Episode 50

Now, when people ask me what my favourite genre of film is, I generally say horror. Why? Well, I suppose it’s the dark, gritty environment, the suspense, the chill that runs down your spine and, of course, the scares. People like being scared, they like the thrill that comes from watching these horror movies.

The main point is I like horror films. I won’t go into great detail as I then have to write another article, but here’s a quick look at my top ten horror films:

10.  Death Ship (1980)

9. Don’t Look Now (1973)

8. The Wicker Man (1973)

7. Alien (1979)

6. The Thing (1982)

5. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

4. House on Haunted Hill (1959)

3. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

2. Village of the Damned (1960)

1. The Fog (1980)

Have you noticed something about these films? They’re all twenty plus years old! Yeah, the horror films from over twenty years ago were certainly the best, where they actually set a good mood and come up with original scares. The majority of scares are set up simply because of the background, the environment, the setting of the scene; screw that up and you will not be scared.

Unfortunately horror films nowadays are no longer like that. They seem to think that by using the same scares from twenty years ago, it’ll be fine. But no, it makes the film predictable; instead of scaring us, we’re sitting there almost falling asleep, especially when a remake of a horror film comes along. Sure, a good remake occasionally comes along, like ‘Dawn of the Dead (2004)’ and ‘The Crazies (2010)’, as does a good modern horror like ‘REC (2007)’, but even then the scares are predictable. But most modern horrors seem to think they can get away with jump scares; a scare that literally has people jumping out of their seats. Personally I jump because the cinema always seems to turn the volume to max when it happens, leaving me partially deaf.

But you know what, a horror film set in an abandoned insane asylum has always interested me, I mean, let’s be honest, what is better than an asylum for a horror film? It is essentially a location where you don’t want to go in, even during the day. And it doesn’t really matter when the film was made, set it in an insane asylum and you have me hooked. Whether it will suck or not, I will watch it just for the asylum location.

And so we have ‘Episode 50’. A 2011 horror film set in an abandoned insane asylum. It follows a television crew going into said asylum to film and debunk their fiftieth ghost sighting. What could go wrong?

Well first of all, going into this, I expected the film to be set in two ways.

1.      The film will be set in the first-person from the view of the camera, like ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘Blair Witch Project’, so the film is actually like a television show.

2.      The film will be set in the third-person of the television crew, sort of a ‘behind the scenes’ look.

Unfortunately the film didn’t seem to know which one it was going with. Half the time it was point one, the other half it was point two. I suppose it actually did follow the second point to an extent, but it was such a mess it didn’t work very well, especially when there were points when there were only two characters but the camera work made it appear there was a third operating it.

The setting, I have to admit, was actually pretty good. It did successfully put together a pretty scary tone, one that creeped me out anyway. Unfortunately, it couldn’t keep it up for the entire film, especially when it drastically changed locations. Yeah it changed locations. I had gotten the idea that the film was about a team of paranormal investigators, who were going to disprove the ghosts of the asylum, they’d all get killed and it would be a ‘found footage’ genre. Nope. It loses the tension by shifting the climax to the middle of the day rather than the dark night time, it loses tension by showing the static ghosts from the ‘Pulse’ remake a couple of times, and it loses tension with the horrible effects at the end. The effect used for the Devil (I assume it was the Devil) was laughable.

Character wise, I wanted to like these characters, I really do. But, I just couldn’t find any likeable features at all. The most likeable character I found was Lysette (played by Eleanor Wilson), but at the same time I couldn’t stand her; maybe it was because her character reminded me of those so called ‘psychics’ who I don’t believe in. Or it’s because she was a terrible actress. One of the two.

Then there was Damon (played by Chris Perry) who is actually a pretty decent character, he debunks the spiritual realm, but he’s open to the concept of it. He’s also a character who cares for his fellow teammates. We then have Jack (played by Josh Folan) who just comes on too strong. He may be the leader, but he’s just so unlikeable. Then there’s Andi (played by Natalie Wetta) who is just bland. There’s even a scene where she defends the nurse ghost, saying she wasn’t the evil force there. But, here’s the thing, yes she wasn’t the main evil force behind the asylum, but if she was good she wouldn’t have kidnapped you, strapped you to a table and electrocuted you!

We then have Dylan (played by Keithen Hergott), who is just easily the most unlikeable in, not just this film, but the history of film. Mainly because of his deep religious feelings, which, fair enough he’s entitled to them, but he just forces them on everyone. There’s even an interview segment where he says that paranormal investigators like our main characters find evidence which they can’t debunk...which is odd because in the mock episode we saw at the beginning we saw them explain everything.

We also have Richie (Justin Brutico), Jose (Robert Maisonett) and Kieron (Kieron Elliot)...not much can be said about them. They’re likeable. I guess. They’re not annoying.

As I just mentioned the film begins with a mock episode. Now I actually enjoyed this opening. It showed just what the paranormal team did and what methods they used. Plus it was in the view that I thought the film would take place; first person from the camera.

The story, well, it started off alright. It was just as the film progressed that it went down in quality. And it did have a pretty good concept with the paranormal investigators who want to debunk the theory of ghosts teaming up with the religious group who want to prove they exist. Sadly this was wasted as there wasn’t much interaction between them.

So, essentially this starts off well but deteriorates as the film progresses. It was a great concept, but terribly executed. This film had so much potential, but it couldn’t pull it off. But, at least it was going along the lines of actually trying to create a scary film, I will give them credit for that. It’s worth seeing it just simply out of interest, but don’t expect anything major.