Grave Encounters

Last updated

Grave Encounters
Grave-Encounters-Poster-2011.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by The Vicious Brothers
Written byThe Vicious Brothers
Produced by
  • Shawn Angelski
  • Michael Karlin
Starring
CinematographyTony Mirza
Edited byThe Vicious Brothers
Music byQuynne Craddock
Production
companies
  • Darclight
  • Twin Engine Films
  • Digital Interference Productions
Distributed by Tribeca Film
Release date
Running time
95 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$120,000
Box office$5.4 million [1]

Grave Encounters is a 2011 Canadian found footage supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by the Vicious Brothers. It stars Sean Rogerson, Ashleigh Gryzko, Merwin Mondesir, Mackenzie Gray, and Juan Riedinger as the crew of a paranormal reality television program who lock themselves in a supposedly haunted psychiatric hospital in search of evidence of paranormal activity, as they shoot what ends up becoming their final episode.

Contents

Grave Encounters premiered on April 22, 2011, at the Tribeca Film Festival. Prior to its premiere, its trailer went viral online, generating over 30 million views. The film had a limited theatrical run in select theaters in the United States, and was released on video-on-demand on August 25, 2011. Two months prior, the film had its Italian premiere via distributor Eagle Pictures under the title ESP Fenomeni Paranormali.

The film received mixed reviews, was a box office success, [1] spawned a sequel in 2012, and has attained a cult following since its release.

Plot

Jerry Hartfield is the producer of Grave Encounters, a paranormal reality television program directed by ghost hunter Lance Preston. Hartfield explains that the show was cancelled after five episodes following the disappearance of its crew, and presents raw scenes from recovered footage of the sixth and final episode. The Grave Encounters crew consists of Lance, occult specialist Sasha Parker, surveillance operator Matt White, cameraman T.C. Gibson, and fake medium Houston Grey. The crew is invited to examine the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where unexplained phenomena have been reported for years. Kenny, the hospital's caretaker, takes the crew on a day tour and informs them of the hospital's history, particularly of a doctor named Arthur Friedkin, who performed unethical experiments and lobotomies on the hospital's patients before being killed by them.

The crew lock themselves inside the hospital for the night and begin their investigation, setting up camp near the main entrance and positioning static cameras throughout the building. No paranormal activity seems to occur within the first few hours until T.C. captures a door slamming behind him. The crew attempts to establish contact with any entities that might be in the hospital; they soon hear unexplained sounds, and Sasha's hair appears to be lifted into the air by an unseen force. They return downstairs to pack in preparation for Kenny's return. Matt sets out alone to retrieve the static cameras. Before Matt can retrieve the last camera, a loud banging noise grabs Matt's attention and he walks off to investigate it.

When neither Matt nor Kenny returns, the crew forces the front doors open but discover that it leads to another hallway. They aimlessly walk the hallways and realize that despite their clocks saying it's dawn, it is still dark outside. The crew return to the lobby and sleep but are awoken when the construction light they set up falls forward and breaks. T.C. tells Lance that there is a fire escape on the roof and they head off to find a stairwell with rooftop access. They are successful but find that the stairs are blocked off by a randomly built wall blocking their escape.

They decide to back track and while looking at a map on the wall, the arrows on their compass spin in random directions. The group hear what sounds like Matt screaming and run through the halls hoping to find him. Once they find the room where they heard Matt's screams, they encounter a metal bed frame that levitates into the air and they run in terror. The crew stops to rest and when they wake up, they find the word "HELLO" scratched onto Sasha's back. They once again go looking for Matt after hearing his voice on the walkie-talkie. The group comes across a woman in a hospital gown and when they catch up with her, her face distorts grotesquely. They flee from the entity in fear, and Houston is separated from the other crew members. Houston wanders the halls in the darkness and is then lifted into the air and choked before a bright light bursts from the end of the hallway which sends Houston flying and kills him. After hiding in a room for several hours, Lance, Sasha, and T.C. discover that they have been fitted with hospital identification bracelets bearing their names. The trio roam the halls again and an arm smashes through the window on a door and grabs Sasha. Lance frees her and they run down the hallways. While Lance comforts Sasha, T.C. yells at them to come into a room which Matt is sitting in. Matt, wearing a hospital gown and now insane, mumbles incoherently and claims that they can leave the building once they are "better", and that "he'll help you too".

