When it comes to mockumentary type films, there are basically two kinds: good and bad; there's just not a lot of middle-ground with this particular type of filmmaking. Paranormal Activity, which showed at Slamdance, the wild and crazy drunk cousin to the Sundance Film Festival, falls squarely into the "good" camp -- particularly if your definition of "good" includes "will scare the pants off you" and "I had to sleep with the lights on after watching it."

The central idea of the film is that it purports to show actual footage of, well, paranormal activity, in the home of the two protagonists, Katie and Micah, who are living their normal lives until weird things begin happening in their home. Katie, who believes she's been haunted by an invisible, malevolent being since childhood, fears it's followed her to her new home. Micah isn't quite convinced there's anything unexplainable going on, but he purchases a video camera to record their room at night, in an attempt to capture on film any paranormal activity and try to make sense of it. When the camera actually does capture some weird happenings, Micah is at first rather excited by what they have on film; as things escalate, through, both Katie and Micah fear that the entity haunting Katie could turn violent -- or even deadly.

Nick Broomfield is well known for his documentary films like Kurt and Courtney, Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, and Fetishes, but this is his first time working with a script on a narrative film. At least, that's what he'd like to have you believe. He told us during the Q&A that he had previously made a scripted film, but that it was, "such shit, and no one ever saw it." Thankfully, Ghosts was extremely compelling and has hopefully encouraged him to make more scripted films.

While this isn't a documentary film, Broomfield worked with what he knew and this movie is filmed very documentary-style. The cameras are mostly handheld, and at times subtitles will pop up at the bottom of the screen with information like: "These workers typically make £30 per month" and so on. It isn't jarring enough to take you out of the story, but what it cleverly manages to do is make you feel like you're watching a documentary subject at times.

The reason that many film festivals have a "midnight" category is that they need somewhere to throw the horror films, and they're sure not going to include them in the competitive sections. And yet, horror earns a place at most FIlm Festivals. The genre is a big part of independent filmmaking, partially because horror films can cost so little to make, and partially because they are so easy to write. No other kind of film allows for nearly as much suspension of logic and belief, and many errors, inconsistencies and far-fetched twists can be excused by either paranormal subject matter or by just plain pardoning of horror in general.

The annoying thing is that with so many films being made, so few have anything to offer. The horror genre, primarily divided into either the slasher or the haunting variety, basically only has one plot: characters run from something frightening and try to stay alive. As long as there are shocks and scares, there is no need for surprises. As your typical ghost story, The Gravedancers is pretty straightforward and predictable, but it has something that I -- a longtime enthusiast of paranormal true-crime but never a fan of horror fiction -- could appreciate and enjoy. It gives its ghosts their own back stories.