Strong and Moving!

Captivating movie !

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

V/H/S, created by Brad Miska and the horror website Bloody Disgusting, features a series of five horror shorts tied together by a sixth wraparound short that ties them all together. It features different directors for each segment, (five individual directors and one directing team) which makes for an interesting bit of diversity throughout the film.** SPOILERS! **It's no secret that I love the found footage niche of the horror genre. I'm also a big fan of anthologies, at least in theory (Creepshow delivered while The ABCs of Death, well, didn't), so I thought this would be a home run. It was a great idea, and I think it was decently done, but the shorts varied a bit too much in quality (I only liked two of the six), while the wraparound itself was mediocre.Tape 56 — the short that it continually returns to — was directed by Adam Wingard (You're Next, Blair Witch). It's a decently interesting story to tie the shorts together but just didn't do much for me.Amateur Night, directed by David Bruckner (The Signal), was a bit too obnoxious for me to enjoy. I know the story centers around three seeming frat boys out for a night of partying (and amateur porn making), but the drunken WOOing and cackling gets old really quick. It makes it pretty satisfying when Lily — the mysterious, wide-eyed woman they bring back to the hotel — literally rips off the incessant laugher's genitals. While they did a decent job making her a bit terrifying — I actually liked when she shows her face sort of split in the middle — the only real highlight for me was when she carried Clint off into the night with her talons dug into him, which was oddly convincing.Second Honeymoon, directed by Ti West (The Innkeepers, The Sacrament), was maybe my favorite of the bunch. They were the most natural actors and the premise, while not wild or supernatural, was pretty great. Also, after watching Sam try to convince Stephanie — repeatedly and uncomfortably — to take her clothes off while on camera, I was pretty happy when he was killed off. The gurgling and struggling to breathe was surprisingly convincing, and it was a nice twist to have Stephanie run off with a woman.Tuesday the 17th, directed by Glenn McQuaid, was one of the weakest, in my opinion. It went with the overplayed storyline of 20-somethings deep in the woods and, while the killer being unable to be captured on video was mildly interesting, the weak acting ruined it for me.The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger, directed by Joe Swanberg (who actually starred in Second Honeymoon), had a decently interesting premise, but was somewhat painful to watch. It was neat to go into it thinking that it was your typical haunted house situation but then find out it went deeper into aliens- using-her-as-an-incubator territory. But still… it relied too much on cheap jump scares than anything else.10/31/98, directed by Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, and Chad Villella, who also all — aside from Justin — acted in the film), was my second favorite. I thought it could have been overplayed to have the story take place on Halloween but it felt fun, especially since so many creepy moments got laughed off due to their belief that they were in an elaborate, but fake, haunted house. When they realize what is going on — or at least that it isn't staged after all — the special effects come on a bit too heavy-handed (though, no pun intended, I thought the hands coming out of the walls was particularly creepy). It uses some of the classic White Lady folklore with the girl leading them by car to the train tracks and then abandoning them right before their death. Maybe not the most brilliant short film to ever exist but I liked it.A bit disjointed overall and, again, the quality seems to jump around quite a bit. I wish the stories relied more on writing and acting than jump scares and camera glitches, but it's worth a watch.

While the stories are fairly standard, I'd argue that this is one of the best executions of found footage to ever come from the horror genre, with dynamic, realistic and non overwhelming cinematography and logical justifications for why the characters would bother to have cameras. Worth watching.

I find it hard to find to find a good horror film nowadays. Most of them are dull and uninventive, prioritizing jumps and CGI over suspense or story. VHS, while not being a perfect horror film is surprisingly agreeable. I admit, the first segment preluding the first video story was confusing and I considered switching it off, but not for long. Found footage is leaning towards overkill these days, but VHS is a small reminder of how useful it can still be. It's divided into 5 stories respectively:The first story is strong. It builds up good suspense and you genuinely don't know what's going to happen except that it'll be something horrifying. It escalates fast and becomes pretty tense, followed by gory and then just plain terrifying. The monster involved will probably keep you awake at night...The second is different, it's tenser from early on but nowhere near as gory or as horrifying... in fact it's bewildering. A good story but not as strong as the former, although there is a twist that you probably won't see coming.The third is awful. It makes no sense (I'm not sure if it's supposed to) and the attempts at jump scaring in it are weak. I've watched this movie three times and I always switch off during this part and can't really take it in. Dull, like most modern horror films.The fourth is done really well and in a unique way. It holds a bewildering twist, but a good one. Also it has a few cameo jump scares. Arguably the best segment.The fifth plays on some of the strengths of the others. It's tense and jumpy, and not a bad story. The horror element isn't at all dull like the third segment, in fact quite the opposite. The camera is a bit trigger happy with its shakiness but that's a minor criticism. Overall, if you like horror films I can't see why you wouldn't like this one. Most modern examples are dull and poorly written, this one isn't so bad so give it a go if that's your thing.

I don't consider myself a fan of the found footage genre, but I've seen V/H/S show up on several lists of the best of the genre, so I thought I'd check it out.There's some semblance of story setup (bunch of thugs break into a house to steal a tape, but find a dead body and a bunch of other tapes instead). Then it dives into a series of unrelated short films.In a feature you need a story; in shorts you can get by with a gag. I'm going to give the writers a tip of my hat and admit each of the shorts has an effective gag. Some of the shorts work better than others and some just don't work at all.A few of the shorts feature some head-scratching, WTF moments. There are a couple of scenes that almost threw me out of the movie, but I'm glad I continued to watch.I think the team put most of the film's budget into the last short and it shows. I feel it was the best of the batch. I was going to rate the film a 5 but as I think about it, the effectiveness of that last short warrants a higher mark.If you're a horror fan and/or a found footage fan in particular, you can't go wrong streaming this.