The four rest inside a room and when they wake up, several hands are reaching through the ceiling and walls. The group flee into a room full of bathtubs and find Matt staring down at a bathtub full of blood. T.C. attempts to pull Matt away from the tub, but a figure emerges from the blood and drags T.C. into it. Sasha and Lance tip the tub over but T.C. is not inside it which causes Sasha and Matt to become hysterical. Lance finds an elevator but struggles to pull the doors open. He leaves Sasha and Matt behind to look for something to pry open the doors. Lance yanks a rod off of a hospital cart and notices a bloody severed tongue in the corner of the room. Lance then sees a ghostly figure huddled up in the corner of the ceiling which chases after him. Lance makes it back to Sasha and Matt and successfully tries opening the elevator doors. He hears the figure making its way to them, so Lance and Sasha keep the entity at bay by keeping the door closed. While the two are busy, Matt leans forward and plunges several feet down the elevator shaft, killing himself.

Lance and Sasha enter the tunnels beneath the building in search of an exit. Sasha falls ill and begins to cough up blood violently. The two stop to sleep and Sasha is abducted by a mist. Lance, now all by himself, wanders the tunnels for several hours. An increasingly unstable Lance kills and eats a rat to survive. Lance passes out and after waking up, finds a door leading into Friedkin's operating room, which contains evidence of occult rituals and graphic photos of his operations. He sees apparitions of Friedkin and several nurses, and is dragged away from his camera. A lobotomized Lance [2] records himself proclaiming that he is cured and allowed to leave.

Cast

Production

Grave Encounters was produced in collaboration with American Express, Digital Interference, Twin Engine Films and Darclight. [3]

Development

"[...] it's always a question with a found-footage movie of 'why are they filming to begin with?' And it just seemed like a perfect thing because obviously if it's a TV crew that's trying to capture ghost-like activity that's actually happening, they're gonna want to keep rolling and keep shooting even when things can get kinda bad. So it's just a perfect concept."

– Stuart Ortiz on using a paranormal reality show as a basis for a found-footage horror film [4]

The film was written and directed by the Vicious Brothers, Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz. [4] The pair sought to create a project in the horror genre, and in order to maintain a low budget, decided to utilise "the mockumentary format" at a time when found-footage horror films such as 2007's Paranormal Activity were achieving commercial success. [4] According to Minihan, he and Ortiz wondered, "why has no one made a fucking found-footage film out of these ghost-hunting shows?" [4]

Minihan and Ortiz wrote a script for the film roughly 85 pages in length, though they allowed the members of the cast to improvise during filming. [4]

Filming

Grave Encounters was filmed in Riverview Hospital, a mental institute in Coquitlam, British Columbia; the hospital has served as a location for a number of other television and film productions. [5]

Visual effects

A number of visual effects in the film were accomplished using computer-generated imagery (CGI). [4] One sequence, in which a character is thrown across a room, was initially filmed as a practical effect using a stunt performer. [4] Upon reviewing the footage of the stunt performer being "thrown", Minihan and Ortiz were dissatisfied with the result; they then asked the performer to run, jump, and fall to the ground several times, and completed the final effect in post-production. [4]

Release

A teaser trailer for the film was first uploaded to YouTube in December 2010. [6] [7] The trailer went viral, garnering over 1.5 million views in three months. [7] The film's distribution rights were acquired by Tribeca Film. [7]

Grave Encounters premiered on April 22, 2011, at the Tribeca Film Festival. [4] It had its Italian premiere on June 1, 2011, via distributor Eagle Pictures, under the title ESP Fenomeni Paranormali. [8] The film was released in the United States on August 25, 2011 [7] in select theaters using the Eventful Demand It and video on demand via Comcast.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 67% based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. [9] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 33 out of 100, based on four reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [10]

