10 Movies That Explained Way Too Much

This found footage film’s over explanation is a strange case. In some ways, the ending of the film doesn’t explain much at all. We get a big reveal. Characters make some split-second decisions. Seemingly everyone dies. Fade to black. But the issue here is that, while leaving much unresolved plot-wise, the film resolves something thematically that might have been best left ambiguous.

The narrative up until that point did a great job of riding the fence between belief and skepticism. A young woman appears to be possessed, but it remains unclear whether or not that is actually the case. As the film generally revolves around the pastor treating her, who is experiencing a crisis of faith, this ambiguity works quite well. We are actually stuck in with this crisis of faith and how it is intensified by this potential demonic possession because we have to experience shifting levels of belief and doubt alongside him.

And then it’s revealed that the woman was possessed.

Though the plot leaves much up to the imagination – why has she been possessed, what are the goals of those assisting with the possession, who of the main cast is actually dead, what will become of the woman – it is shown to us, in no uncertain terms, that what we have witnessed is demonic. We get a lack of resolution plot-wise while thematically, all the interesting ambiguity and interplay between faith and doubt is gone. It’s a truly strange case where under and over explaining is combined for a rather unsatisfying ending that isn’t worthy of the ambiguous, compelling movie that precedes it.