31 Days of Halloweeen 2018

Grave Encounters (2011)  Found footage was all the rage when this litle film can about in 2011, not quite true found footage but a quick and dirty film about a haunted places television show called Grave Encounters. Written and Directed by "The Viscous Brothers" Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz it is a reasonably executed low budget horror film that uses CGI effects well. These are not expensive effect so you would be disappointed if looking for a really polished horror film. The dialog seems ab-libbed so there is a roughness that takes away from what is a sort of cool idea about a haunted asylum.
  The story is that what we are seeing are the last recordings of a team of ghost hunters who do a show called Grave Encounters. Lead by Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson), he with his sound and camera crew, Jerry Hartfield (Ben Wilkinson), Sasha Parker (Ashleigh Gryzko), T.C. Gibson (Merwin Mondesir), and Matt White (Juan Riedinger) are to be locked inside the old and closed Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital while filming their show. We the viewers get to see some of the behind the scenes of the show, where the crew stages some stuff to make a scary show. We also learn that five episodes in the crew has yet to really experience anything supernatural. Well episode six is going to be different because the hospital is really haunted and does not like visitors. Although the dialog is a drawback for this film the building of the dangers and the discoveries of haunting is well done. The story uses the ghosts to scare but also place and time displacement to freak the characters out and build a really nice sense of dread for their futures. The last act is really where some of the CGI stops are pulled out and sort of makes the earlier shouting and arguing of the characters worth it. Not a great film but certainly not the worst thing you could watch around Halloween.

The House That October Built (2014)  This is another film where the characters are doing the filming. Directed by Bobby Roe it is the story of five friends, Zach (Zach Andrews), Brandy (Brandy Schaefer), Bobby (Roe), Mikey (Mikey Roe) and Jeff (Jeff Larson)travelling the country looking for the most extreme haunted house experiences they can find. When they apply to the Blue Skeleton they get more than they bargained for and a haunting experience that will scar them for life. In the film the audience gets to see the scares as they film their adventures but also the strategic camera placement and use allows for us to see just how much trouble the group is in. Part documentary in style but also with some actual dread filled moments the film delivers on setting up the audience to think things will go to far. As the characters are enticed, then frightened and then terrified we see the Blue Skeleton group use the cameras to document the anxiety produced by their antics.  Followed and harassed there is a palpable dread built for the characters on the road trip particularly Brandy who is targeted as the only women. Terrorized and panics we watch as she is really pushed to the edge of sanity but the group of primarily men. Already in a world where women have to worry about the behavior of men the story ups that ante with a situation where intimidation and threats of violence are seen as acceptable. In the end the Blue Skeleton group after posting the fear of the victims online fades away leaving Brandy and her friends to cope with the experience they had.