In her review of the film for The New York Times , Jeannette Catsoulis wrote: "Following in the stampeding footsteps of The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity franchise, the filmmakers seem unaware that they're beating a dead horse." [11] Mike Hale, also writing for The New York Times, felt that the film's "claustrophobic, infrared images, supposedly taken from the tapes of a TV crew that spent the night in a mental hospital, offer some real scares, though the movie starts to feel long and repetitious before its 92 minutes are over." [12] Nick Schager of Slant Magazine gave the film a score of one-and-a-half out of four stars, writing that it "can't even pretend to be anything other than hopelessly derivative." [13] Aaron Hillis, in a negative review of the film for The Village Voice , concluded: "Windows quietly open, wheelchairs roll, faces contort into cheesy CGI ghouls, and 'digital artifacts' cover up the low-budget seams. But true terror needs at least some authenticity. That's perhaps too much to ask of a faked movie about a faked reality show that still can't scare up a fresh idea." [14]

Conversely, Jon Reiss of the New York Press called Grave Encounters the "scariest film since The Ring ". [15] Dennis Harvey, in his review of the film for Variety , wrote that its "creepiness factor is sufficient to rate this a notch above genre average". [16] Vox 's Dylan Scott recommended the film, writing that it "effectively spoof[s] those ghost hunter shows that were briefly a hot trend, while still building toward a genuinely suspenseful second half." [17] Meagan Navarro, in a positive review of the film for Bloody Disgusting , wrote that "the filmmakers toss subtlety out the window in favor of fun, in your face chills that stick their landing." [18] Felicity Burton of Scream magazine wrote that, had the film "kept to the subtle scares, and dumped the CGI ghosts, it would have been a lot better", but concluded: "If you still haven't had your fill of found footage films, it's definitely worth a watch." [19]

Sequels

A sequel titled Grave Encounters 2 , written by the Vicious Brothers and directed by John Poliquin, was released on October 2, 2012. [20] [21] [22] In May 2015, the Vicious Brothers announced plans for a third installment, entitled Grave Encounters 3: The Beginning, [23] but was quickly cancelled following the second film's failure to generate public interest.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Ju-On: The Grudge 2</i> 2003 Japanese film

Ju-On: The Grudge 2 is a 2003 Japanese horror film and a sequel to Ju-On: The Grudge. The film was written and directed by Takashi Shimizu. It was released in Japan on August 23, 2003.

<i>The Haunting in Connecticut</i> 2009 film

The Haunting in Connecticut is a 2009 supernatural horror film directed by Peter Cornwell and starring Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Martin Donovan, Amanda Crew, and Elias Koteas. The film is alleged to be about Carmen Snedeker and her family, though Ray Garton, author of In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting (1992), has publicly distanced himself from the accuracy of the events he depicted in the book. The film's story follows the fictional Campbells as they move into a house to mitigate the strains of travel on their cancer-stricken son, Matt. The family soon becomes haunted by violent and traumatic events from supernatural forces occupying the house.

<i>Ghost Adventures</i> American paranormal reality television show

Ghost Adventures is an American paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally aired on the Sci-Fi Channel on July 25, 2007. The program follows ghost hunters Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley as they investigate locations that are reported to be haunted.

<i>The Innkeepers</i> (film) 2011 American film

The Innkeepers is a 2011 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Ti West. It stars Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, and Kelly McGillis. Its plot follows two employees at the Yankee Pedlar Inn who, during its last weekend of operations, attempt to document the alleged supernatural activity in the building.

<i>Paranormal Activity 2</i> 2010 film by Tod Williams

Paranormal Activity 2 is a 2010 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Tod Williams and written by Michael R. Perry, Christopher Landon and Tom Pabst. The film is a prequel to the 2007 film Paranormal Activity, beginning two months before and following up with the events depicted in the original film. It was released in theaters at midnight on October 22, 2010 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Poland and Ireland. An unrated version of the film was also released.

<i>Paranormal Activity 3</i> 2011 film by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

Paranormal Activity 3 is a 2011 American found footage supernatural horror film, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. It is the third installment of the Paranormal Activity series and serves as a prequel, mostly set 18 years prior to the events of the first two films. It was released in theaters on October 21, 2011. Paranormal Activity 3 was also Joost and Schulman's first horror film.

