The Lost Episode

Before watching this movie, I looked at reviews on here and other websites. Pretty much all of them were awful, claiming it to be a low- budget, less than satisfactory movie. However, I was skeptical a movie could be as bad as people claimed. Besides, I give most films a chance and see the good side of most.

Saying that, after I proceeded to put it on and watch it, I sat with my mouth open, marveling at just how not-scary a "horror" could be. It's an 18-cert but, if I'm brutally honest, a 12 would be pushing it.

There were next to no scary, suspense moments in it, the plot was so simple a child could have written it and I thought it was indescribable. Usually, I'd say it's just not for me, but I couldn't see anybody enjoying this movie and recommending it as a respectable horror or thriller.

I was really disappointed but at least I'll take more notice of cynical reviews now- don't waste your time with this.

Not a found footage movie, but rather a movie based upon what's become one of the more standard found footage movie plots. What am I talking about? Only this...

Pennhurst is about a group of obnoxious teens who go to an abandoned mental hospital to screw around. While there, the most obnoxious of the bunch tells the story of a TV "ghost hunting" crew who visited that selfsame hospital and were brutally murdered. Pretty standard, yes? No! This film doesn't even try to maintain the found footage conceit. Badly chosen music, meant to be scary I suppose, crops up on the soundtrack throughout. And speaking of scary, there ain't none. Maybe two or three scenes, all of them staring the film's director/star Michael Rooker, could be considered at all scary and then only if they were taken out of context with rest of the film.

If Pennhurst has a saving grace, it's that at least the cast looked like they were having fun shooting it. Which is good, because I doubt anyone else will enjoy it as much.

THE LOST EPISODE is another in a long line of no-budget found-footage ghost films set in abandoned asylums, following on from the likes of the GRAVE ENCOUNTERS films and EPISODE 50. This one's the worst yet, despite the presence of cult horror favourite Michael Rooker (HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER) working as both director and guest star.

This film features a muddled narrative set in both past and present, repeatedly swapping between the two time zones. One narrative involves a film crew shooting a documentary in the asylum, the other involves the stereotypical group of teenagers out for a thrill. Lots of lame wandering around and godawful dialogue scenes are interspersed with some extraordinarily lame deaths.

The movie's cast is appalling, with not one actor standing out from the quagmire. Rooker wisely hides his face behind a mask for the most part, but as a director he displays no discernible talent whatsoever; stick to what you're good at, dude, i.e. stay in FRONT of the camera where we want to see you! Needless to say there's nothing else worth mentioning here, because it's an entirely worthless film and comes close to meriting the dreaded 'one star' rating.

All the people involved with this has to be the worst crew EVER.I never did get to see this but just being there was enough to keep me far away.I was begged to do this 3 days before production began and needing to go on location.I was able to find an assistant who had no experience in the industry. He turned out to be the best thing I could have ever asked for Michael was his name.. We remained friends after I got fired, first time for me. I had two friends at the time both Michaels. Michael # 1 died of a heart attack and shortly after Michael # 2, My assistant hung himself over a girl. It was a horrible time.

A 2 is being nice. I'm very surprised that Beverley Mitchell & Haylie Duff are associated with this video (yup, filmed on vid not film). Then I saw they helped produce it. Ouch! C'mon ladies! I wanted to stop watching after 20 minutes but out of a love of Bev & Haylie I continued til the end. The acting is some of the worst I've ever seen. Although Haylie does a good job at being believable the rest of the cast is pretty blah. Sorry to say Bev even wasn't up to par in this and I'm a big fan of hers. It's categorized as horror, I see it as comedy. I see the budget was 1 million. Where'd it go? Certainly not into the making of this movie. With Michael Rooker directing you'd think the movie would be worth a watch. Sorry, Mr. Rooker. Don't quit your day job.