I can see where some people might not like this movie or look down from their pretentious heights at its lack of clarity -- but boring? Boring? Good grief, this is one of the most creepy and atmospheric horror films I've seen in quite a while -- and this ain't my first horror rodeo.

Greystone Park actually succeeds where other low-budget "let's explore a haunted house" films drop the ball. There's wonderfully subtle imagery, especially early on as dark shadows or amorphous faces briefly appear in flashes and transitions that only the camera reveals. As things progress, everything intensifies, including the sights and sounds the characters do detect. Sometimes, you don't see or understand what they are reacting to, and that only intensifies the deliciously creepy atmosphere oozing to life on the screen. Even the sudden frights designed to really scare the audience work well.

Perhaps the best thing about the viewing experience, though, is the fact that much is left up to the audience's imaginations. It's not always clear what the heck is going on, and even the characters are sometimes left wondering if it's all in their minds. More than once, I stopped and rewatched a certain sequence to make sure I saw what I thought I saw. Maybe this aspect of the film is what turns some viewers off, having been programmed by Hollywood to think that horror movies are supposed to be incredibly obvious, paint-by-numbers constructions that require no thought whatsoever.

So what goes on here? Two college students, Sean Stone and Antonella Lentini meet Alexander Wraith at a dinner party (hosted by Oliver Stone, sean's father) and decide to accompany him on one of his adventures inside the abandoned and reportedly haunted Greystone Park mental asylum. Sean's a skeptic going to face his fears, while Antonella is basically one of those girls with a sexy dark side. Cameras and flashlights in hand, they sneak their way into the vast building and begin exploring. The atmosphere of the vast, dilapidated building could not be creepier, with more than a few eerie dolls scattered here and there alongside the abandoned hospital equipment just for good measure. Even as they begin to see shadows and hear unexplained noises, Alex leads them deeper and deeper into the jungle of rooms and hallways.

By the time the more serious stuff starts to go down, finding their way back out of the place is problematic, to say the least. An ambiguous ending isn't really the ultimate payoff I was expecting, but it certainly takes nothing away from all of the wonderful creepiness that preceded it.

Let's talk about the "inspired by true events" label. It's only real in the sense that the filmmakers decided to make their haunted asylum movie by picking up cameras and shooting the film in an actual haunted asylum -- which is something they had already been doing on their own. That includes breaking into Greystone and some other haunted locations on multiple occasions. Obviously, some CGI effects were added later, but I think the film locations could have held their own quite well without any additions. The filmmakers definitely bought in to the reputation of the place. From what I've read, the commentary features several reports of strange things -- even brief possessions -- experienced by the crew during filming as well as some unwelcome visitors back at their own homes.

I'm totally at a loss as to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to this film, as this horror veteran was very impressed. I actually think Greystone Park breathes vibrant new life into the "found footage" genre (I don't think this film technically belongs in that category, but I know that is how it will be classified). Some viewers complain that they couldn't tell where the characters were at times. Really? What part of "getting lost in the labyrinthine depths of a haunted insane asylum" don't you understand? If the characters knew where they were, they would have gotten the heck out of that place. Getting lost is the whole point.

Come on, people. Those who complain the movie was literally too dark to see what was happening need to turn the fricking lights off -- that's the way you're supposed to watch horror movies to begin with.