John "JP" Poliquin is a Canadian music video, commercial and feature film director. He has directed music videos for bands such as Hedley, Finger Eleven, Mother Mother, and Carly Rae Jepsen, and his music video work has been nominated for awards at the Juno Awards, the MuchMusic Video Awards, the East Coast Music Association Awards, the PEI Music Awards, and the Leo Awards. His video for Hedley "Anything" won Video of the Year, Pop Video of the Year and Your Fave Video at the 2014 MuchMusic Video Awards.

<i>Ragini MMS</i> 2011 found footage horror film

Ragini MMS is a 2011 Indian found footage horror film directed by Pawan Kripalani and produced by Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms. It was released on 13 May 2011. The film is inspired by the 2007 American supernatural horror film Paranormal Activity and is partly based on the real story of a girl from Delhi named Deepika.

The Vicious Brothers are Canadian-American filmmakers Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz. They are best known for writing and directing the cult horror film, Grave Encounters and for writing and producing its sequel, Grave Encounters 2. They also wrote and produced Extraterrestrial, which Minihan solo directed.

<i>Paranormal Activity 4</i> 2012 film by Ariel Schulman

Paranormal Activity 4 is a 2012 American found footage supernatural horror film, directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost and written by Christopher Landon from a story by Chad Feehan. The film features Katie Featherston, who starred in the first film, and had cameos in the other two. The film was released in theaters and IMAX on October 17, 2012, in the United Kingdom and was released on October 19, 2012, in the United States, by Paramount Pictures. It is the fourth installment in the Paranormal Activity series, and a sequel to Paranormal Activity 2, set several years later.

<i>Paranormal Activity</i> (film series) American supernatural horror film series

Paranormal Activity is an American supernatural horror franchise consisting of seven films and additional media. Created by Oren Peli, the original film premiered in 2007 and was widely released in 2009.

<i>Grave Encounters 2</i> 2012 film by John Poliquin

Grave Encounters 2 is a 2012 Canadian found footage supernatural horror film directed by John Poliquin and written by The Vicious Brothers. The sequel to Grave Encounters, the film follows a group of devoted fans of Grave Encounters who break into the same psychiatric hospital where the film took place to investigate whether the events in the film were real. The group then find themselves in the same plight as the Grave Encounters crew were in, becoming haunted and terrorized by the hospital's malevolent entities.

<i>100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck</i> 2012 American film

100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck, or Paranormal Entity 4: The Awakening, is a 2012 supernatural horror film written and directed by Martin Andersen and distributed by The Asylum. It is a mockbuster of the film Paranormal Activity 4.

No Through Road is a British web series written and directed by filmmaker Steven Chamberlain, who also stars. Originating from a 2009 short film based on the Bunny Man urban legend, the 1999 supernatural horror film The Blair Witch Project, and the 2008 psychological horror film The Strangers, it was expanded to a series in mid-2011. The series purports to be footage found in a discarded video camera belonging to four teenagers en route to Stevenage, England, as they find themselves trapped in a time loop, pursued by a hatted masked man. With the cast and crew initially being uncredited to maintain the illusion of the footage being real in the early days of online video platforms, the series was aired through to late-2012 on YouTube, going viral and receiving a positive critical reception.

<i>Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones</i> 2014 film by Christopher Landon

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is a 2014 American found footage supernatural horror film written and directed by Christopher Landon. Released on January 3, 2014, in the United States, it is the fifth installment of the Paranormal Activity film series. It is also Landon's second directorial film, after Burning Palms. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $90 million worldwide.

<i>Entity</i> (2012 film) 2012 British film

Entity is a 2012 British supernatural thriller film written and directed by Steve Stone. The film had its world premiere on 25 October 2012, at the Bram Stoker International Film Festival. It stars Dervla Kirwan, Charlotte Riley, and Branko Tomovic and centers upon a British reality show film crew that encounters a dark entity.

<i>The Canal</i> (2014 film) Irish horror film, directed by Ivan Kavanagh

The Canal is a 2014 Irish horror film that was directed and written by Ivan Kavanagh. The film had its world premiere on 18 April 2014, at the Tribeca Film Festival, and stars Rupert Evans as a father investigating a horrific murder that took place in his home in the early 1900s.

