Episode 50

Oh for the love of crap, will people stop making movies like this unless they have an original idea?  Maybe I'm cranky because I've seen so many of these movies this month, but this one takes the cake.  While "The Shrine" may have copied from like, 100 other movies, at least that one had solid acting and gore to ramp up the interest.  This movie doesn't even have that.  It doesn't even have the guts to stick with the stupid "found footage" idea, instead switching back and forth from traditional movie to found footage until it winds up looking like a big mess.  Not only that, a lot of the actors here seem like they're from some second rate soap opera or something.  I hate saying stuff like this about indie movies, especially indie horror movies, since I love them so much, but this one just plain sucks.

The movie is about a television series where paranormal investigators "debunk" claims of actual hauntings (I put "debunk" in quotes because they don't actually DEBUNK anything, they just say "well it could be explained by this" and then walk away, smirking arrogantly, as though they just solved everything and are way smarter than everyone else who continues to believe in ghosts).  This is the infamous 50th episode of their show, which was never aired on TV because it was too stupid boring shocking.  Setting up in an asylum that has long been rumored to be haunted, they find they have to share space with a group who truly believe they are called by God to cast out demons and set trapped spirits free.  There's friction between the two groups, which would be intriguing if anyone here could act.  As it stands, it just looks like a fight broke out at a bad actor's convention.  Anyway, as the night goes on, one group tries to summon ghosts while one tries to prove there ARE no ghosts, and there's a plot twist about some greater demonic plan bringing them both here tonight, and the movie drags on while I wish I could catch up on some sleep.

There are some cool visuals here which prove that the filmmakers do have some talent hiding under all these cliches, and I wish the movie were better, but it's not.  The movie poster is blatantly riffing on [REC], the beginning of the movie is stolen from "Grave Encounters," the middle is stolen from "Session 9," and the end is stolen from "The Last Exorcism," but this movie doesn't have one fifth of the impact of any of those films.  Netflix recommended this one to me too, and Netflix can go suck my left nut, because this movie was terrible, and I feel like I wasted my time with it when I could have been watching something better.