Publication Date: 08-09-2025

Grave Encounters (2011) review

Dir. The Vicious Brothers

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Grave Encounters has exactly what you’d expect from a found footage horror film and some stuff you don’t as well. It opens with a producer discussing the mystifying events regarding the disappearance of Lance Preston and several others, who were part of a documentary crew that would shoot on-location at allegedly haunted areas in search of paranormal activity for their show called “Grave Encounters.” After the interview, what follows is a collection of raw material that was shot for the episode of the show – some designed to air in the episode, other things for behind the scenes clips and shooting preparation – and the paranormal instances that unfold.

The crew ventures out to the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, a decrepit sanctuary that was once home to many mentally-diseased prisoners in the 1930’s – 40’s. They agree that, after shooting local gardeners and affiliates with the building during the daytime, they’ll scope out the building’s interior for “ghost hotspots” (IE: a window that is known to open by itself) and set up cameras to hopefully catch present paranormal activity. The plan also calls for staying overnight in the psychiatric hospital, which they treat as something completely trivial.

Time passes rapidly for them. At first, the place seems “no more haunted than a sock-drawer,” Preston says, but gradually becomes more eerie. Doors start closing, loud screams can’t be heard, things begin falling, and then this escalates to exits not being where they once were and hallways seemingly turning up where the front door used to lie. The institution was erected with a prison in mind, meaning all the windows have bars on them, making escape impossible. Their food supply is eventually contaminated, their light diminishes, and so on, making the stay haunting and emotionally testing on the entire camera crew.

Grave Encounters‘ strongest attribute is it doesn’t suffer from the choppiness so many films of the found footage genre do. Directors, gimmickly named “The Vicious Brothers,” manage to keep a steady grip on the way the film flows in terms of cohesion and pacing. Even when the madness begins to take a front-row seat, the film never becomes incomprehensible or too dark and dingy to allow itself to be deciphered.

I’m also a fan of how the film manages to keep its tone serious, and delightfully refrains from the unnecessary, self-referential attitude that sometimes feels oppressively common in horror films. Never did I get the feeling one of the film’s goals was to satirize or spoof paranormal reality shows. It keeps its agenda alert and its material formal, even when it has the uncanny ability to offer throwaway subjectivity on the topical issue of paranormal TV.

At ninety four minutes, it’s hard to say length is a big issue, as well. There are times at the end when the film’s style and situational drama become a muchness affair, yet I was already so stunned and satisfied at the competence already brought forth in the picture. Grave Encounters offers and engaging style and believable content – so believable that it’s a bit of a turn off to see “Directed by: The Vicious Brothers” at the end for more than one reason.

My review of Grave Encounters 2

Starring: Sean Rogerson, Ashleigh Gryzko, Mackenzie Gray, Juan Riedinger, Merwin Mondesir, and Matthew K McBride. Directed by: The Vicious Brothers.