Infirmary

There is a movie called Grave Encounters from 2011 and this movie feels a lot like it. This movie isn't quite as good as Grave Encounters and it doesn't break any new ground when it comes to the found footage category, but it is interesting in its own right and certainly not a bad time. It is slightly underproduced and there are some sequences where they could have thought about it a bit more but I still found it enjoyable and I'm certain that if you are a fan of found footage then you will too.

I’ve been really hyped for this movie to drop for about a month or two & it was definitely worth the wait, but it absolutely has its flaws. The first 50-60 minutes are slow, aside from a couple of moments it was pretty uneventful. Not boring by any means, but definitely repetitive. HOWEVER, the last 30 to 40 minutes are TERRIFYING. I mean it, I must have been literally airborne from how hard I jumped. The crazy part is that I expected all but one of the four scares that got me, yet even though this movie was completely predictable, the scares landed every time. There are movies that are objectively far scarier that fail to make me flinch or jump, but the timing of the scares in this one were just so well executed. It knew exactly when to hit & even when I could see the scare coming, it still got me. The plot lacks originality & I didn’t particularly care for the protagonists, so the stakes were pretty low. However, on the topic of characters, the antagonist (who I won’t name to avoid spoilers) was incredible & definitely carried the movie. The last thing I’d like to compliment is the set design. The idea of horror movies, especially found-footage horror, being set in abandoned hospitals is about as cliché as a trope gets, but the set design here was actually different enough to stand out. It was creepy, atmospheric & had a really nice horror aesthetic. I know I sure as hell wouldn’t want to go wandering through it alone. I’d be willing to bet this movie was inspired by *Bodycam* (2025) and *Grave Encounters* (2011). I guarantee it, I’d go as far as to say it’s basically their love child. The bodycam footage idea feels taken directly from *Bodycam*, while the abandoned hospital setting feels heavily inspired by *Grave Encounters*. This is completely fine though, because art is always inspired by other art. At the end of the day, the movie scared me, that’s all I could really ask for. This was probably the second scariest movie of the year (so far) for me, behind ‘*Obsession*’, so even with its major flaws, I’m still thrilled with my experience. Overall, I give ‘*Infirmary*’ a **7/10** (Good / Enjoyable / Worth watching once or twice). The scares were phenomenal & the last half hour was amazing, but I have to score the movie as a whole. The first hour was more of a 6/10, while the final half hour was closer to an 8/10, so averaging it out to a 7/10 feels both generous & somehow also a little stingy, however it’s the right move. Either way, this is a flawed but genuinely effective found-footage horror movie that absolutely delivers when it matters most.