Grave Encounters (2011)

Grave Encounters Trailer

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

(Liked It)

Netflix Synopsis:  In this horror flick, the stars of a paranormal-investigation TV show spend the night in a derelict psychiatric hospital, hoping to uncover what's been going bump in the night. As their cameras roll, they find themselves trapped -- and hunted.

The Peeps: The Vicious Brothers (writers/directors); Sean Rogerson, Ashleigh Gryzko, Merwin Mondesir, Juan Riedinger

Quick Run Down:  Starts Atmospheric, Tense, and Scary, Ends Mostly Flat

Worth the Watch?:  Yeah, if only for the first half and a few scares in the second

Grave Encounters couples us with the five member crew of the ghost hunting reality show, "Grave Encounters".  This crew is about to perform a lock in at an abandoned mental hospital in hopes of capturing some really creepy stuff for their 6th episode installment of their TV show.  There's some back ground and build given for the hospital, Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, a little bit of character intro for each member of the crew, and then they are chain and pad locked in and the ride begins.  And it's a good one... until about midway through.  

Grave Encounters starts off really strong.  The characters are believable and well written; the story is moving and interesting, if not a little tongue in cheek for fun at times; the acting is good for pretty much every one involved; and there is a lot of ground covered for creating some really good scares once the lights go out  And once they do go out, once the guys are put into the hospital, those scares deliver.  They operate on a Paranormal Activity level - give you info about an area or object, show that area or object, then build the tension until the scare finally, suddenly happens - but they're still effective and fun.  This builds and builds until about the middle or just after and then, gradually, the air is let out.  The movie takes a visceral, tangible-horror turn and most of the tension pumped up in the beginning is lost.  Not entirely, but the second half just doesn't work like the first.  I think some of this can be blamed on the shift from psychological to more straight-forward scares, but some of it is also the story's fault.  The convoluted details of Grave Encounters' plot get in the way of any kind of connection with the film because, if you really think about it, it just doesn't make a whole helluva lot of sense.  I'm a story guy, so if plot or story starts slacking, I start to lose interest.  I think this is part of what happened for me with Encounters.  That's not to say there aren't scary parts in the second half of the film.  Personally, I think the story simply gets in the way in the second half, but it's still fun and entertaining.  Unfortunately, what starts off as a promising and potentially terrifying thrill ride mostly blows a couple of its strongest fuses early on and delivers dim the scares in the end.  And there's really not much to be said about the actual ending.

So, if you wanna check out a horror movie that really delivers in the beginning but shifts in the center and loses its flare towards the end, check out Grave Encounters.  It may not be scary all the way through, but it's still a good watch.  It's on Netflix!

Protoype for skin-texting.