Stop me if you’ve heard this one; a team of paranormal investigators decide to spend the night in an abandoned hospital to record phenomena for their reality show only to find they may become the newest residents of the cursed grounds.
This plot has been reused several times in the last few years, surprisingly not prior, when the massive hit GRAVE ENCOUNTERS came onto the scene – a few copy cats came in its wake. While as much as I loved the film, it certainly had its issues – the CGI being the biggest one for me. While I certainly understand some things are simply not possible to do on a budget – there was more than a handful of effects that took me right out of the otherwise scary and realistic film. The sequel unfortunately fell into the same trap and let itself become an effects laden film that just did not work.
The folks who made SANATORIUM decided to opt for a more realistic approach and instead of creating elaborate ghost effects – objects move with no one there, music echoes through empty hallways as a shadow passes behind someone, mysterious voices are heard, the whole shebang. This is a film that sets out to be realistic and spends its time building up tension rather than providing lavish or amateurish special effects. Don’t get me wrong, it has a few CG moments that’ll make ya cringe – but their few and far between.
Overall the cast is competent providing believable performances that most definitely help sell the realistic approach the film is going for. No one goes for over the top, it’s mostly grounded. There is a point where the lead actress might have wanted to knock it down a notch when she’s supposed to be “upset” but just like the few CG effects that fail, it doesn’t do much to pull you out of the film.
With its creepy location and a solid cast, this film had potential to be one of the more memorable efforts in a subgenre of asylum found footage films but instead ends up being mediocre. The buildup will take far too long for some viewers and as strange as it sounds, with the more realistic approach – it may end up boring folks rather than send them flying off their seat. There are also an obscene amount of false scares that get old quick, but keep rearing their ugly heads.
It’s a downright shame because I have been saying for years the biggest issue with a majority of these found footage paranormal films is their unrealistic approach of having creatures, lame CGI ghosts, and the like attacking folks. Now here’s a film that forgoes that stuff and ends up being, well, just okay. The scares seem contrived by the time they start as we’ve dealt with the forced fake jump scares and the buildup the film attempts to hold onto is let go in the final act.
This latest offering by After Dark Films is by no means a failure; however, it’s also not a success by any stretch either. It ends up being a lukewarm experience that most will forget as soon as the end credits begin to roll. Give it a rent, for some it may work better but for me, I won’t be revisiting this one any time soon.
Directed by: Brant Sersen
Starring: Don Fanelli, Megan Neuringer, Katherine Puma, Justin Purnell
SANATORIUM is currently available to DVD here.
