Director (/writer/editor/producer) Ti West is one of those low budget, independent filmmakers that has managed to secure a lot of attention for himself and amass a pretty devoted following, both in audiences and in critical circles alike. Having seen the bulk of his films, I was never quite won over. He made waves with The House of the Devil, a slow, slow, slow burn of a film that was cool and creepy, but ultimately just a little too…slow. It came as no surprise when his film The Innkeepers again started garnering praise – after all, even his less than great films got a lot of attention. Now, even at less than great, the films are often watchable if not outright good, just of a much different tempo than I prefer. That said, I pressed play on The Innkeepers knowing little other than Ti West made it and people seemed to love it.

I don’t try to hide my disdain for found footage films. I think that the people who make them often do so as a shortcut – it provides an excuse to avoid spending money on special effects and laying down tracks and setting up shots, which are all expensive and time consuming. Found footage is often a shortcut, and a cheat, if it’s not done specifically to tell a very unique story. Ghost Encounters almost tells that unique story. The initial concept is pretty cool – a group of reality TV show makers lock themselves into a haunted sanitarium, and stuff goes wrong. The idea is that these guys were the first “ghost hunters” before our cable television has become saturated with them. It opens with a producer telling you this isn’t a movie, but rather culled found footage. Mmhm.

When the calendar page turns to October, we Rejects have only one thought: horror. To celebrate this grandest and darkest of months, we’ll cover one excellent horror film a day for the entirety of the month. That’s 31 Days of Horror and 31 Films perfect for viewing on a dark, chilly, October night. If you, like us, love horror and Halloween, give us a Hell Yeah and keep coming every day this month for a new dose of adrenaline. Synopsis: The phrase “insane asylum” doesn’t begin to describe Danvers State Hospital. The now-derelict institution is a massive ruin, shuttered in the ’80s due to federal budget cuts and its controversial practices. Gordon Fleming owns a HazMat removal business and aggressively bids on a contract to strip asbestos from the site, because he desperately needs the work. But is it just the money that’s drawing him to this project … or is he a man haunted? And as long as we’re tackling hypothetical questions, does being forcibly lobotomized on the job qualify you for workers comp?

If you can name the last John Carpenter film, you’re a better buff than I. If you can name the last good John Carpenter film, you would say, “In the Mouth of Madness,” because that’s technically correct (the best kind of correct). Now, with The Ward, he’s driven Amber Heard crazy and tossed her into a group shower where a ghost can attack her. All of this will make more sense once you’ve seen the trailer:

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr puts on his ghostbusting gear to take on the two big spiritual flicks in the theaters. He suffers through a tsunami in Hereafter and struggles even more to get through Clint Eastwood’s latest Oscar-bait flick. Then he sets up a stationary video camera to capture any strange goings-on while he sleeps. He plans to sell the film to Paramount as Paranormal Activity 3: More Shots of Nothing Happening.

Part of me finds this trailer gimmicky. In fact, all of me does. Which is good because I hate it when I argue with myself. But gimmicky or not, the movie looks pretty damned satisfying if you love a good scare.

The Coroner investigates a report of a Haunting in Connecticut in the High-Def world of Blu-ray.