31 Days, 31 Horror Movies: Grave Encounters

Still catching up. The second of the 'Movies Set in Asylums' was:

Grave Encounters (2011)
Okay, so I've gone ghost hunting with Jason and Grant, from the Ghost Hunters show. The circumstances involved an inn they own in New Hampshire and tickets for a 'hunt with the Ghost Hunters' event that my Mom ended up not being able to go to. So we headed up there with my brother and his wife and wandered around the snowy environs taking EVPs and talking to ghosts via an EMF reader. Not something I would have paid to do, but it was terrific fun nonetheless.

The point is - I was watching the Ghost Hunters show regularly when Grave Encounters crossed my viewing path and I think I appreciated it all the more for the connection.

There was a time when I was pretty much just grudge-watching found-footage movies. I knew I was in for nothing but cheap, terrible films featuring awful people running through the woods and arguing in green-lit night vision. It's a weakness - like my love of Cheetos - that I can't seem to shake. Even now I'll find myself choosing to watch a found-footage film - like Atrocious, for instance - even though I know it's going to be... well, atrocious.

In that endless parade of shaky cam Grave Encounters was a bit of a bright light. It still contains all the things that make a found-footage film: the night vision, the conveniently placed cameras, the arguing while walking, the insistence on running the camera long after anyone sane would have abandoned filming - but it's all used in the service of the story, with only a few missteps along the way.

The Medium
Streaming on Shudder. It's been a great value this October.

The Movie
Grave Encounters is actually the title of a television series and the footage is presented as material found after the film crew disappeared while taping their sixth episode. The episode was to have featured the crew investigating a supposedly haunted mental asylum called the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital (a completely fictional place, as opposed to the Danvers Hospital in Session 9). This material is presented as 'what really happened' and isn't 'modified or tampered with in any way.'

Sure.

The initial footage introduces us to the Grave Encounters crew - host Lance Preston, occult specialist Sasha, tech-guy Matt, cameraman T.C. and later medium (and out-of-work-actor) Houston. We get just enough time with each to form a quick impression and then we're off to the ghost-hunt races.

I was actually already enjoying the film at this point. I liked the way they included out-take footage of the crew trying to get the best shot or the right intro and paying the gardener to lie about seeing ghosts on the grounds. While none of the characters is ever more than a line or two deep, the actors are likeable enough and I could distinguish each one from the others - not something I can say for a lot of found-footage films.

The deal for the episode is that the whole crew will be locked in for the night. The setting is creepy enough, but I've seen so many ghost hunting TV episodes that I was ready to fall asleep as they covered the standard moments - setting up the fixed cameras, taking EVPS, explaining all the equipment and what each minor thing means. Once the actual weird stuff starts happening, though, I started paying closer attention.

Because of course the asylum is actually haunted. Otherwise it really WOULD be like any given episode of Ghost Hunters. (They even have minor events that they plan to blow out of all proportion.) And my favorite thing is that when stuff really starts to go wrong they're reaction is "okay, let's get out of here." Sure, Lance is all "but we're getting something real!" but the others are done once they're actual interacted with by some presence.

And then the movie kicks up a notch. Because when they finally get tired of waiting for the caretaker to let them out and bust down the front door... it just opens on to another hallway. Not only that, but despite it being early morning it appears to still be night outside.

There's a lot more movie after this moment, but that was when it really elevated itself above the average found-footage film for me. My favorite part of House of Leaves is the whole Navidson Record section and I could well imagine a minotaur presence following the crew around the maze they find themselves in.

Special effects are pretty standard for a found-footage film, but they're used sparingly and well. There's a cool moment with a bathtub full of blood and some accumulating weirdness in photos that I liked. The ending is a little abrupt, but I also wasn't sure where else they could go so (despite the cheese of the final line) it works for me.

