Movie Review: Greystone Park

Synopsis: In October 2009, the filmmakers went into an abandoned psychiatric hospital to explore the 'haunted' institution, famous for its radical treatment of patients with mental illness. Electroshock, insulin therapy, and lobotomies were commonplace. Once inside, the filmmakers quickly discovered that they were not alone; this story is based on their experiences.

Yet another "found footage" type film, this one really has all been seen before. Repeatedly actually. And a note I'd like to make to all film makers, and I'd like to shout this from the rooftops... "I KNOW THAT THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT WAS SUCCESSFUL, BUT NOBODY REALLY WANTS TO SEE A GROUP OF UNLIKABLE PEOPLE ARGUE FOR 90 MINUTES!"

Or in this case 80 minutes. I want to care about the characters, I want to sympathize with them and I want them to be my friends and live through the movies. This was 80 minutes of bitching and moaning and I wanted to be the one to jump out of the dark room and shut them up.

And nothing really happens except for about the last 15 minutes. This movie could have been a short film. They keep cutting away for some scenes filmed at a separate time with the family hanging around, but damn it all just made no sense. I think they just added scenes because the director's famous father, Oliver Stone, was in them.

The set-up is actually somewhat decent I guess, as is the location. And the main actress, Antonella Lentini, is smoking hot... but it's just too slow, builds to nowhere and the ending left me going WTF? After such a long slow build I wanted some payoff and the last 20 minutes has a few decent jump scares and some of the movies better scenes, but then a rushed and confusing ending left me just sort of remembering the long, slow, boring set-up.

There are a lot better found footage releases out there recently, most with better stories and more original plots.

3/10