Micitype Pretty Good

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

jonesarmyofchampions After reading most of the other reviews, I thought I was in for one of the scariest movies I had ever seen. I couldn't have been more surprised.But something about it just kept falling short for me, and I don't really no why. Creepy atmosphere? Yep, extremely creepy, but just not filmed in a way to maximize it.Jump scares? Yes they were there, but for some reason they just weren't really scary. Perhaps they were telegraphed to the point that I knew they were coming.Creepy ghosts? Yes, but once again they just fell short of being scary for me.I wouldn't say this is a bad movie, because the acting and everything is pretty solid, it just wasn't really scary. All the right elements were there, between the location, sound, etc., it just didn't really do it for me.***Minor Spoiler Alert*** In fact I found myself picking out spots in the movie that WOULD have made great places for jump-scares and surprises, but they just didn't get used for that. Ex: it's a horror film staple these days to have the camera on a particular character, pan away from the character, then return to them a moment later with a ghost/monster right behind/next to them. It's cheap, but it works well. This movie had TONS of places where that would have been fantastic, but I don't recall seeing that technique used even once.There were all kinds of long, dark hallway shots that would have been perfect for showing a ghost/spirit in the background, but it never happened. The movie was filled with shots of the characters roaming the dark halls of an abandoned mental asylum, walking blind into dark/creepy rooms, so I was waiting for them to round the corner and have something scary right there in your face, but that never happened either.I'm not saying all horror/scary movies should follow the tried-and- true techniques all the time, but this movie could have really been well-served to use a few of them.I'm giving it a 5/10 because although it wasn't a bad or poorly produced movie, it just wasn't really scary for a horror movie. Plenty of other people thought it was though, so by all means check it out if you're so inclined.

tamosoeka This was it.After watching this, I decided never to watch found footage films. I mean, what was that? In the whole movie, three or four ghost jumped out of the walls, and then the film ended.I never liked found footage films that much. This was the last.

Mikelikesnotlikes I like the cheesy start, which wasn't overdone, although maybe some indication as to what happened to the team could have been added. Were their bodies found, did they disappear forever, etc? You'd think that would be the main points for that choice of intro.Some good laughs starts the film off nicely and then you are unnerved in small increments as creepy events accumulate. When Sasha gets her back slashed off screen you know sh*t is getting serious.The endless hallways, time slips and how the building's corridors and tunnels all led back in on themselves was a really good tension builder. Of course the "let's split up" thing never goes well in a horror movie, but sticking together didn't work out so good for these guys either.There were definitely enough cameras involved, (it is a found film type of production BTW), to give the viewer multiple positions to see what was going on. It's always hard to show the scares convincingly when the character should be running full-tilt away from the monsters and yet still be 'with it' enough to hold a camera on the subject.Very good addition to the genre and a great late night movie. Be warned, you'll be jumping at any noises you hear in your house for quite some time afterwards.

znegative I've been on the search for a truly frightening movie. For some reason I remember the first few Paranormal Activity films really freaked me out, so naturally I thought 'Grave Encounters' would be more of the same. The fact that this film didn't make me flinch once makes me curious to watch the paranormal movies again, to see if I had just been super stoned at the time.The premise for Grave Encounters is clever enough. A 'Ghost Busters' type reality show crew shows up at an abandoned mental hospital to report a haunting, without ever believing that anything paranormal could possibly occur. They soon find themselves locked inside the building and menaced by a malevolent spirit.I'm disappointed to say that throughout the film I was waiting to feel that sense of dread in my chest, hoping for that sense of suspense that has a person want to turn on the lights during a very frightening sequence. But that moment never came. What was frustrating about the whole thing was that I thought the idea and setting were perfect for a good horror movie. Hell, even the actors were convincing (asides from 'Matt'), which leads me to place the blame on the directors, who I hope in the future will be able to truly follow through on creating a scary movie (to their credit, the ALMOST had it here).Honestly, the whole time I was watching this movie I was thinking back to 'As above, So below', one of the few found-footage films after Paranormal Activity that got it right, and achieved true scares and suspense. Part of what made that film work was the setting and the sense of claustrophobia, and what's so frustrating is that Grave Encounters almost had that too!Don't get me wrong, it's not a terrible movie. For a 'Found-Footage' piece, it's actually very top notch in terms of quality. If you scare easily, I imagine this one will do the trick. It's certainly better than 'Insidious', which has been labeled as one of the most frightening movies of the decade, though I thought it was laughable. Furthermore, if you did like this, I'd highly recommend watching 'As Above, So Below' which is in a similar vein but done right.