Grave Encounters

Grave Encounters – A low-budget direct to DVD horror film, Grave Encounters was made in Canada in 2011 by the Vicious Brothers (Minihan and Ortiz). It’s a Blair Witch rip-off that uses as its premise one of the many TV shows featuring paranormal investigators. In Grave Encounters, the paranormal investigators, who seem loosely modeled on the foul-mouthed heroes (in particular, Zak Bagans) of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, set out to record spirit activity on film – we have all the green-screen infra-red cameras and EVP recorders characteristic to the genre. In the film, the investigators are locked into an abandoned insane asylum. The ghosts attack them and either murder them all, or drive them mad. The film is made in scupulously documentary style – this also opportunistic since each scene requiring expensive special effects can be staged as a momentary flash of something hideous, then, lots of screaming and herky-jerk camera-work that doesn’t show anything at all. (Monster was made in a similar way). Each shot is motivated by one of the cameras positioned to record paranormal activity in the asylum. The movie is moronic but very frightening. Most of the picture consists of images of empty hallways and dark rooms where nothing at all is moving. So when something happens, you involuntarily jump out of your skin. The film is memorable for one feature – the lock down is supposed to end at dawn, but the camera crew and cast can’t find any way to escape for the asylum. Inside the asylum, it is permanently dark. The windows show no glimmer of light and the nightmarish steam tunnels and corridors go on forever. One room just leads to another and another and all corridors marked with Exit signs lead into dead ends. There is no way out. The film has a cult following and a sequel.