The Blair Witch Project meets Paranormal Activity meets The House on Haunted Hill in yet another low budget, found footage/mockumentary style horror that is short on originality yet genuinely high on atmosphere thanks to an effectively eerie setting: an old abandoned asylum.
While the characters—a group of ghost hunters filming a reality show—are wandering around the deserted, derelict building looking for proof of supernatural activity, Grave Encounters is surprisingly unnerving stuff, the abandoned building's deep, foreboding shadows and rooms full of creepy ephemera (old wheelchairs, rusty gurneys, broken shower stalls, and grimy bathtubs) ensuring a palpable sense of dread.
Where the film disappoints is with its actual scares: the encounters with the ghosts aren't as anywhere near as bowel-loosening as the makers had obviously intended, the shocks being very predictable, with the use of rather ropey CGI seriously weakening their overall effect.
While the characters—a group of ghost hunters filming a reality show—are wandering around the deserted, derelict building looking for proof of supernatural activity, Grave Encounters is surprisingly unnerving stuff, the abandoned building's deep, foreboding shadows and rooms full of creepy ephemera (old wheelchairs, rusty gurneys, broken shower stalls, and grimy bathtubs) ensuring a palpable sense of dread.
Where the film disappoints is with its actual scares: the encounters with the ghosts aren't as anywhere near as bowel-loosening as the makers had obviously intended, the shocks being very predictable, with the use of rather ropey CGI seriously weakening their overall effect.