‘The Vicious Brothers’ Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz bring us a paranormal Ghost Adventure style feature film; Grave Encounters.
Investigating the rumored to be haunted Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson- Underworld: Evolution), and his crew Sasha (Ashleigh Gryzko), T.C (Merwin Mondesir) and Matt (Juan Riedinger- Jennifer’s Body) are filming a new episode of their reality ghost-hunting show called “Grave Encounters“. Although Lance claims he lived in a haunted house as a child, all of his actions show him to be pretty much a closet skeptic who merely puts on airs for the show. Behind the scenes, he bribes a gardener to say that he saw a ghost in the hospital, and hires a bogus psychic named Houston Gray (Mackenzie Gray- Man of Steel) to claim that he senses a presence in the building while filming.
The Grave Encounters crew spend the night locked inside the abandoned hospital in the hope to capture some paranormal activity, setting up cameras in different places throughout the asylum in preparation for action. It’s not all smooth sailing and the crew get more than they anticipated as the spirits of Grave Encounters are vicious and not afraid to manifest themselves. Things start off simple enough with doors shutting on their own, objects moving and random bumps in the night but the haunted horrors escalate quickly and soon turn deadly.
The setting and atmosphere of the hospital is creepy and Grave Encounters does a good job at keeping up the pace while the plot intensifies and thickens with some cool twists and scares along the way. The performances from the actors were quite annoying at times, but to give them credit they were mimicking typical exaggerated horror TV show hosts and did a good job at it.
Grave Encounters isn’t amazing but it’s definitely not terrible. If you love your Ghost Hunter type TV shows then you’ll no doubt enjoy what Grave Encounters has to offer.
WICKED RATING: 6/10
Title: Grave Encounters
Director(s): Colin Minihan and Stuart Oritz (as The Vicious Brothers)
Writer(s): Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz (as The Vicious Brothers)
Stars: Ben Wilkinson, Sean Rogerson, Ashleigh Gryzko
Year: 2011
Studio/ Production Co: Digital Interference Productions, Twin Engine Films
Budget: $1,000,000 (estimated)
Language: English
Length: 92mins
Sub-Genre: Found Footage
