The Haunting Of Grady Farm Movie Review

Directed by Matt Dickstein

Starring:

Malia Miglino (The Lurking Man) as Emily, Ben Kaplan (Blind) as Ryan, Shane Hartline (Rock of Ages) as Andy, Jeremiah Burton (Donut Media) as Charlie, Amanda Sadia (Addicted to You) as Samantha, Ali Roberts (The Canadoo) as Ashley

“The Haunting of Grady Farm” is a found footage horror film about Emily (Malia Miglino) who hosts a travel documentary TV show called “Haunted America” covering on supposedly haunted locations around the country. On her second season of the show, Emily stumbles about The Grady Farm in Florida that what supposedly haunted and interested to document the history by interviewing the local residences and searching for the truth about The Grady Farm, along with her significant other, Ryan (Ben Kaplan) and their friends Charlie (Jeremiah Burton), Ashley (Ali Roberts), Andy (Shane Hartline) and his girlfriend Samantha (Amanda Sadia). What supposed to be an easy assignment to document the Grady Farm, what they didn’t know, the haunting is real and the horror awaits them. The film is also starring Justin Miles (TV’s The Walking Dead), Lauren O’Quinn (TV’s House of Cards), Josh Server (Good Burger), Alex Owens-Sarno (Titanic) and Tony Demil (TV’s Manhunt).

“The Haunting of Grady Farm” is very fast paced found footage horror. Not too many, in fact, very rare for a found footage film to go in and out like this one. Usually found footage film’s introduction takes a long time to build, where the characters usually just chatting around with non-sense to build who they are, how they are and their background, which give the film a slow pace. For example The Blair Witch Project, great film, but their introduction is very slow, at one point they’re just chatting about non-sense. But in this film, The Haunting of Grady Farm, somehow was able to manage to skip all that. The first five minutes, we already knew what’s going, what are they going and on the road already. Not necessary building up the characters on their background, we know who they are, but everything else is built up as we go and learning who they are. Ben Kaplan, who did a great job portraying Ryan, also co-wrote this film, did an amazing job on writing this film, along with his co-writers who also starring and produced this film together. They knew the mistakes of most of found footage film always takes forever to get where they supposed to be. Although in this film we don’t see the first kill until the mid point but we see strange occurrences during act 2. The interviews with the residence are very interesting, some of them gives the clue and back story of The Grady Farm. The way they put the interviews are not in order but fits perfectly in the film. They didn’t put the interviews in one segments, unlike in The Blair Witch Projects, it made the film in slow pace because they put the interviews and the character’s background in act 1. In this film, we go back and forth with their journey and the interviews as we learned more and keep the audience interested to invest more in this film.

They were also able to manage to care about the characters, Charlie played Jeremiah Burton, his character is unlikable from the beginning, we know he is a complete asshole, we hate his character, who does not give a crap about anyone else but himself and treat others with no respect. But throughout the film after all the horror they’ve been through, the character changed from unlikable to somewhat decent and start to like him. Great acting from Jeremiah Burton. The relationship between Andy and Samantha, played by Shane Hartline and Amanda Sadia, are on the dot. Did not have much room to develop their relationship but somehow we still feel the romance between them and when they were separated from each other towards to the end of the film, we feel their pain, knowing something is going to happen with them. And of course when they died, we were sadden by it.

The suspense is there, it gives you the creepiness with great cinematography by Matt Dickstein, the director himself. He was able to capture the creepiness, even during the bon fire in the beginning of act 2, we had the feel of the Sluagh were spying on them, we don’t really see them, but they are there. Matt knows how to use the glitches in the film. Those glitches work perfectly, it gives you the feeling or a sign of something is going to happen, Matt was able to make the audience to sit and wait while we are dealing with conflicts between characters then he goes back again to with the glitches to show something is happening. Even the first kill does not happen until the mid point but the strange occurrences elements are there, then suddenly without noticing, we are on act 3 already where all the horror breaks loose. Act 3 keeps you at the edge of the seats, let me tell you this, after investing the characters throughout act 1 and act 2, you don’t want to see them dying one by one. A great accomplishment from director Matt Dickstein and the cast.

If you’re not a fan of found footage film, I must say this is one of the exceptions that you have to watch it, a very fast paced and does not leave any trail. This is one film that I will watch over and over because it is just entertaining. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get spooked by it, you’ll cringe your teeth, you’ll hold on to the edge of your seats, you’ll see blood and gore, and you will definitely see the entertainment value in this film. This is one film that you need to check if you’re a horror fan. Even if you’re not a horror fan, you’ll still get entertained by it. Overall, smart writing, well directed, great performance from the cast. My score for this film is 5 of 5.

“The Haunting of Grady Farm” arrives on VOD on November 3rd from High Octane Pictures.

Written By Pat Kusnadi

Syndicated From Culture Slate