The Crying Dead

THE CRYING DEAD AKA THE WHISPERING DEAD documents members of a crew for a new paranormal reality show breaking into and staying overnight at an abandoned hospital, where they encounter more than they bargained for.

This found footage movie was released the same year as GRAVE ENCOUNTERS (2011), a thematically virtually identical but far superior found footage movie which demonstrates how much potential was unrealized here.

The prologue shows old footage of some kind of experiment but then nothing later in the movie ties into it. The actual ghosts are not given the prologue treatment. Also, there is a tale of cannibals and of a patient who cut his nurse that go nowhere. The crew members just disappear and we never know what exactly happens to them. The motivations of the supernatural beings are entirely unclear, which is surprising, given how much time the movie spends recounting the history of the hospital. In short, this is one of the more disjointed found footage movies I have seen.

Everything is predictable from a mile away, save for one mild twist: when the first supernatural events occur, the crew members still think that it is prank played on them; and the motivation for thinking so is actually plausible. Actually, the order in which the team members are picked off one by one was also something I did not predict, but the end result was all the same. There are no really new ideas here.

Finally, the way the ghosts are introduced and used for horror is pretty bad. It is really obvious that the ghosts are just a special effect, and for a moment I thought this was actually meant to be a plot twist in which someone sets up hokey ghosts to scare the crew or something.

Some of the scenes had the potential to be scary, but the victims are dispatched far too soon to unsettle the audience, and then, as mentioned, we never find out what precisely happens to them.

Finally, I don't understand why so many found footage movies make their characters so unlikable. I understand that for dramatic purposes, it is good to have characters with tragic flaws, but we the audience still have to be able to look beyond that to care for them.

I did not rate this lower because, despite the disjointedness, the story itself was fairly coherent and the movie had at least some atmosphere.

Overall, I consider this a below average found footage film. Some more recent and better found footage treatments of the same concept are HOLLOWS GROVE (2014) and GONJIAM: HAUNTED ASYLUM (2018).

When the trailer came out about two years ago, A lot people were compared it to Grave Encounter.

I was not big fan of Graven Encounter but that movie is a masterpieces to compared to The Crying dead (2011)

The dead won't be the only ones crying after this movie, as you be crying for wasting time on this rubbish.

The open scenes was really weired and the only decent part of the movie, Before title come up, we see fast forward scene from later in the movie.

Then get a bunch of people auditioning for new Ghost hunting show.

65% of nothing happing in this movie, boring plot very unlikeable people, who could not act, or actors pretending to be as Bad actors as they could .

There was not one second of a eerie feeling in this movie even WHEN the ghost showed up, effect were really badly done.

Then if the ghost don't show up, these people end up getting blown or drag away, that was so many time in less then a few minutes is gets tedious and boring, dose not scarce anyone.

2 out of 10

WOW!!! This movie is just beating the "found footage" genre into the ground. It's like the filmmakers said,"Did you see "Grave Encounters"?...well...we can make one MUCH MUCH worse!" And DID THEY EVER! I have to admit I have seen WORSE acting in a found footage film,but this lame story has been told a bazillion times,and there is NOTHING original about it. The FX are not SPECIAL at ALL...they are actually at the point of being laughable! When the first "ghost" showed up,I darn near turned the movie off,because I KNEW it wasn't going to get any better.

...I was correct.

I watched this with a bunch of friends expecting to laugh at a cheesy movie, but it was actually pretty good!It started off questionable but once it got rolling it was more believable.We got into the story and characters. The acting was good and the improved dialog kept it from being corny. The most charming actors were the old man, Becka Adams who played the producer, and the super obsessed lead male character. It feels like you are there with these people messing around in an old abandoned hospital. I liked that we see them faking paranormal activity before anything really starts. That was a fun touch. Honestly, enjoyed it as much as any bigger budget films of the same genre. Definitely fun to watch with friends on Halloween.

I was able to attend a Los Angeles screening of this film and was pleasantly surprised.

I find these style films entertaining but at the same time, never expect too much from them. Usually they're comprised of bad acting with some cool effects. Still entertaining but poor acting and story lines.

This one however had the best of both worlds. The acting was actually very good, it was a cool concept, and the gags were very creepy. The down time was palpable because of the actors involved.

I'm one of the few who really enjoy these kind of films and I think this another great addition to the genre.

If you want huge budget, A-List actors and crazy camera shots, this film isn't for you. But, if you want an entertaining found footage movie, here you go.