Watching this movie was kind of weird for me, because I had a sort of biased opinion towards the concept. Only because one of my closest friends from my teen years and beyond is now a regular cast member on “Ghost Hunters” on the Sci-Fi Network. (I refuse to spell it that weird new way they’re doing it these days.) I’m not entirely sure what the filmmakers’ motives were, here, as I’m writing the review simply as a horror movie FAN who watched a movie. (I didn’t do thorough research into behind the scenes stuff or read interviews with the director, etc. This is just my opinion after seeing it.) So I have to wonder if the concept for “Grave Encounters” was born at least partially out of a strong dislike for shows such as “Ghost Hunters,” OR if it was a matter of sticking to a story that took advantage of one location and a small budget that was perfect for the “found footage” genre of indie horror. Perhaps maybe even a combination of the two.
I only wonder because the movie starts out with the characters clearly acknowledging themselves as phony, having found no evidence of anything supernatural so far on their fake television series of the same name as the film. The main character, Lance Preston, immediately comes across as a douchebag who has absolutely no interest in the paranormal so much as he simply loves the spotlight, and he has no qualms with asking “eyewitnesses” to make up fake stories about the asylum his team is about to investigate. My initial reaction to him was, are we as viewers supposed to dislike him so that when awful things inevitably happen to him, we’ll not only be okay with it but maybe even celebrate a bit? On the other hand, I admittedly might have found him more obnoxious because of what I know about investigative teams on these shows. Like them or not, they actually do NOT fake anything that they report or set out to create fake experiences for the sake of exciting television. Anyways, back to the movie.
The likable factor was a different case with the other two lead characters, Sasha and Matt. As the three take a walking tour of the asylum in the daylight and are told about the things that happened there and the paranormal sightings that have supposedly occurred, Sasha comes across as a sympathetic human being and Matt is more of a goofball than anything else. They do, unfortunately, bring along a 100 % phony balones psychic medium named Houston Grey, and he’s pretty annoying throughout the entire movie. Just an FYI.
The action is a bit slow at first. A lot of it is the crew setting up for their shoot and establishing that, although the rundown asylum is definitely creepy and has a dark past, they don’t REALLY expect anything to happen. But they ready their equipment anyway. Static cameras on each floor, etc. The three investigators, the medium, and another team member are locked inside the building with no way out until someone comes to unlock the doors in the early morning hours. I will say that for a while, I was NOT impressed with this movie at all. I’m trying to keep plot specifics out of the picture for the most part in this review, but I’ll go ahead and let you know that the first “scary” thing that happens to them as a sign of activity is a door slamming. I thought, “If the rest of the movie is going to be this sort of thing, I’m going to be pretty bored.” After all, this came out in 2011, post “Paranormal Activity.” You’ve got to approach this type of thing with either more extreme scares OR a different and more creative approach. Right?
Well, “Grave Encounters” luckily takes a turn in the latter direction and puts a very interesting spin on things. It doesn’t just stick with the idea of the building being haunted. It also plays heavily on the psychological affects that the surroundings begin to have on the crew, and they start to question their OWN sanity rather than simply look for spirits. It definitely adds to the creepiness factor and gives you some things that you don’t necessarily expect. I liked some of the creative choices they made.
The special effects are a mixed bag. Early on in the film, there are some makeup effects on patients in “old footage” that look pretty fake and rushed. Later on, some ghost effects do look creepy but also seem a bit too obviously CGI’d if you look closely. HOWEVER, very late into the film there is a surprising and bizarre scene that definitely made the hairs on my arms stand up a little bit, and looked VERY unnerving. It was a cool idea and they executed it nicely.
I actually did end up feeling bad for most of the characters. (The main three, primarily. Even the douchebag, Lance. Though not QUITE so much for him as I did for Sasha and Matt.)
Overall, I don’t think this film really got to me that much until the end. There is a scene in particular in which a character resorts to something pretty shocking and repulsive in an attempt to survive that I was NOT expecting, and the visual really stuck with me. The final scenes proceeded from there into unnerving territory that, while a bit hokey and gimmicky, still managed to disturb me just a tad given the subject matter. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say there are certain aspects of mental illness that have always frightened me because they actually have happened.
If you enjoy the shaky cam, “found footage” genre and the “Paranormal Activity” movies but would like something with a slightly different spin, this one might be worth a watch. I don’t think it’s going to blow you away, but there are some good moments in there. I rate it Three and a Half out of Five Pints of Blood.
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