Found Footage Movie List #6
#6
Release Date: August 25th, 2011
Genre: Horror/Supernatural/Suspense
**DISCLAIMER: This movie contains: Graphic scenes of horror, blood, gore, and language. Viewer discretion is advised.**
Summary:
Lance Preston and the crew of “Grave Encounters”, a ghost-hunting reality television show, are shooting an episode inside the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where unexplained phenomena have been reported for years. All in the name of good television, they voluntarily lock themselves inside the building for the night and begin a paranormal investigation, capturing everything on camera. They quickly realize that the building is more than just haunted – it is alive – and it has no intention of ever letting them leave.
This is a movie that I had included in my Underrated Movie List, and usually I wouldn’t do a duplicate post but I felt that due to the low amount of decent found footage films that it would be a crime to not include this movie. On top of being a fantastic yet underappreciated movie, it’s also a expertly done found footage horror film. This is a movie deserving of a place in all three of my current Movie Lists.
The movie starts off with an explanation of what we’re about to see. It is the sixth episode in an unaired paranormal investigating reality show. The last episode, to be exact. Nothing has been edited; it’s all “raw-footage” as the producer explains.
The movie transitions into the actual “episode” itself, the beginning half being a sort of satire on the traditional paranormal investigating shows around today (such as Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State) with the team arguing over camera shots and multiple takes. It’s a very calm, slightly humorous beginning to what will ultimately become one of the scariest episodes a TV show has ever seen.
They lock themselves into an abandoned insane asylum, hoping to catch paranormal activity to show to the world. What they find is much more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. Now stuck in a maze of ever-changing hallways, being chased by the ghosts of deceased mental patients, they learn that the building is alive and doesn’t have any intention of letting them go – without a price to pay.
The camera angles were handled very well for this movie, cameras being placed strategically at key points in the hospital to catch any action – and there is certainly some action to behold. Through it all the lead investigator, Lance, keeps rolling with the camera he holds in the hopes that should they escape, it will 
prove the existence of the paranormal and the evil of the hospital. I found myself more than once curling up and hiding my eyes at this movie, the camera panning up to find a ghost time and time again, each time just as terrifying and shocking as the last.
At #6 on my Found Footage Movie List, this truly is an underappreciated horror found footage movie that is worth the time it takes to find it, turn it on, and wrap a blanket around yourself in preparation for the multiple times you’ll be covering your eyes in fright.
-Michael
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