The Bottom Line
While it doesn't reach the heights of films like [REC], Grave Encounters is one of the better found-footage movies I've seen. If you can get past the standard tropes of night-vision, arguing and walking long distances down similar looking hallways there's some fun to be had.

31 Days, 31 Horror Movies: Session 9

The weekend double-feature will be getting short-shrift as I try and catch up. First film in the 'Movies Set in Asylums' was:

Session 9
My wife and I were fairly early adopters of Netflix. Our local video store - the awesome Matt & Dave's Video Venture - was bought out by a chain store and stopped being much fun to go to. (I still have a stack of the wooden coins you accumulated when you rented videos - you could trade them in for free rentals.) I tried sticking with the new place, but I think the biggest draw for Netflix back in the early days was the lack of late fees - you could have a movie for months and not have to worry about it. Once we'd tried it we basically never looked back.

The reason for bringing this up is that I think I rented Session 9 from Netflix back in 2001 (maybe 2002). I no longer have a DVD membership, so I can't check. I DO remember being impressed with the film and - along with a few other releases in 2001 and 2002, including The Others, 28 Days Later, Dog Soldiers and The Ring - it contributing to the feeling that horror movies were making a comeback. Sure, we'd had The Blair Witch Project and a few other standouts, but there was also a lot of I know What You Did Last Summer and Scream sequels. Session 9 made me think that maybe some interesting horror movies might be getting made again.

The Medium
This was the last of the films I've watched on Starz this year. Unfortunately, according to JustWatch.com (thanks for the link, Bhu!) it's ONLY streaming on Starz. You can find copies of the DVD for less than $3 bucks, though. (Oh! And it looks like there's Scream Factory Blu-ray release I may have to track down...)

The Movie
Gordon and his crew of Asbestos abatement professionals (including a post-Jade, pre-CSI Miami David Caruso) are bidding on a job to clean parts of the Danvers mental asylum. Gordon - tired and desperate - tells the official that he can get the job done in one week - over the objections of Phil (Caruso), his right-hand man. Over the course of the week the stress of the job, home-life, interpersonal conflicts on the crew and - just maybe - something in the asylum itself all take a toll on Gordon and the rest of the men.

If you're thinking "this sounds more like a psychological horror movie than a gore fest" you'd be right. Session 9 is a slow burner and even the final moments don't provide much in the way of explicit violence. That doesn't mean this isn't an effective movie, though. It's partly in the creep factor of the setting - the movie was filmed on location at Danvers State Hospital - and partly due to the way the director (The Machinist's Brad Anderson) frames and paces the film. We see a lot of slightly disturbing things - a wheelchair in sunlight at the end of a dark hallway, a patient's room wallpapered with random photographs - that are allowed to linger for longer than is strictly comfortable.

Over the unsettling imagery we're often treated to the audio from a series of patient sessions (numbered 1-9). The patient, Mary, suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and the tapes revolve around her doctor interviewing Mary and her different personalities, trying to ascertain the events of Christmas night, 22 years ago. We get to hear them because one of the workers - Mike - listens to them over the course of the week.

The voice of the doctor on the tape seemed familiar, but I had to go looking. It's Lonnie Farmer, who's been in a ton of stuff.

Weird things happen, Gordon begins to disintegrate on a personal level, a conflict between Phil and another worker, Hank (Josh Lucas) threatens to spill over into violence, and Mike's fascination with the tapes slowly becomes an obsession. Everything is on simmer long enough that you wonder if it will ever come to a boil, but it does. (Just in time for poor Larry Fessenden to show up.) I'm not sure if it quite holds together in the end - there are some moments with Phil and Gordon that I find a tad confusing - but it's enough of a mood piece that I gloss over some of the details.

The Bottom Line
I haven't seen Session 9 since that Netflix rental way back when, but I'm happy to say it holds up to my initial impressions. Good performances, a great location and a creepy mood (and final line) that stays with you after the credits roll.

