I have a secret fondness for mockumentaries and “found footage” films, much the same as I do for bad zombie movies. The problem here is that Episode 50 doesn’t seem to know what it is, and its apparent attempts to play itself as both just makes it a muddled mess. The premise of the film is that it is the unreleased final episode of a paranormal reality show, and yet it has apparently been edited so professionally despite everything that happened that you can’t quite work out what its trying to do. For example, as the film approaches its climax and the protagonists are racing to stop the ritual, the camera crew apparently had the time to stop and hire a helicopter to shoot some aerial tracking shots. This makes no sense in the concept of the film, and that is only one example of the bizarre way the film is shot throughout.
Gosh, another review wherein the first paragraph reveals that I wasn't fond of the film at all. I've got to stop revealing my hand like this.
That’s far from the only problem with this almost schitzophrenic film. When we start the film we’re introduced to what we think are going to be the two protagonists, Jack and Damon. They’re likable enough, if a little cocky in the way that alpha male protagonists often are, and the film looks set to be around their experiences in this haunted asylum. Not even a third of the way into the film, however, we’re introduced to Dylan, and suddenly the film starts to focus on him. And Dylan is not nearly as likable a character as Jack and Damon. He comes across, in fact, as something of a snake oil salesman, or a televangelist who’s much more about the money than he is about the message he’s preaching. Which makes it all the more surprising when he is proved to be right about the haunting.
And about that... My belief system might not be Christianity, but I have no problem with the religion - unless it’s being used to beat me over the head. Forget any controversy over ‘exorcisms’ and the like, by the end of Episode 50 we’ve gone from an investigation into a haunted asylum with a dark past to literally racing to stop a demon from opening a gateway to hell (which isn’t even on the asylum grounds) - and the demon and the ‘gateway’ look like they’ve escaped from Doom, complete with a floating pentacle made of fire in the centre. Even worse, the film disregards the fates of most of the characters (including Damon, whose survival is left hanging at the end of the film), to instead focus on Dylan encouraging Jack to come back to Christianity to defeat the demon. Heroic sacrifices are a common and successful trope in film, especially the horror genre, but this felt as though it was less about the heroism and more about having a “science believer” disregard all that and embrace Christianity instead, as there’s no way the two can co-exist... While the ending shot, of the dying man who bankrolled the whole investigation softly crying as he realises that he’s going to be going downstairs when he dies, is an effective one, it leaves far too many unanswered questions about everything else to really end the film.
There are numerous other problems with Episode 50: they tell where they should be showing and they show where there is no need or even reason to show at all; the antagonist of the film is almost comically over-the-top in evilness (it’s said of one victim that he “broke every bone in her body and stuffed her in a tiny box... he raped and strangled her... cut out her tongue and gouged out her eyes”); the comic relief character needed to be taken out and shot; several of the cast needed more acting lessons than they apparently had... Oh, and the poster/cover art is an image not seen in any part of the film. If there’s a target audience for Episode 50, it’s that small minority of Christians who believe that science and religion can never co-exist and that paisley and diabetes are demonic in nature. Everyone else is likely left grinding their teeth in frustration.
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