Here we go again for another of my DVD reviews. Grave Encounters embodies the spirit of the season. I have watched it three times thus far and find it worth watching yet again. This movie is very much a one with a pretty high scare factor it is one that I believe all can be sure of for the season.
Grave Encounters is the name of one of those wonderful TV series meant to poke at shows such as Paranormal State (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0785036/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) where a group of paid actors and a psychic go into haunted places speak with the ghosts there and make a creepy atmosphere. So as they are exploring a haunted asylum it turns out that they get a little bit more than they expected to find.
This film is done as another one of those found footage types that became popular after Blair Witch kicked off the format in the 1990s. I have kind of gotten weary of it as there seems to be an overabundance of them now and there don't really seem to be too many original ideas since the Blair Witch Project. This one does have a few original bits that did not occur during the Blair Witch movie. The style combines what we know and love about found footage with the more original style of Paranormal Activity.
This has multiple styles to it such as a fixed cam that they have established throughout the premises and the shaky cam that is the prime example of our viewing throughout the film. The cam allows for transitional scars that combine both Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity. The movie starts out very slow at first to the point where you may start to fall asleep at the beginning. It is kind of nice how you see small stuff such as the movement of a window and eventually the spirit pulling on the hair of one of the actors. This of course is just the star of the long process.
Who couldn't enjoy a nice creepy mental hospital as a setting. Long hallways with different rooms where people died in terrible ways. There is even a nice long tunnel that connects buildings on the campus. Included in this is a nice background of torture of maiming by an insane doctor (nothing new here). The winding hallways make for a nice place to have the long part of the story where they are seemingly trapped endlessly wandering.
Lastly lets look at the scar factors involved which put it above other types that only give you minimal visual effects. This has very scary encounters with the ghosts in the asylum and due to the fuzziness of the camera the budget doesn't have to be too terribly large to pull it off. You actually get the feeling that you are being chased as the film goes on to its inevitable conclusion.
In the end I feel that this film has a fair amount of creativity if only it didn't have the level of boredom that also comes with he early moments of the film.
I give this particular movie a rating of 7/10.
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