Dude! Paranormal Activity, Bro!

It is Valentine’s Day yet again! I didn’t want to do the same thing as every other site, YouTube channel, or blog, so instead of checking out a holiday-appropriate flick, I just chose another at random. Today’s viewing goes to Michael David Pate’s Haunted Hospital: Heilstatten.

The Plot

A group of vloggers agree to spend a 24 hour period inside a notoriously haunted sanatorium, as their latest challenge to one another. Will the boys of Prankstaz.tv outlast their online nemesis, Bettyful, or will all of the participants fall victim to the spirits haunting this hospital?

My Thoughts

Long time horror fans have seen it all; When found footage films were the new, biggest thing in the genre, I, like many others, couldn’t get enough of them. The handheld shaky cams catching glimpses of the supernatural in houses, forests, asylums, and hospitals were all I cared about. In 2019, is there anymore room for found footage?

Pate’s Haunted Hospital: Heilstatten isn’t reinventing the wheel. It doesn’t really have to either, however. Sure, hardcore fans of the sub-genre have already experienced this stuff, but what about new horror fans? What about the kids who are just now turning 15 and 16 years old, starting to only now get curious about scary movies? The youth of today could do a lot worse than this film for their first go around with found footage.

A cut above most other films in this sub-genre, Heilstatten looks wonderful, features talented performers, and has some very impressive special effects on display.

Heilstatten revolves the story of a woman known as Patient 106. This particular patient is said to have had an affair with a doctor at the ward, during the Nazi era. Silenced and force to keep her pregnancy a secret, the woman killed herself, haunting the surgery room of the hospital for decades to come.

Full of your typical jump-scares, the true genius of this film doesn’t present itself until the final act. In these final 20 or so minutes, the twist ending, which I did not see coming at all, by the way, takes Heilstatten out of cookie-cutter found footage territory and into a creative and, more importantly, relevant story.

In this day and age, people are doing whatever it takes to gain Likes and Follows on every social media outlet possible. Stupidity like the “tide pod challenge” are becoming an everyday norm. Because this is our reality now, plot twists like we see in Haunted Hospital are all too possible. What would you do for another Like, Share, or Follow…?

The Verdict

Haunted Hospital: Heilstatten is a top quality found footage horror flick. It takes the tropes of the sub-genre and makes it much more relevant to today’s atmosphere. It features talented young performers and enough practical effects gore to please horror fans old and new.

Be sure to pick up your copy of Heilstatten, available now on Digital, Blu-ray Combo, and DVD from Well Go USA Entertainment.

I give this one 3.5 moths out of 5.