31 Days, 31 Horror Movies: Asylum (1972)

Asylum (1972)

When I once again ran out of time for Kwaidan ( sometime this month!) I still found myself in the mood for an anthology. (It also worked out that I was working last night and could pause between segments to make updates.) I'd been meaning to re-watch the Amicus flick, Asylum, for a while, so I fired up the streaming and got started.

Only to discover I've never seen Asylum. I know! Thinking back on it now I'm fairly sure I mixed up this and Doctor Terror's House of Horrors (another Amicus joint), as I was almost certain that the Christopher Lee segment with the severed hand was in this. (Though I also knew it was in Doctor Terror's... I don't know. My brain is messed up.)

So, cool - an Amicus anthology film I haven't seen! Written by Robert Bloch as well. I was actually pretty excited. I'm going to bust it out by segment with quick thoughts on each.

The Framing Sequence:

I always appreciate when an anthology takes the time to create a decent framing story. In my mind they should be just as good as the other segments, and I'm always disappointed when it's just an excuse or a bad pun. Luckily, this appears to be exactly what the doctor ordered (sorry). The young Dr. Martin, arrives at the eponymous asylum (for the 'incurably insane') where he's greeted by the wheelchair-bound Dr. Rutherford. Though their styles clash, Dr. Rutherford agrees to hire Martin IF he can correctly identify the patient who used to be the head of the asylum - a Dr. Starr. Dr. Martin agrees and is buzzed into the secure ward by the orderly, Reynolds. The stories of the patients form the bulk of the rest of the film.

"Frozen Fear"

This was my favorite, simply for the monster. The patient, Bonnie, tells Martin about a plot to murder her lover's wife, Ruth. Ruth is an heiress and a believer in (movie-land) voodoo. She's efficiently killed off and dismembered, her pieces stored in a freezer in the basement. (This is all fairly bloodless, fyi.)

Of course things aren't that simple, and Ruth is not quite finished with her husband - and Bonnie.

The paper-and-twine wrapped parcels are just disturbingly fun and the effects - though dated now - are tremendously creepy. The paper going in and out with the severed head's 'breath' is fantastic.

"The Weird Tailor"

A story I feel like I've read before. A tailor, down on his luck, is tasked by a stranger to create a suit out of strange material. Though difficult - the instructions require him to work only after midnight and before dawn - the tailor manages to complete the task. Though things don't go as planned and the tailor finds out the true purpose of the suit far too late. Peter Cushing is excellent, as always, but this is my least favorite of the bunch. I think the affectations of the tailor (Barry Morse) are just a bit too much to take seriously.

"Lucy Comes to Stay"

Charlotte Rampling and Britt Ekland  - there's some Thelma and Louise horror movie to be made here. The patient, Barbara (Rampling) tells a tale about a murderous friend (Ekland) who may or may not be real - but who definitely has Barbara's best interests at heart. She even tries to get her to quite her drug dependency. Too bad about the stabbings, though.

"Mannikins of Terror"

I love Herbert Lom - what a great body of work he has. His Dr. Byron makes a very sympathetic patient - working so well with his dolls. Yeah, his insistence that they can be animated - brought to life, actually - is a bit weird, but other than that he seems perfectly reasonable.

At this point Martin concludes his interviews and Reynolds sends him downstairs.

Epilogue:

Martin refuses to engage in Dr. Rutherford's game and berates him for his methods. During the argument Dr. Byron's killer doll shows up and does what killer dolls do. Martin destroys the doll, revealing the viscera that makes the things truly alive on the inside. Running upstairs for help poor Martin finally discovers the real Dr. Starr, the murderous former (and future?) director of the Asylum.

Bottom Line

Very fun! I realized who Dr. Starr was early on, but it in no way diminished my enjoyment. "Frozen Fear" is now one of my favorite short horror bits in any anthology and the whole flick made me want to re-watch other Amicus anthology films like Tales From the Crypt and Vault of Horror.