Every day for the month of October, Coming Soon is making a new horror movie recommendation for those eager to find a new frightening flick for Halloween. From the creepy goodness of a classic ghost story to a blood-splattered gorefest and everything in between, we’ll have something for every taste of horror. And today’s pick is…
Grave Encounters
What’s Grave Encounters about: From Ghost Hunters to Ghost Adventures, audiences have watched as paranormal investigators have visited reportedly haunted locations in search of evidence proving spirits and other phenomena are real, but none have come closer than the crew of Grave Encounters. Following a fictional team of paranormal activity hunters and their titular reality series, the film sees the crew investigate an abandoned mental asylum in an undisclosed area of Canada, but as they lock themselves in for the night, events begin escalating and the actually skeptical crew find themselves trapped in a genuinely haunted location that refuses to let its new patients leave.
Why Grave Encounters rules: Coming at a time when the found footage genre was over populating the horror movie market, Grave Encounters was often chucked to the side by audiences for its approach to its story, but it’s that reasoning why the film succeeds. It knows it’s a found footage horror movie and does well to blend the typical tropes and jump scares with some interesting satire on the paranormal activity reality field and keep audiences on the edge of their seats until the film’s dark and terrifying conclusion.
How scary is Grave Encounters: While those better versed in the horror genre might be able to predict a number of the scares featured in the film, I was surprised to discover a few of them still remain quite effective and between the dimly lit hallways, creepy production design and some shocking visual effects, this is a nailbiter that should have most audiences nervously squirming in their seats until the very end.
Be on the lookout for: The hospital used for filming, Riverview Hospital, is an abandoned mental asylum located in Coquitlam, British Columbia that closed its doors in 2012 after over a century of operations and has been home to other film shoots including The X-Files and the film adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel Watchmen.
Where to watch Grave Encounters: The film can be purchased to stream on Amazon Prime Video for $9.99. Pick up your own copy of the DVD edition here!
CS October Horror Movie Recommendations:
October 1 – Session 9
October 2 – Bubba Ho-Tep
October 3 – City of the Dead
October 4 – Drag Me to Hell
October 5 – Opera
October 6 – It Follows
October 7 – Chopping Mall
October 8 – The Descent
October 9 – The Vampire Doll
October 10 – Poltergeist
October 11 – Jennifer’s Body
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