When I discovered I was going to finally see The Haunting of Grady Farm at the Chicago Horror Film Festival 2020, I was ecstatic. I’ve been following and supporting this film ever since it was called The Sluagh and let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed with the outcome.
This found-footage horror film was directed by Matt Dickstein with a cast starring Ben Kaplan (Slasher.com, Blind), Malia Miglino (The Lurking Man, Nightlife), Josh Server (All That, Good Burger), Alex Owens-Sarno (Titanic, Carma), Justin Miles (The Crazies, The Walking Dead), and Lauren O’Quinn (House of Cards, Bloodline).
Synopsis for The Haunting of Grady Farm
Emily Wolf is the host of a travel show documenting supposed haunted locations around the country. The destination of her next episode happens to be in rural Florida, where her and her cinematographer’s old college friends live. They decide to film at an old abandoned farm, but they quickly learn what’s haunting this land is more than folklore.
There’re very few found-footage films that I enjoy but when they work, they work well and create something huantingly fantastic much like the iconic found footage horror feature, The Blair Witch Project. If you love that film, then you will most likely enjoy The Haunting of Grady Farm. One of the reasons The Blair Witch was so popular was because of its marketing scheme that had everyone believing it was real. The Haunting of Grady Farm didn’t have that, but it delivered what The Blair Witch did plus some. It was a fantastically creepy story with great peformances and an overall nightmarish atmospohre.
All of the peformances were exceptional. They delivered emotionally frightening and brtually raw peformances that left you feeling like this was real and that they were in danger. My favorite characters and peformances were from Ben Kaplan and Malia Miglino, who had great chemistry together and really deliverd their A-game.
The film was shot beautifully and there’s a sense of dread and fear throughout the films runtime. Some scenes left a hauntingly lasting impression and The Haunting of Grady Farm definitly stands out from others films with similar stories and settings. Oh… and what an ending!
Final Thoughts
The Haunting of Grady Farm will be available November 3 for purchase and rent on VOD from High Octane Pictures. Make sure to check it out if you love found footage films and nightmare fueled dreams!