Review:The movie ‘V/H/S’ has some scares, but some will wish to fast forward to the good parts….
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[rating=3]
*I’ve tried to do this review as spoiler free as possible, minus explanation of the basic plot device.
Ever since it played last year at Sundance, the horror film ‘VHS‘ has had major buzz so I was curious to see if it matched the hype.
The answer is yes…and no.
The concept is certainly clever, combining the found footage horror genre with the anthology format. Growing up, I loved anthology shows like ‘The Twilight Zone‘, and films like ‘Creepshow‘, so I admire anyone bringing back that format.
The main narrative involves a bunch of unrepentant douchebags who break into a house to steal a valuable videotape. What’s on the tape is unknown, but the person who paid them to snag it says “you‘ll know it when you see it.”
They show up and find a dead body sitting in front of a bunch of TV’s with a pile of videotapes. While the rest of the crew searches the house for more tapes one stays behind and starts popping them in randomly. Each tape plays a different vignette (5 total).
The first tape is one of the best: ‘Amateur Night’, directed by David Bruckner.
3 guys are going out to get laid. They rig a friend with ‘video glasses’ so he can film their sexual conquests without getting busted. While out, they meet 2 girls, one of which is clearly not right (she gives the best performance in the entire movie) They take her back to a hotel room, and things do not go as planned.
“Second Honeymoon” is the next segment, directed by Ti West, (who did the excellent ‘House Of The Devil‘ ). A married couple are on a trip to the Grand Canyon. Back in their motel room they notice a woman lurking outside. She asks them for a ride, but they decline. The husband is clearly unnerved by her…and he should be. It has quite a bit of tension, but the ending is kinda anticlimactic.
“Tuesday the 17th” is up next, and it’s terrible. Ill conceived and acted, it goes nowhere with its ‘Friday The 13th‘ by way of ‘Blair Witch Project’. It’s only interesting aspect is how the killer isn’t viewable on camera, his supernatural presence scrambles the signal, making him a pixellated digitized wraith.
“The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger”, Directed by Joe Swanberg, is an improvement. It shows a series of webcam chats of a young couple. The girlfriend is worried her house is haunted and is troubled by a pain in her arm. The boyfriend tells her not to mess with the arm as he’ll be there in a few days (he’s a med student). But he begins to see signs her fears of intruders might be warranted. The twist ending to the story raises more questions than answers. Besides that it’s pretty creepy, with some extremely gory scenes.
‘10/31/98′ , directed by the film collective ‘Radio Silence’ is the last tape shown, and is a strong closer. A group of guys go to a party, but they find no evidence of anyone, leading them to think it’s perhaps a haunted house attraction…..but then things start getting weird, and not in a fun way. It uses low-budget effects to great effect and has the best finale of all the other segments.
After that we cut back to the rather anticlimactic conclusion of the videotape search.
‘V/H/S’ has a great concept, but the execution isn’t consistent, and is often hampered by vertigo inducing shaky cam movements.
I also feel that in every segment, there’s way too much set-up and annoying dialogue (another trapping of the found-footage genre.)
Which makes me wonder; Why is every character in a found footage film so annoying?
Is it that the act of someone filming their every waking moment reeks of narcissism?
‘VHS’,’Blair Witch’, ‘Paranormal’, ‘Cloverfield’, etc…they’re all filled with the worst humanity has to offer. Perhaps it’s to make you root for their death, but it also makes repeat viewings a daunting proposition.
Regardless, there’s several good scares in ‘V/H/S‘, and I think most horror fans will find enough to like so that it’s worth their time. I’m thinking there’s a “V/H/S-2′ somewhere in the future…
‘V/H/S‘ is currently playing in limited theatrical release as well as VOD (on-demand) from various cable providers. For those who’d like to watch it on demand from Amazon, click on the link below.
[amazon_image id=”B00944CS3A” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]V/H/S (Watch While It’s In Theaters)[/amazon_image]
Or preorder on Blu-ray:
[amazon_image id=”B009DA72D6″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]V/H/S [Blu-ray][/amazon_image]