<i>Hollows Grove</i> 2014 American film

Hollows Grove is a 2014 independent horror film and the feature film directorial debut of Craig Efros. It was released as a digital download on 21 October 2014 and stars Matthew Carey as a filmmaker that decides to create a documentary centering upon a ghost hunting team, only to find that this could be the last thing he ever does.

<i>Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum</i> 2018 South Korean film

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is a 2018 South Korean found footage supernatural horror film directed by Jung Bum-shik. Based on a real-life psychiatric hospital of the same name, it stars Wi Ha-joon, Park Ji-hyun, Oh Ah-yeon, Moon Ye-won, Park Sung-hoon, Yoo Je-yoon and Lee Seung-wook in the lead roles. The narrative centers around a horror web series crew that travels to an abandoned asylum for a live broadcast in order to garner views and publicity unknown that what they'll encounter will be the last thing they'll ever see.

<i>Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin</i> 2021 film by William Eubank

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin is a 2021 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by William Eubank, written by Christopher Landon, and produced by Jason Blum and series creator Oren Peli. Serving as the seventh installment of the Paranormal Activity series, the film stars Emily Bader, Roland Buck III, Dan Lippert, Henry Ayres-Brown, and Tom Nowicki, and follows a group who attempt to make a documentary on an Amish community, only for them to discover the horrific secrets the town holds.

References

  1. 1 2 "Box Office Mojo" . Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  2. ↑ Pulliam, June Michele; Fonseca, Anthony J., eds. (2016). Ghosts in Popular Culture and Legend. ABC-Clio/Greenwood. p. 139. ISBN   978-1440834905.
  3. ↑ Dennis Harvey (May 24, 2011). "Grave Encounters". Variety .
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Eggertsen, Chris (April 21, 2011). "Tribeca '11: Grave Encounters Directors, The Vicious Brothers!". Bloody Disgusting . Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  5. ↑ "Movies Filmed at Riverview Hospital" . Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  6. ↑ Grave Encounters Trailer. YouTube . December 2010. Archived from the original on May 8, 2014. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Smith, Nigel M. (August 3, 2011). "Watch: Plain Scary Trailer for Buzzed About Indie Horror "Grave Encounters"". IndieWire . Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  8. ↑ Triolo, Marco (June 1, 2011). "Arriva ESP, il Nuovo Paranormal Activity". Film.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Grave Encounters (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Grave Encounters Reviews". Metacritic . Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  11. ↑ Catsoulis, Jeannette (September 8, 2011). "There's Something Odd About This Hospital". The New York Times . Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  12. ↑ Hale, Mike (April 21, 2011). "Tribeca's Taste of All Things Grim and Gory". The New York Times . Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  13. ↑ Schager, Nick (April 18, 2011). "Review: Grave Encounters". Slant . Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  14. ↑ Hillis, Aaron (September 7, 2011). "Grave Encounters: A Skeptic's Tour of the Supernatural… Or is It?". The Village Voice . Archived from the original on January 15, 2012. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  15. ↑ Reiss, Jon (April 28, 2011). "Catching Up With The Vicious Brothers". New York Press . Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved August 26, 2011.
  16. ↑ Harvey, Dennis (May 24, 2011). "Grave Encounters". Variety . Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  17. ↑ Scott, Dylan (October 31, 2018). "13 found-footage horror movies actually worth watching this Halloween". Vox . Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  18. ↑ Navarro, Meagan (October 8, 2019). "[31 Days of Halloween] Day Eight: 'Grave Encounters' Delivers the Chills". Bloody Disgusting . Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  19. ↑ Burton, Felicity (May 7, 2015). "Grave Encounters: Film Review". Scream . Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  20. ↑ Caprilozzi, Rob (June 29, 2012). "Grave Encounters 2 release date". Horror News Network. Archived from the original on March 2, 2019. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  21. ↑ Gray, Scott A. (March 21, 2013). "Grave Encounters 2 John Poliquin". Exclaim! .
  22. ↑ Bell, Robert (October 21, 2012). "Grave Encounters 2 John Poliquin". Exclaim! .
  23. ↑ Therkelsen, Michael (August 20, 2015). "The Vicious Brothers Announce Completion of "Grave Encounters 3" Script". Horror Society. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.