Grave Encounters

I was fortunate enough to see Grave Encounters last night, a movie I have been waiting for, for a long time. And because I know there are a lot of people out there who still have to see it, I will not spoil anything, which makes it a bit harder to review the movie at this time, but I'll give it my best.

I loved the beginning of the movie, especially as a 'ghosthunters' and 'ghost adventures' fan. It is very clear that the makers of this movie have at least watched 'ghost adventures'. The cast is legit, this could've seriously been a new paranormal show, or at least it could've convinced me.

I loved it even more that the makers of 'Grave Encounters' (I mean the show in the movie) actually prove it is almost impossible to capture evidence each episode. This while that's what's required to keep a ghost hunting show interesting all the time, and how they are planning to deal with that in case 'once again' nothing happens, this was the only time I had to laugh during this movie. After that, the lockdown (that word sounded very familiar to me ;) began and the laughing stopped...

In contrary to what other reviews said, I DID find it very very scary at times, even the parts that were already in the trailer. There were moments that I literally jumped off my seat. If you're going to watch a movie about ghost hunters, of course you can expect slamming doors and stuff like that, I don't think one of my previous reviewers are very honest about that and I actually wonder what YOU were expecting. Of course there are screaming people all the time, giving the events of the movie (or even only half of them) I would've liked to see you in a situation like that!

I do however admit that the movie made some turns towards the end that I didn't expect and would rather have seen differently. Once again, without spoiling anything because I would hate to do that, I would rather have seen the makers keeping it ehm, a little less explosive and a little less revealing. Once you see the movie you'll understand what I mean.

I would have been more satisfied if the only thing that I had seen the entire movie are slamming doors and flying things for instance. But I guess that's also a matter of what you are willing to believe CAN happen.

So my only reserves are that the only reason that this will not be a new blair witch project, is because there is too much visually revealed. Metaforically speaking: keeping ghosts invisible is usually scarier.

Overall, I was greatly entertained, this was the first movie to seriously scare me while watching in over a decade, which says something coming from a die-hard horror fan (check my history). It has been worth my wait and I hope I see more from this crew in the future.

GRAVE ENCOUNTERS starts out as a parody of those "ghost hunter" reality shows, complete with an overly-dramatic host, a psychic, and an occult expert. The humor comes from the raw, unedited footage, where the stars mock and condemn the fakery of their own show.

The real fun begins when these same paranormal investigators take a film crew into an abandoned, supposedly haunted mental institution. After having themselves locked in for the night, our fearless adventurers settle in for what they expect to be a long, dull evening.

What follows is a slowly-spiraling descent into terror, madness, and death.

The best part of ENCOUNTERS is its midsection, which is nearly perfect in its tense buildup. By comparison, the finale is abrupt and a bit of a buzzkill. Still, as "found footage" films go, it's a damned good one.

As with most such films, it's best viewed in total darkness...

I watch horror movies on a weekly basis and frankly I have grown tired of all the latest trends in horror films. Most of them consist of two hours of screaming while attractive, hormonally-charged young students get brutally tortured by disfigured hillbillies. Yawn. The 'cringe' factor is not entertainment. Who wants to spend money on a movie you can't bare to watch?

Geared with low expectations and a bowl of popcorn I decided to give Grave Encounters a go. Anticipating a minimal scare factor,I didn't think twice about watching it by myself. However, as the film progressed I started locking doors, switching on lights and making arbitrary phone calls to take the edge off. The combination of hand-held camera work,limited lighting and incredibly frightening ghosts had me looking over my shoulder for hours after watching it.

Surprisingly the unfamiliar actors and actress had me gripped in a tense and realistic chasm of emotions, especially Ashleigh Gryzko's believable performance. This film has the cinematographic suspense of Paranormal Activity 3 and will leave you on the edge of your seat up until the very end.

Give it a try... go on.

It's a waste of time to complain that movies like this have been done before. Yes, they have and if you don't like them, don't watch them. I don't think I will ever understand why people watch a movie like this expecting something totally new and different and super high art to fulfill their overly pretentious taste and make them feel like true film critics- Please.

We watched this movie last night via On Demand. A roomful of horror movie fans ranging in age from 11 to 39- and we had a great time. A wall crawling, giggling, screaming at the top of our lungs good time.

-and that's the point! Having a good time.

I don't need to have everything in a scary movie make sense, or be explained to me. I am not in school, I am having a laugh and a good time freaking out with the poor saps trapped in the haunted mental institution.

The story was tight enough to be good, loose enough to allow for the insanity that ensued. The characters were not cliché and the ending was not totally cookie cutter.

Bottom line- this movie was fun. There were moments when we laughed at it, but there were also moments that made us freak out and want to turn on the lights. Just stop over-analyzing, relax and go with it and have fun. If you have to nit-pick a movie to death you have way too much time on your hands.....HAVE FUN!

So this movie is not at all as bad as people say it is. On this website (IMDB) the score is far too low. I'm specifically here talking about the Metascore and not the IMDB user score. It's 33/100 or 3.3/10 and for me that is too low. Now this movie is by no means a masterpiece even when we are strictly speaking about horror, but it's not a bad movie.

The story of this movie.... well it doesn't really have one to note. By this i don't mean there isn't one at all but rather there is very little to talk about when it comes to this movie. That is what i mean by "to note". The movie starts off with the introduction of the cast and what their deal is (they're a paranormal type TV show). But after their introduction into the movie everything else you need to know just happens as the movie progresses and there isn't really any deeper lore. It's simply a movie intended to scare and be uncomfortable and that's it. If you're looking for a horror movie with lore or really any story at all then skip this one.

The horror in this movie is actually ok. There are quite a few jumpscares however i actually though those were the least scary part of this movie (obviously this isn't including the first minutes of the movie). By this statement i simply mean that i found other parts more chilling and uncomfortable. The part that made me feel uncomfortable first was the fact that the building kept changing around them making for an uncomfortable experience for myself personally. I do not want to say more for fear of spouting spoilers, but this movies horror (for a found footage movie) is actually not bad. The place they are in isn't of our plain it seems. Nothing to blow you away i can assure you but at the very least it's average.

The cast of characters in this movie are my favourite part of the movie. I'm kinda surprised myself to say that i thought the acting in this movie was great. Compared to 99% of horror movie is watch, this movie has some of the best acting of them all. I truly believed that they were in this abandoned Asylum. Ever single actor was great in this film. The only one i didn't think was as good as the rest was Matt (played by Juan Riedinger). He wasn't bad at all just not as good as the rest of the cast. I really enjoyed their reactions and i felt like i was watching what real people would act like in this situation. Not perfect but very close too for a found footage.

Story - N/A

Horror - 6

Cast - 9/10

CGI/Monsters - 4/10

Compared to MOST found footage movies i believe this is one of the better ones, 6/10.