If there's one sub-genre I try to avoid it's the "found footage" one. The whole aspect just doesn't appeal to me, but I try to give certain films a chance if I feel the movie may make an attempt to change things up a bit. Grave Encounters was a film that came highly recommended by friends and peers, so I finally caved in and gave it a shot. Although I didn't like the movie as much as they did, I did like how it approached the tired sub-genre a bit differently. 

The pic follows a team of ghost hunters, who are part of a reality-TV crew that go from one supposedly haunted location to another to document unexplained phenomena. In their latest episode they voluntarily lock themselves in an old abandoned Psychiatric Hospital that's said to be haunted by various deceased patients. At first things seem pretty normal, but as the night grows longer strange things begin to occur. Once one of the team turns up missing, they soon realize that the place is indeed haunted, and its spectral occupants aren't friendly.

It's hard to properly write and execute a good film when it's centered around only a few characters in one location and ATM is no different, in fact, it's pretty much what you'd expect it to be -- from the idiotic characters making many illogical decisions, to the killer having little-to-no motive for everything that transpired. As interesting as it managed to be, you'd have to really ignore all the holes in the script to enjoy this.

The "story" focuses on a few co-workers as they head home during the holidays, but make a quick stop at a nearby ATM first, so one of'em can get some cash and grab a bite to eat. Naturally it takes three people to withdraw from an ATM, so they all crowd around the machine and as they're about to leave they spot a large creeper in a coat standing in the distance between them and the parked car. Their fears of being robbed turn for the worst when they witness the mystery man violently murder a passerby, who was simply walking his dog. Now the trio are tripped within the confines of the ATM, while the coated man on the outside tries to flush them out.

The Woman in Black has a long history in the UK -- before receiving this recent remake from Hammer Films, there was a successful book, which was later adapted into a long-running stage play, which was then turned into a creepy underrated made-for-TV movie in the late 80s. I liked the original film, but also don't deny that it had some room for improvement. This remake does manage to develop certain aspects better than the original, but also falls short in others, making it a good, but not a great remake.

Set in the early 1900s, the story follows a young lawyer sent to a small town to gather documents from a recently deceased woman that would aid his employers into selling the estate. While there he's forced to stay in the woman's secluded mansion home, where he encounters various strange unexplained sounds and visions of a dark figured woman. He soon learns of the town's ghost story of the "Woman in Black". Apparently she's the vengeful spirit of a woman who lost her own child and now she's determined to kill the town's remaining children.