Now, let me preface this review with the fact that I loved the first wave of "Found Footage" movies from The Blair Witch Project on thru the little known The Poughkeepsie Tapes to the much lauded [REC]. These films had an immediacy and originality that afforded the genre some much needed relevance, in a market place of ever escalating megabudget movies from the big studios.Then suddenly everything changed when mainstream audiences caught on to the trend and we started to see a string of weak offerings from such luminaries as George A. Romero (Diary of the Dead) and J.J. Abrams (Cloverfield). So in recent weeks it's been a delight for me to discover not one, but two, well made examples of the genre, I will be dealing with the The Last Exorcism in a later review but for now, say hello to Grave Encounters...
This debut feature from Canadian duo Collin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz (collectively known as The Vicious Brothers @VICIOUSBROS) follows the crew of a fictional paranormal reality television program, called Grave Encounters, who lock themselves in a haunted psychiatric hospital in search of evidence of paranormal activity as they shoot what turns out to be their final episode.
The film opens with television producer Jerry Hartfield, played with amazing sincerity by Benjamin Wilkinson (who you may have caught recently in episodes of Fringe & Alcatraz), describing Grave Encounters, a paranormal reality television program directed by and starring ghost hunter Lance Preston, which was canceled after five episodes. Hartfield explains that the events about to be shown in the film is raw footage from the sixth and final episode filmed and edited only for time purposes.
The footage proceeds to show the crew of Grave Encounters — composed of Lance himself (Sean Rogerson), occult specialist Sasha Parker (Ashleigh Gryzko), technical expert Matt White (Juan Riedinger), cameraman T. C. Gibson (Merwin Mondesir), and guest-starring psychic medium Houston Grey (played by Toronto-native and US TV veteran Mackenzie Gray) preparing to investigate the fictional Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital...
This is where the the well thought out script and dialogue starts to really hit it's stride majestically. For any of you reading this who indulge in the guilty TV pleasure that is Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel you will instantly feel at home with the characterizations on display here. Rogerson presents Lance as a less honest if no less earnest version of that show's main man Zak Bagans, Rogerson manages to present the image of a normal TV presenter (is there such a thing?) being faced by abnormal situations that are outside both his experience and his belief systems.
The confluence of emotions in Rogerson's portrayal of Lance Preston manage to create a character of both depth and honesty. As the team assembles equipment and began the recording in earnest by receiving a tour of Collingwood and its underground tunnels the viewer gets to learn something of Collingwood's horrendous history, including a physician named Arthur Friedkin, who performed unethical experiments and lobotomies on the hospital patients before being killed by escaped patients.
This setup also allows us to delve a little deeper into the support characters and we learn that Sasha is the one true believer in the group, while both TC and Houston are really only there for the money (in Houston's case the 'psychic' fame helps too!). So with the cast very much assembled the lockdown commences.
Much like The Last Exorcism this movie is another example of controlled horror, not quite as extreme as the control shown by Ti West in his movies ( i.e. No shocks allowed until the final 15), as the tension starts to build we see the cracks start to appear in all the main characters.
As Lance and his crew try to establish contact with the unseen entities responsible, they find themselves tormented by hauntings, strange time shifts and a growing hostility which become increasingly more pervasive and claustrophobic as the minutes pass.
As a debut for Minihan & Ortiz this is pretty much on par with the aforementioned Ti West's House of the Devil when it comes down to expertise and delivery of a solid scare-fest. There are minor quibbles along the way for this reviewer, but they are minor and mostly revolve around some uneven pacing and the inclusion of some very J-Horror style ghosts. Overall the boys have delivered an accomplished and believable yarn that drags you in and keeps you watching till the end...
5/5
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