Written and directed by The Vicious Brothers, Grave Encounters is a supernatural horror movie that first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2011, and was then released in some theaters on August 19, 2011, for a limited time.
This movie follows the crew of Grave Encounters. Before being a movie, Grave Encounters was a supernatural reality television show about ghosts and paranormal activity, In the movie, they look for a new place to shoot their next episode. Such a place ends up being the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, an abandoned hospital that has allegedly been haunted. Determined to film their next episode, they decide to spend a night inside and search for proof regarding the paranormal happenings that have been reported in the hospital. But what they end up finding is a lot worse than they expected.
Even though it has received a lot of mixed reviews since it came out, Grave Encounters is still worth a watch. Something that makes this movie stand out (and that I really enjoyed) is the fact that the movie is framed as if someone had found the lost footage of what happened to Lance Preston (the main character/host) and the crew of Grave Encounters inside the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital and released it to the public. This makes the story that develops throughout the movie much more interesting and disturbing than it already is. Another aspect that I really enjoyed was the beginning of the movie, where you find yourself initially wondering why you’re wasting your time since nothing supernatural is happening, but once the night comes and the crew starts witnessing all kinds of weird things, you find yourself unable to stop watching. That alone is a great thing because not a lot of movies have the power to keep you waiting and wanting to know more about what may or may not happen.
In the end, Grave Encounters might not be the most terrifying horror movie out there or the best (based on its reviews), but it is still frightening enough to enjoy at night and has some pretty creepy nightmares. If you’re into movies about haunted places, evil spirits, dark and mysterious background stories, or just paranormal activity in general, know that you might want to add this one to your list!
P. S. If you watch it and like it, know that there is a sequel called Grave Encounters 2 that’s even better than the first one!