Film Review : VHS

Cast: Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes, Kentucker Audley, Adam Wingard, Frank Stack, Hannah Fierman.

Directors: Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence.

Screenwriters: Simon Barrett, David Bruckner, Nicholas Tecosky, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence.

Producers: Gary Binkow, Brad Miska, Roxanne Benjamin.

Distribution: Magnet Releasing   /  Running time: 115 minutes.

An Indie anthology of found-footage shorts strung together by a flimsy premise, V/H/S harkens back to the conceit that found footage films are now becoming a dime-a-dozen to the new and current generations as slasher movies were to the ’80s. In an obvious Blair Witch Project rip-off, V/H/S places its audience alongside a group of petty criminals hired by an unknown, never-seen mysterious party to retrieve a rare video tape (yes, the video format type that was greatly prevalent only 15 years ago) from a rundown house in the middle of nowhere. The search party soon realizes that the job isn’t going to be as easy as they thought. The basic premise – A lifeless body sits staring at an old television –  set to (what else) a channel full of static snow –  in a living room surrounded by stacks of VHS tapes. As our main characters burrow for the chosen tape, they are treated to a seemingly endless number of horrifying videos, each stranger than the last.

Amateur Night  by David Bruckner (The Signal) follows three party-hard frat dudes who occupy a hotel room for the evening while trying to pick up girls. While the film isn’t anything impressive, notables do include Hannah Fierman’s shivering, stone-cold performance and a very well executed POV camera movement toward the tail end of the film.  In Second Honeymoon by the best known Director in this bunch Ti West (The House of the Devil), a couple’s romantic getaway is spoiled by a stranger in the night. West’s style of painful slow-burn pace never quite pays off once the audience gets the first visual reveal of the action taking place – the story is saddled with a silly twist ending that makes little sense or the audience may just not even care at that point. Tuesday the 17th, from Glenn McQuaid (I Sell the Dead), simply rehashes premises from previous horror classics likeFriday the 13th of much-too-horny-teenagers-wondering-in-the-woods. The only saving grace is McQuiad’s foresight to use a wonderful graphic technique from Danny Boyle’s Sunshine to keep the audience intrigued to what will transpire in the story. The Sick Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger, by Joe Swanberg, is possibly the most creatively ambitious of the videos as the audience is treated to a series of conversations between a couple via Skype. The segment is simultaneously intriguing while also managing to completely break down the entire premise of this film. And finally 10/31/98,directed by the four-man collective Radio Silence, heads to a Halloween party at a deserted house that turns, what else – very bad. This short is possibly the better executed of the video lot and takes a great turn toward the last half of the film by using  a mixture of practical effects, CGI and thoughtful old-school tricks to convey the dread and panic of walking through a real haunted house.

The entire premise of found-footage is its ability to scare an audience with simplicity—its the name. If only people wouldn’t try so hard. By using the shorter format to consolidate more intimate and innovative ways of reveal & scareV/H/S should have benefited from a lack of filler – this film should have been, at nothing else, already poised to get in, make the scare and get out. Unfortunately, the only rise this reviewer received was in his stomach from the shaky cam. The film’s overarching plot Tape 56(see first movie plot above) never holds simply because, like each segment, the audience has no connection to its characters and we never get a sense of why we want these people to win, lose or fail. That being said, the movie isn’t 100% a loss and could be great fun for those who enjoy small doses of their favorite parts of scary movies: Horror, tension, blood and naive characters to laugh at. Ultimately, V/H/S isn’t going to win any awards but viewers will be treated to strengths of the Found-Footage Genre while craving up that pumpkin come this October 31st.