Rating: 2.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2017 | 29/52 | Found Footage
Grave Encounters was a reality TV show hosted by ghost hunter Lance Preston. The executives canceled the show after five episodes. The executive producer, Jerry Hartfield, explains why and shows us recovered footage of the sixth and final episode. The episode focuses on the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, an abandoned place noted for its unexplained phenomena. The crew locks itself inside the hospital at night. What’s going to happen?
Uh, probably some G R A V E E N C O U N T E R S. So, like, ghosts and stuff.
I just want to be clear: what you're about to see is not a movie. This has been assembled from some 76-plus hours of raw mini-DV source footage that was shot for Lance's show. Not a frame of this has been doctored—it hasn't been manipulated in any way. This is just raw footage that's been edited strictly for time.
🙄 Okay, Jerry.
The film does a great job of parodying these shitty ghost-hunter shows. Sean Rogerson nails the smarmy type of guy that would host this. Where the movie suffers is when it tries to have legitimate scares. Its reliance on CGI is a shame, but it’s how strictly this adheres to the found footage horror beats. Like, the film does the things it makes fun of earlier in the movie!
I never hated it, but I was barely on board by the end.
** Stray Thoughts/Spoilers **
- The doctored photos of Dr. Arthur Friedkin are so funny. I assume his name is a nod to William Friedkin, a la The Exorcist.
- It’s impressive that Jung Bum-shik made a similar movie with Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum seven years later and did everything better than this movie.
- It’s been five days, and bro is eating raw rat.