A Movie A Day Challenge #002: V/H/S

V/H/S (2012)
Directed By:
David Bruckner
Glenn McQuaid
Joe Swanberg
Ti West
Adam Wingard
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (as Radio Silence)
Tyler Gillett (as Radio Silence)
Justin Martinez (as Radio Silence)
Chad Villella (as Radio Silence)
Stars: Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes and Adam Wingard

This is one I’ve been excited about for a while. The trailer looked awesome, have a look I’ll wait:

Pretty cool huh?

Despite it being very played out I still love the found footage horror movie. I do think there’s more crap than good out there but every once in a while a true gem is found. I guess that’s why it wasn’t such a surprise that V/H/S is such a mixed bag.

The wrap around story is about a group of hooligans that go around taping their exploits on VHS. The group assault women and vandalize property for kicks. They spend a little amount of time setting up this portion of the story, but you grow to dislike the characters quickly.

When one of the members tells the group about an easy burglary job with a large payout the group sets off with camera in hand. A mysterious third party makes the request that the group break into a desolate house in search for a single VHS tape.

On arrival the group finds the owner of the house dead, sitting in front a stack of TV’s hooked up to VCR’s. The group splits up in search of the tape, although they don’t really know what tape it is they are looking for.

One by one the group sits in front of the TV’s and play random tapes found around the corpse of the house owner. Each tape plays a different story in the anthology, a really clever way to frame a found footage anthology.

There are five different stories contained on tapes within the wrap around story. They vary in success in terms of script, story flow, and execution. With five stories and one wrap around story to tie them all together it’s no surprise I have a favorite, and one I thought shouldn’t had even made the cut.

Considering how short these segments are I truly believe the less you know about each one the better you are off. That's why I have omitted screen caps. I will say that just about all the modern horror tropes are found inside one way or another. Slasher, Ghost, Vampires, and even Aliens are all represented.

Although this is very much mixed with great shorts and shitty ones, I have to say I whole heartily recommend this to any found footage horror fan. If you have a very low tolerance for the sub-genre than don’t even bother. There’s enough shaky camera work to give the strongest person a seizure. Also given the fact that these are essentially “short” films, some will be put off by the slow build-up and very quick payoff.

All that aside I recommend V/H/S and truly believe as a whole it will be a satisfying viewing for many horror fans.

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