V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S explores a group of people who break in to a house trying to find a video tape recommended by some guy and when playing videos looking for it,they discover some disturbing videos that no person has ever seen. So,V/H/S is a pretty original film I think,well,at the time anyway. The films directors included Adam Wingard and Ti West,two horror directors that have tangled with each others films,making sequels for each other. The tapes included five,each one scary as hell,my favourite tape was probably Ti West's one where a couple are on holiday and I'm not going to spoil,but something very psychologically creepy happens. There was only one bad tape to me in the film and that was the third one,although,the thing is it wasn't actually bad it was just,not the best,the acting in the film was also very good considering it was from 20 something year old nothings. V/H/S is a brilliant,excellent creepy horror film that is very good for Halloween! Just going to review the second one,Now!!

Well my one big complaint is the camera-work (the "found footage" genre) was making me dizzy. I was so happy at the parts where it became normal instead of jumping all over the place. So if that's going to bother you, you should probably skip it.Not really all that good, more of a collection of weird short stories. It held my interest though. It was good enough to keep my attention to the end. I wish they would have expanded on some of the stories a little more. They could have made it, say, 3 short stories and gave some explanation of what was going on.So, it could have been an 8 if it (a) get rid of the nauseating camera-work (b) expand on some of the short stories and give some background as to "why"? or "what were they doing"? (c) make it longer to give time to give more background. I bet the writers actually didn't know why, they'd have to put a lot more thought into it! Also, parts of it are quite gruesome, so if you don't like that, it would be another reason to skip it. It's not a stupid torture movie though. I don't mind a little gore if there's a reason and story behind it. Also it's not a slasher movie with some guy chasing pretty girls around with a knife. Leave that for the teenagers I guess.

A horror anthology of five short films tied together by a sixth short that weaves a narrative around the entire stuff, V/H/S merges found-footage style with anthology format and allows up-n-coming filmmakers to showcase their talents by giving them free creative reign over a blank canvas but it's an opportunity wasted, as most of them chip in with mediocre entries.The basic premise of V/H/S follows the exploits of a criminal gang who are offered a large sum of money by a third party in exchange for breaking into a desolate house and acquiring a particular VHS tape. Upon searching the house, they discover a dead body and hundreds of unmarked VHS tapes but the longer they take to find the right tape, the more danger they put themselves in.The problem with most anthology films is that they almost always fail to maintain a consistent tone and rarely are they effective as a whole. V/H/S is bogged down by the same set of issues, for some of its shorts are genuinely creepy & competently crafted while the rest are simply absurd. Even the frame narrative, directed by Adam Wingard, fails to keep things tight and lacks a proper closure.In addition to that, all the stories have more or less the same narrative structure, and each one of them feels longer than they needed to be. Rarely much happens in any of the stories for the most part and when it does, it's too quick & over before you know it. The POV camera-work itself varies in execution, ranging from excellent to terrible, while Editing fails to trim out the excess fat from each tales.The only one that I really liked was Amateur Night which follows a group of three friends who bring two women back with them to their hotel room and plan to record the activity on a hidden camera but are one of the women isn't what she seems to be. For the most part, it's just as mediocre as the rest of the shorts but its ending is powerful, chilling & frightening. A couple others come close but this is the only one I enjoyed sitting through.On an overall scale, V/H/S neither captivates as a found-footage horror nor impresses as an anthology feature. All the shorts suffer from weak & boring story lines, none feature a compelling character, each episode is poorly edited, hand-held camera-work is all over the place, and it packs more gore than genuine scares. Anthology films are either a hit or miss, often the latter on most occasions, and V/H/S is another disappointing addition to that particular list.

Yes, one reviewer referred to this "movie" as "Total Garbage". He was being extremely kind. This "film" was clearly made by a group of morons, an adolescent pack of individuals who will probably NEVER grow up, who find humour in the lowest common denominator, the basest human functions and thoughts, and derive joy from showing the world (or at least however many people will be unfortunate enough to view this abortion) how asinine they are. The crew and "actors" are not even sufficiently pretentious to be able to demonstrate the slightest understanding of cinematography, plot development, direction... well, you see where I'm heading: straight to the toilet to throw up after the first ten minutes of this Californian offering. There would be more entertainment value in watching someone wash out his or her soiled underpants. I wonder where all these "performers" will be in, say, ten years' time? Wasted with drugs? Begging on the streets? Making a speech in Parliament? You will be better off spending 1.75 hours sleeping, believe me. This "film" is far, far beyond "Total Garbage" ~ that is its one distinction, and I do mean "stink".