Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Greystone Park Blu-ray Movie Review

Dare Abnormal Activity

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 14, 2012

Greystone Park, which had the working title of SecretStone and was released in the U.K. as The Asylum Tapes, is the feature film debut of Sean Stone, son of director Oliver. The younger Stone has appeared in many of his father's films, playing Michael Douglas' son Rudy in the original Wall Street and Mallory's younger brother Kevin in Natural Born Killers, among other roles. Since Stone began his directing career making documentaries for video releases of his father's films, it's appropriate that his first feature should take the form of a "found footage" horror film, which borrows elements from the documentary form to tell a fictional story.

But Greystone Park is only part fiction. As Sean Stone relates in the accompanying short documentary, and at greater length in the disc's commentary, much of what is depicted in the film, at least for the first half, really happened. He really was introduced to his co-writer, Alexander Wraith (and yes, that is his last name), by father Oliver at a dinner. Alex really does make a hobby of scaring himself silly by breaking into abandoned asylums at night, just to see what happens. (From the way the commentary participants describe it, the fear generated by the experience provides an adrenaline rush akin to skydiving or base-jumping, except that it lasts much longer.) And Alex really does have a Pied Piper ability to persuade others to join him, which is what Sean did shortly after they met. The experience supplies the film's plot, with Sean and Alex playing versions of themselves.

A "shadow" is peeking in at the window.

The first sustained scene in the film is a re-creation of the dinner that inspired it, with Sean, Alex and others sitting around the dinner table with Sean's father, all of them telling ghost stories. The scene is lit and shot to evoke a campfire atmosphere. Sean plays the skeptic who is willing to listen, while Alex is obviously the explorer. Oliver Stone relates a story he heard at camp as a kid, the Legend of Crazy Kate, which he told to Sean as a kid, adding that he thinks he actually saw Crazy Kate in the bushes the next morning.

Sean asks Antonella (Antonella Lentini), a student at NYU, to accompany him and Alex on their adventure to Greystone Park, an abandoned psychiatric hospital in New Jersey that Alex has visited before. It is unclear why Sean chooses Antonella for this venture, although there's a suggestion that he has a crush on her. ("This is my idea of dinner and a movie", he says.)

The expedition starts out on a jarring note when John (John Schramm), a dinner participant who had agreed to join them, does not show at the appointed time. (According to the commentary, this too is taken from the real-life outing on which the film is based.) During the drive, Alex's behavior becomes increasingly hyper and bizarre, to the point where Sean and Antonella are already unsettled—and, as a viewer, I would have switched off the film if I weren't obliged to finish it for this review. Having watched to the end, I now understand the effect that Stone was going for, but he needed a better actor to play "Alex" than Alexander Wraith. (Playing yourself isn't as easy as it sounds.)

Once the trio reaches Greystone Park (for which three different locations were used), Sean and Antonella gradually find themselves drawn into Alex's belief in ghosts, or "shadows" as he likes to call them. It's not hard to imagine how the derelict surroundings, chemical-laden atmosphere and constant exchange of scary stories would work on the imagination of people in these circumstances to make them experience inexplicable phenomena, but Stone the filmmaker clearly comes down on the side of the supernatural. He places shadowy figures on the edge of the frame, introduces strange images (both practically and in post-production) in places where the characters aren't looking, so that only the camera picks them up, and intercuts weird frames that flash by so quickly you can't be sure what they are.

Eventually, events occur that could be classified as genuine apparitions, but by that point Stone has abandoned any pretense of narrative coherence. The alternate ending in the special features attempted to restore some sense of closure, but it appears that Stone preferred the uncertainty. I think that was the wrong choice. The most effective ghost stories send you back to the "normal" world with a sense that it has now been penetrated by a giant hole, one that has to be avoided at all costs if those who are now aware of it want to have a chance at a happy life. Stone leaves the viewer stuck in the hole, drifting among shadows.

Greystone Park Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The video quality on ARC Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is largely dictated by the "found footage" format of Greystone Park's original photography. The film was shot handheld on hi-def video in low light conditions, with copious use of shadow and darkness to create both a sense of uncertainty and an indistinct realm where ghostly figures could be placed. (Some of these figures were added as effects in post-production, but most were added practically, in camera.) Abrupt cuts and pauses in recording are used for effect, and digital breakup signifies the presence of supernatural energy that interferes with the camera's functioning. All of these elements are faithfully represented in the Blu-ray image, which also presents vivid color in the rare scene that requires it (and I can't be any more specific). The various elements of the image were tweaked on a digital intermediate, from which the Blu-ray was presumably sourced; so while the disc may not provide classic demo material, it appears to be an accurate replication of the film's intended look. As usual, my video score has been chosen accordingly.

Greystone Park Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

"Found footage" films typically don't have lively and active soundtracks, because the illusion has to be maintained that we're seeing and hearing what the participants recorded. Still, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track for Greystone Park has been mixed to incorporate numerous subtle sound cues that work at an almost subliminal level to suggest the participants' psychological deterioration, or, if you prefer, their absorption into the spirit world. This sometimes makes it difficult to know exactly what you're hearing, which I suspect is the intended effect. Voices often break up, crackle or drop out, in the same way that the video breaks up and distorts from external "interference". The soundtrack's cumulative effect is to convey the sense of being inside a pressure cooker, which was perhaps inspired by the sensation, described on the commentary, of breathing the thick air that is typically encountered inside these long-abandoned and unventilated structures.

Greystone Park Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Sean Stone, Antonella Lentini and Alexander Wraith: The three collaborators talk continuously, and as I noted above, the film makes much more sense with their explanations of their characters' motivations. They provide a wealth of interesting detail about the real-life experiences that became the script and about the experience of shooting the film in real locations, which both they and the crew found unnerving.



• Sean Stone's Ghost Stories: The Making of Greystone Park (HD, 1080p; 1.78:1; 6:58): An EPK that includes interviews with Stone, Wraith and Lentini, as well as producers Kaila York and Giulia Prenna. It continues the commentary's theme of emphasizing that "shadows" and spirits are real.



• The Locations of Greystone Park (HD, 1080p; 6:59): Visits to three different locations used to substitute for Greystone, for which the filmmakers could not get a permit.



• Alternate Ending (HD, 1080p; 1:47): This ending would have resolved the plot as a more traditional ghost story, primarily through the use of text screens.



• Additional Trailers: At startup the disc plays trailers (in 1080p) for Hell, Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes and Outpost: Black Sun . These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Greystone Park Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The biggest weakness of Greystone Park isn't the ending (though that is a problem). It's the motivation driving the characters' behavior and pushing the story forward. I couldn't understand much of it while I was watching the film, and as a result the narrative quickly grew wearisome and dull. Whatever charm Alexander Wraith may have exerted on his friends in life is wholly missing from the character of "Alex" in the film, and their decision to accompany him to Greystone Park seems foolish at best. Only as I listened to the commentary did the story come into focus—which makes Greystone Park a classic case of a story that violates the command, "show don't tell". To make matters worse, the "telling" occurs in a commentary, which means the film isn't complete on its own. Beginning filmmakers are usually strongest on images and editing. It's character and narrative that elude them. Not recommended.