Don’t Fake It Or You’ll Make It
Don’t fake it when ghost hunting
Grave Encounters (2011) d: Stuart Ortiz, Colin Minihan
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) d: Jung Bum-shik
I know the title is a little bit of a spoiler, but honestly, it’s nothing more than you would get in the trailers. Both of these titles purport to be the “Behind the Scenes” footage of ghost hunting reality shows a la Ghost Hunters, and both show how the crew design elements made to look like supernatural encounters. And in both, the show gets more than it bargained for.
Grave Encounters features a direct Ghost Hunters knock off. It isn’t going to surprise you, but sometimes it’s fine to do something already done and do it really well. The movie had a fun genesis - one of the directors was shooting a Papa Roach music video at an abandoned mental institution, and figured it would be a great location. The directors played some tricks on the cast during production to get authentic reactive performances (but nothing cruel/unethical *cough* Kubrick *cough*). It shows up on a bunch of lists of underrated indie gems, so please enjoy.
Jump scares get a bad rap, but sometimes, they are awesome. And they are definitely awesome in Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. It’s freaky! We get more perspectives than your usual found footage because the plot follows six different teens all live recording for the web series, which injects some energy into the mechanics of it all. The movie was shot in the real Gonjiam, which is allegedly one of the most haunted places in South Korea. Bold.