V/H/S/2
(Horror, Thriller, Found Footage, 2013) (18) D : Simon Barrett, Jason Eisner. 1h 36m. USA.
I never read much about the first VHS (2012) before watching it, but knew it was another found footage movie. Man was I wrong! It was actually one of the best and more inventive movies I’ve seen for some time and it did scare me, which wins it lots of brownie points. After all; fear fans are always looking our for new kicks.
I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, the sheer creativity alone made it superb and the execution of each story was spot on. The film achieved all that it was set out to do and created for itself a very unique and distinct feel about it that carried on into part 2.
VHS2 is one of the rare sequels that acts like a sequel, it keeps the same unique feeling as the original one created it also plays out in the same way with a wrap around and a few individual segments, it didn’t really try to answer any questions or lead into further movies as such (but I hope it does) I find that with a lot of sequels there is a need to out do the first movie or to break all the rules. Sometimes I think if you have the formula right then you just need to keep at it.
The wrap around itself was quite spooky and strangely entertaining.
TAPE 49 D: Simon Barrett : Two private investigators are searching for a missing student, their search leads them to an abandoned house, littered with VHS tapes and a laptop that the young man left behind explaining the “lore” of the tapes. This is only the wrap around so it’s not particularly scary until the end but there are some shocks and scares in between. It does raise one question which I’ll detail at the end.
CLINICAL TRIALS : D : Adan Wingard
A dude (the director Wingard) gets a robotic eye after a car accident, which allowed him to see dead people through “glitches” it’s a bit gimmicky and is a cross between The Sixth Sense (1999) and Gin Gwai : The Eye (2002) It has a couple of scares but it wasn’t the most thrilling of the series, I did like the scene where the guy was going to fight one of the ghosts an put his cuffs up it reminded me of playing a first person shooter..
RIDE IN THE PARK : D : Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale.
I wondered when they were going to introduce zombies into this little corner of horror. A mountain biker gets attached and turned into a zombie and continues in a zombie rampage to a kids birthday party while capturing the whole event on his GoPro camera. Definitely the comedy segment.
SAFE HAVEN : D : Gareth Huw Evans and Timo Tjahjanto.
This was the longest segment and maybe the more detailed. Luckily by the time it starts feeling like the longest segment things finally get going and your rewarded with some crazy Silent Hill style scenes. An Indonesian TV Crew are granted access into the compound of a cult, after the main characters and their situations are introduced a tour is given and hell literally breaks loose, I don’t want to spoil this one it has to be seen.
ALIEN ABDUCTION SUMMER PARTY : D : Jason Eisener
A few young teens are left along and continue to pull pranks on each other using their home camera strapped to the back of their lil doggie. This is all fucked up when a bunch of aliens turn up. I didn’t find the segment all that amazing as we had seen aliens before but not in this way I suppose. There was one scene where you see a figure swimming towards the kids and I was hoping it would be a merman type of creature like in Cabin in the woods (2011) nevermind it was still pretty good, the lil doggie played his part well.
All in all I did enjoy this movie quite a lot, for me V/H/S (2012) was the better film, but his sequel isn’t terrible. Obviously these movies are quite clique and will only appeal to certain people, a little like marmite there are gonna be some haters out there too. I’m just praying that it can be kept up for another movie, which might just be amazing.
Q : “You butt dialled me”
R : V/H/S (2012) The ABC’s of Death (2012)
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