GRAVE ENCOUNTERS

		Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
GRAVE ENCOUNTERS - 2011 USA Release: Sept. 9, 2011 DIgital Interference Productions, Twin Engine FIlms Rating: USA: R

Despite the fact that the Mystery Incorporated gang of SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU didn't bring cameras with them as they went solving their ghostly (some might say ghastly!) mysteries, if we digitally outfitted the four with a GoPro, it would change virtually nothing in the storytelling.

My point here is its largely thanks to television, not cinema that Haunted House Found Footage movies exist. Besides Scooby and the gang, there is the insipid and amazingly long run of Ghost Hunters to add to the mix. These found footage movies of "Haunted Houses" have established nearly as many tropes and bromides as Vampire and Zombie movies.

Where the "better than bored" fun of Ghost Hunters is in mocking the morons who never deviate from their 19 year old template (and the boys at Southpark have lampooned them hard and royally over it), the fun of Lost Footage movies is knowing that they'll take liberties with it.

These movies tend to be super low budget, ultra-indie, and while the crew want to give the audience what they came for they'll nearly always try to experiment with the form, bringing something fresh to the table.

Of course, since these movies are always pocket change amateur hour, they don't always deliver the goods, but as an audience, I feel like I'm exploring with them.

Made by the Vicious Brothers (GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2, EXTRATERRESTRIAL), aka Colin Minihan (IT STAINS THE SANDS RED, WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE) and Stuart Ortiz for about $100,000, GRAVE ENCOUNTERS brought 40 times that much back in the International box office in theaters alone.

Let's find out why.

We start on March 20, 2010, with a man sitting in a chair beside the modest hardware of a low budget studio. The machinery is old fashioned tape machines and the set could easily be some public access station.

His name is Jerry Hartfield (Benjamin Wilkinson: GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2, DEAD POOL, PRETTY LITTLE DEAD GIRL, DEADLY ATTRACTION, THE KILLER DOWNSTAIRS, TRAP HOUSE). He's nervous, nearly twitchy, edging into haunted. He tells us that he runs a Reality Show video production house out of Anaheim, California. Years ago, long before there were any of these "Ghost Hunting" shows on TV, a guy named Lance Preston mailed him a tape of a pilot episode about his group of paranormal investigators called GRAVE ENCOUNTERS. Jerry was impressed enough to order an entire season but it never got past episode 6.

Jerry makes it clear that what we are about to see is not a movie, no special effects were added. This is footage that was only edited down for the sake of time from the original mini-DV masters - all 76 hours of them.

Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson: UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION, EXTRATERRESTRIAL, STILL/BORN, Z) leads the "Reality TV show" as they investigate haunted whatevers. Anything from houses to bridges to shuttered institutions.

Along with Lance are,

Sasha Parker (Ashleigh Gryzko: THE END [2007], MESSAGES DELETED),
Tech guy Matt White (Juan Riedinger: THE ENTRANCE, BLACK CHRISTMAS [2006], ALIENS VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL [2008], JENNIFER'S BODY, R.L. STINE'S THE HAUNTING HOUR [TV], EXCESS FLESH, SPADES, IT STAINS THE SANDS RED, MOTHERLAND: FORT SALEM [TV], RIVERDALE [TV]),
Camera Operator T.C. Gibson (Merwin Mondesir: BONES, THE RIPPING FRIENDS [TV], GODSEND, LOST BOYS: THE TRIBE, IT STAINS THE SANDS RED), and as
their sometime guest Psychich Paranormal expert, Houston Gray (Mackenzie Gray: REPLIKATOR, JOHNNY SHORTWAVE, 2103: THE DEADLY WAKE, THE CUSP, SHADOW ZONE: MY TEACHER ATE MY HOMEWORK, WALKING SHADOW, THE HITCHER II, POE: LAST DAYS OF THE RAVEN, JOY RIDE 2, HARD RIDE TO HELL, MESSAGES DELETED, RIVERDALE [TV], RABID [2019], DITCHED, ON THE EDGE).

Lance leads with the introductions as he tells his potential future TV audience where they are (a closed and abandoned psychiatric hospital from the late 19th century) and why they are there (it's purported to be haunted, duh!).

Because Lance never edited the footage we discover that this is less Reality TV and more Shenanigans TV. Between takes it's obvious that they're all frauds doing this because they think it will make them rich and famous.

Lance would love nothing better than to come across a genuine haunted anything but he's not about to waste his time or chance at stardom if it doesn't happen. Because if he can't find ghosts, he'll invent them before he blows his shot at wealth and fame.

The GRAVE ENCOUNTERS investigators often encounter cemeteries and the like, but when they come across a building their gimmick is to have themselves locked inside for 8 hours until the person who let them in, in this case caretaker Lenny Sandoval (Bob Rathie), returns the next day to unlock the chains on the door and let them out.

The build up before something, anything, finally happens comes in around the 30 minute mark, but I doubt you'll be bored. However phoney they might be as paranormal investigators, they are caring and tight-knit with each other. They are young enough to take a lot of stupid risks, take risks with each other (as the moment comes where they believe the hospital is genuinely haunted but are still too naive to understand the danger), but also brave enough in the face of the eventual danger to protect one another. As the tension and insanity mounts, nobody will be left behind. Because they care for each otehr, I cared about them.

That's where the Horror grips you! You want them all to survive but you know the odds are unlikely.

On their first feature film, the Vicious Brothers kept the shots tight and the timing impeccable. I felt the long build-up had every bit of energetic anticipation as a roller coaster clackety-clacking up that long, steep, first drop.

Though the movie follows Found Footage formula, GRAVE ENCOUNTERS is still the cool freshman splash that every director would love to have

This review copyright 2023 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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