Preparing for a new episode, a group of paranormal explorers decide to tackle a supposedly haunted estate in the countryside rumored to be the home to a series of ghosts from its history as a children's hospital, and the longer they stay there they come to believe the stories are true.
This was a decent enough and likable genre effort. While it tackles a rather familiar storyline involving the shooting of a paranormal investigation reality show featuring a look into a supposedly haunted location that turns out to be genuine, this one at least offers a slightly different take on the setup involving how it approaches the starting sequence. Here, this opts for some behind-the-scenes footage of the hosts looking over the information for the upcoming sequence, messing up their lines requiring retakes, and getting on-set instructions from the crew which adds a different touch than expected. Adding narration with some solid quips, jokes, and other interactions that help to add a more spontaneous feel to everything, the overall implication taken from the setup is that it's a lot more of a genuine take on the subject matter than seeing the recovered footage of an investigation that starts fine before slowly going awry. That makes the scenes involving the group undergoing the different supernatural or unnatural interactions around the facility that occur throughout here somewhat chilling. The initial implication here is the usual assortment of scenes involving the group arriving at the location thinking it's just another run-of-the-mill shoot with the team going through the haunted background of the place, the various encounters throughout the years that help build it more, and then exploring the various rooms using their equipment or other means to contact the ghosts living there. This is all worthwhile enough that it helps to bring about a decent enough atmosphere with the ouija-board scenes to help enhance the situation so that the finale is a bit more action-packed involving some unexpected appearances of the ghosts, a possession by one of the crewmembers that are somewhat unexpected, and a generally lively presence that gives everything a bit more to like than expected. There are some issues here that bring this one down. Among its biggest issues is that, while there's a lot to like with the atmosphere, in terms of on-screen action this is decidedly sluggish to the point of barely offering much excitement. Far too much of the running time is the hosts sitting around talking about the shoot, sniping at each other for how they got their respective positions in the show, or doing the same thing that most reality-show-shoot genre efforts involve where they spend tons of time doting over their equipment trying to contact the ghosts. Being found-footage, there's nothing much going on here unless it's captured on camera so this one acts as such a glacially-paced feature that it takes far too much time to get going that the goodwill established by the setup or atmosphere is almost gone due to the lack of action and overall familiarity with the material. As well as the odd narrator's sense of humor clashing with the seriousness of the shoot, these are what brings this down overall.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.
