Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Ravenswood’ (2017)

Written by Scott Edwards

​There is just something fun and exciting about going on adventures with your friends and if you have not done it with your besties yet, I highly recommend it. Just seeing people outside of their normal surroundings is great and when you take a trip anywhere, you get to see your friends with their hair down. Making memories that will last a lifetime is really what this game is all about and if you do not get a couple good ones in over the years, you might find yourself yearning for something new. Enjoy life while you can, it seems like the good times will last forever, but we never know when it will all come to an end.

While on their trip to Australia, Sofia, her boyfriend Carl, friend Michael and his girlfriend Belle are looking to have the time of their lives. Being from America, they all take notice that things are a little bit different in the big Down Under, especially when it comes to driving. Wanting to find something fun to do for the night, Sofia has convinced her friends to take part in a ghost hunt at the Ravenswood Asylum where many deaths took place over the years. Getting ready to go, she is forced to convince Carl to come along as well, since he is far from a believer in the paranormal, much less what the ghost tour is going to show them.

Arriving at the old building and meeting their guides Zach and Emma, the group is forced to give up their cell phones before they enter the infamous Ravenswood Asylum. Roaming the halls and feeling cold spots or spirit sensations around the building, the group stops in the old Rec Room where the patients would recuperate from getting their Electroshock Therapy. Feeling something different in this room, Sophia stays behind and lies on the floor to take in what the building has to show her, but little does she know that there is something hiding in the shadows that is looking to make itself known.

Moving through the rest of the building, the group ends the tour in the room where the actual electric shocks took place. Telling the story about the good Doctor’s last patient Sara who, died on the restraints table, Sophia agrees to be strapped in and as the shock machine starts to power up, the rest of the building powers down. Making his way to find the fuse box with Sophia following, Zach wants to know a little bit more about the young woman and her goofy boyfriend. While back in the room with their other guests, Emma comes clean about all of the spooks that they have set up around the building, but when the doors suddenly shut and lock for no reason, the group does not know what to believe. Needing to find a way out of the building for herself, Emma begins a séance in the building, but little does she know the effects that it will have on the group as a sixty-five-year-old game of cat and mouse has been brought back to life.

This movie features a very cool premise. While you get some spooky haunted house vibes, you also get possessions that will take the group places they did not expect. I was a little shocked when it came to the backstory for Sophia and her hardships of trying to live day by day and getting to meet the spirit of Sara firsthand will change her outlook on life for the rest of her days. I like the tour guides coming clean about the haunts in the old building and the distrust that they receive for a little bit is well deserved.  With slight shifts in personalities of the group, along with glowing eyes, you get to see what the spirits are thinking about when it comes to their old vendetta and who will need to die next to save the innocent. With a haunted building, spooky sounds, an asylum lock down, some blood, a doctor looking to torture his last patient and a spirit only looking to be released once and for all, this is not a bad little flick. I have always been mindful of the haunted houses I have gone to over the years and if there is any word about possessions in their history, this movie has made me sure about one thing, I will not be involved. Stay Scared.

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