Grave Encounters – Review

Grave Encounters
Starring: Sean Rogerson, Juan Riedinger, Ashleigh Gryzko, Mackenzie Gray
Rated: R
Director: The Vicious Brothers

Lance Preston and the crew of the television show Grave Encounters lock themselves up in the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital overnight to film an episode, soon these non believing ghost hunters will realize they are in way over there head.

Grave Encounters is the latest in the “found footage” horror subgenre that also includes Paranormal Activity and the Blair Witch Project. What sets Grave Encounters apart is the setting, while Blair Witch was mostly the woods and PA takes place in a San Diego home, Grave Encounters is primarily in an old abandoned Hospital which adds a creepy factor to help play on our fears.

We are shown what is said to be the lost footage of Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson) and crew, Preston is the host of Grave Encounters and while there are extensive similarities to the travel channels fauxhawk haired ghost hunter/uber douche Zak Bagans, Lance is more of a send up of Zak. Both try to provoke spirits however Preston does not seem to actually be a believer in the paranormal himself.

Grave Encounters was made on a shoe string budget and for the most part you would not have any clue, it gets the atmosphere and tone correct for a film of this type. The only issue with the movie is that there just are not as many scares as I would have hoped for, The first half is a humorous behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a show of this type with the second half being the meat of ghost story, there are the typical conflicts between characters but thankfully not to the extent of Blair Witch with the scares not quite up to that of Paranormal Activity. Overall Grave Encounters is a solid entry to the genre particularly for first time directors, relying more on atmosphere than visual shockery.

Grade-81