table moves then gets thrown up and down. Houston Gray, lost, gets grabbed by something we can’t see and thrown around and tossed. Soon dragged away. In the suicide room, a blood filled tub sits in the middle. A woman bursts out and grabs TC. The tub is tossed and no one is there. Later some creature/patients fall from the ceiling and chase after the remaining group (Lance and Sasha). We end with Lance going insane and finding his way to a secret room where he finds himself confronted by the evil spirits of the doctor and nurses.
Final Thoughts:
Grave Encounters may not have been this spectacular film that revolutionized the found footage genre of horror. But it did provide just that. Horror. It scared to crap out of me and who I watched it with. And if a movie scares me the way Grave Encounters did, it certainly did it’s job. The movie reminded me of how I felt seeing the first Paranormal Activity. I highly recommend seeing it or adding it to your horror movie list to see this Halloween.
Ratings: 4 out of 5
