The world of found footage horror is ever-expanding, and Canadian horror cult classic Grave Encounters has its place in the subgenre. Grave Encounters doesn’t shake up the found footage formula, but it is one of the best of its genre because it captures the creepiness of its asylum setting.
Grave Encounters follows Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson) and his ghost-hunting crew, whose decision to film an episode in an abandoned asylum becomes a deadly mistake. As soon as the crew realizes what they’re up against, the asylum makes it difficult for them to escape. The film lightly touches on the viral sensation of ghost hunting in the 2010s, as this film came out in 2011, and it lands the crew in a less-than-ideal situation.
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In the realm of supernatural horror, especially found footage, Grave Encounters is a solid modern example of how fate deals out cruel hands, regardless of who is involved. It also raises the age-old question that horror often poses: Did the characters truly deserve their fates?
Grave Encounters doesn’t just kill its characters; it drives them to points of madness, and that folds into the setting of a psychiatric facility in which horrific things happened to patients. A haunted asylum or general building isn’t a new concept in horror films, but it’s even more unsettling to know that the asylum was a real place. The filming location is in what was formerly known as Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia. Riverview Hospital was a psychiatric facility that was often overcrowded and ran for decades until its complete closure in 2012.
Rooting the setting in reality pays off big for this found footage classic.
While Riverview Hospital might not have been haunted like Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, its history is simply tragic (rather than supernaturally demented) for its former patients. It’s still a fun tidbit and offers a realistic setting for the film. Oftentimes, found footage horror is especially creepy because it feels real for the characters. And that’s what Grave Encounters excels at in terms of atmosphere and delivering the scares for its audience. One scene in particular, when a character is pulled into a disgusting bathtub full of blood and disappears, is nightmare fuel.
In terms of the characters in Grave Encounters, they are rightfully frightened when their situation turns disastrous and downright awful. Each character takes their time coming to grips with their reality, though. Instead of everyone freaking out right away, they all fold neatly into their classic horror archetypes.
Lance Preston is the overly ambitious fame seeker, Sasha (Ashleigh Gryzko) is the lone woman in her group, T.C. (Merwin Mondesir) is the hothead who displays quite a bit of toxic masculinity, Houston (Mackenzie Grey) is the fake spiritualist whose ignorance lands him in hot water, and Matt (Juan Riedinger) is the character who falls victim to the haunting very quickly. It doesn’t help that their location is deeply haunted; not even their respective archetypes make a difference.
Grave Encounters forces its characters not to attempt to flee right away, even when spirits start becoming active, which is typical of characters in a found footage film. But that doesn’t take any enjoyment away from fans because it still scares us. When we quickly discover that Houston is a fake psychic, rather than a legitimate expert, it makes their circumstances even more dire. They aren’t all operating with a proper understanding of the spiritual world, dangerous spiritual activity, or anything of the sort. And that makes it harder to root for all the characters, but they don’t all deserve their fates.
The characters underestimate the threat of the spiritual world, spelling their doom.
Houston is the first to die by way of being aggressively thrown by an unseen spirit in a lone hallway. The second character to die is T.C., who is dragged into a bloody bathtub by a spirit. The third character to die is Matt, who drops himself down an elevator shaft. Sasha becomes very sick when she and Lance escape the tunnels and are silently taken by the spirits. Lance manages to make it to the end of the film, but is lobotomized, and his fate is left up in the air. The sequel answers the question about whether he survived or not.
Where Grave Encounters is concerned, that’s up to individual viewers, and I stand on the side that they played a stupid game (by staying overnight) and won stupid prizes (death and madness). And all of that certainly can play into why it still holds up for found footage lovers, especially from the point of view of someone who likes to analyze horror and why the film’s events happen.
As the characters begin to be picked off one by one, the uncomfortable meter gets higher and higher. Sasha is the one character who manages to be mostly likable, and she’s not taken as seriously. Her slight belief in the ghosts takes dangerous turns for her body, and she suffers greatly (having words carved into your skin would suck).
It’s not a surprise, but if you think about the individuals who are taken less seriously in horror, women often fall into that category. The men in the film ignoring the initial red flags might not have been an on-purpose creative choice, but it works for how the movie starts and ends, even if you don’t take the inferior sequel into account.
Grave Encounters serves as yet another reminder to take red flags seriously.
Aside from the analytical side of Grave Encounters, the practical effects are excellent and worth mentioning. Whether it’s the graininess of the filming, the night vision sequences, or the shaky cameras, it all comes together. Using all CGI would have been detrimental to the film’s realism because computer-generated effects often don’t look good. If the spirits hadn’t been CGI, that would have made it even better, but the film doesn’t take the effects to egregious levels, thankfully.
In terms of the performances in the film, everyone does a good enough job to portray what would be an awful situation. Sean Rogerson portrays Lance as someone who is in way over his head and ultimately causes the deaths of his crew members. His bold idea to accept an invitation to film there is the worst one he could have ever made. If you consider the very poor sequel, Lance might have been doomed from the start because of the asylum luring victims there. The hospital operating like the Abaddon in the Hell House LLC franchise is intriguing.
Grave Encounters‘ cult following isn’t unwarranted, and even films that might receive mixed reviews shouldn’t always be dismissed. The film is undoubtedly one of the best in the subgenre and is one that people should revisit if it’s been a while. Found footage horror films don’t always please general audiences and often cater to fans of the subgenre. But if you’re a horror fan, then it’s likely that Grave Encounters might work for you as a film experience.
Grave Encounters is available to stream across multiple platforms in the US.
