The best horror films are the ones that can shock their audiences. Whether it be through jaw-dropping twists or disgusting gore, these are the movies that imbue their fear with something unpredictable, keeping viewers on their toes and forcing them to constantly question what will happen next. Many films are able to do this, but few offer such an unforgettable, completely horrific moment of pure shock like Grave Encounters 2. Directed by John Poliquin, this sequel hasn’t earned much love since its release; it is the follow-up to Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz’s seminal found footage horror film, Grave Encounters.
Shirking the television crew of the first movie, this one adds in a meta element by having our cast be a group of slightly whiny college students who, after becoming obsessed with the movie Grave Encounters (which exists in-universe) decide to explore the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital themselves. While the film has been critiqued for many things, it’s often forgotten how well it balances its horror and meta elements, fusing these elements to offer some truly chilling scares. Yet for all the terrifying moments it manages to provide, one unnerves watchers better (or worse) than any other: the elevator scene.
‘Grave Encounters 2’ Is a Frightening Follow-Up
Even the most meta horrors usually don’t reach the self-referential heights of Grave Encounters 2, with the movie establishing that its predecessor is a very popular in-universe feature — that everyone believes is fake. Well, everyone but Alex (Richard Harmon), a college student who ropes a few friends into bringing their video cameras to the Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital to expose whether the first film’s deaths were fake or a true tragedy. This takes an expected turn, with the young adults quickly becoming lost in the asylum’s haunted halls and having to watch as some of their friends become victims to its furious spirits, with the film offering shockingly effective scenes of gore with heads being popped and people being thrown out windows.
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“Don’t you touch the camera!”
It’s a nonstop descent into supernatural terror, just like the first film, which is what makes it so shocking when they escape. Accompanied by some of his lucky friends, Alex leaves the hospital like the first film’s characters never could, the three retreating to their hotel, packing up, and deciding what to do next. It’s a shockingly uplifting moment, with the people around Alex having received enough development and the plot being so wild that viewers are excited to see what happens next…which is when the students get into an elevator and, to their confused terror, realize that they never actually escaped.
Few moments in horror are as devastating as these characters’ faces when the elevator car descends from the halls of their hotel to the dingy depths of the hospital. It’s a cruelty by the film not only against them but the audience; while viewers love to see bloodshed, it was startlingly inspiring to watch this group manage to make it out of a place where so many had died. Especially since both films reiterate how the hospital is so haunted because of the malicious beings that still exist there, it was nice to see people finally win against it for a change — which is why they could never be allowed to leave. This works on both a storytelling and thematic level, as not only does it make sense that the ghosts could play with the group’s perceptions, but this shocking “joke” at their expense emphasizes the utter hopelessness that makes this franchise so distressing.
This ‘Grave Encounters 2’ Scene Is What Horror Is All About
Along with its superficial scares, both Grave Encounters movies excel in granting audiences hope through the characters, only to have it ripped away by something truly horrific. This gut-punch of a scene is the epitome of that, not only providing a disturbing concept by making the kids believe they’d won only to show they’d never left, but by stressing how in a place like this hospital, nothing good can ever make it out alive. While the elevator scene in Grave Encounters 2 is horrifying, this definitely isn’t the first time a scary movie has shocked viewers as much as it scared them.
Going all the way back to Psycho’s infamous shower scene, the genre has been filled with moments like this that disrupt the status quo to terrify audiences. But while many of these succeed, none are as uniquely insidious as this one; it’s one of the few to accomplish this kind of twist through found footage and its utter devastation synthesizes everything that makes the film so disturbing. From showing how the demons of the hospital like playing with their victims to emphasizing the utter hopelessness of this situation, it is a masterclass in helping viewers understand what kind of villains our protagonists are being forced to grapple with. It’s an exceptionally distressing scene, and it deserves much more recognition for being as completely horrifying as it is.
Grave Encounters 2 is available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.
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