A group of thugs sneak into a house with the task of retrieving a VHS tape, for which they will receive money. To their surprise, however, they will find a real collection of VHS tapes in the house, so they will start watching the tapes to find the one they need. The tapes contain amateur films showing terrible events: three friends looking for sex pick up a strange creature, a couple on vacation is threatened by a girl who sneaks into their motel room at night, four friends go to spend an afternoon at the lake and are pursued by an invisible killer, a girl documents the presences haunting her house to her boyfriend via Skype, four friends go looking for fun on Halloween night but encounter a sect dedicated to human sacrifices.
There are two particularly popular trends in today's independent (or super low budget) horror cinema: episode films and mockumentaries. The former, when they are collective works, allow minimizing overall costs by dividing the production of each episode, which is usually managed by different people; the latter use the "fake amateur" language to reduce technical costs and make a couple of digital video cameras and perhaps an iPhone sufficient to make the film. Well, take these two trends and combine them in a film that is a mockumentary in its found footage exception and at the same time an episode film.
Strongly wanted by Brad Miska, i.e., the responsible for the well-known web portal dedicated to horror information Bloody Disgusting, who put the money in co-production and conceived the basic concept, "V/H/S" presents itself as a sum and at the same time an affirmation of the current American horror underground scene and to do so celebrates a format - the VHS - which, in addition to justifying the technical quality of the short films in most cases, is also a somewhat nostalgic declaration of love for a passion for cinema born in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of you who are now around 30 years old probably lost your cinematic virginity with the dear old VHS tapes, now replaced years ago by digital media... but it was with the analog that they met the first monsters and cheered for the first boogeymen, something that surely happened to Miska's team, thus being paid homage in this film.
In fact, the concept is brilliant and the five-episode structure, held together by a frame, works very well this way, better than other similar films.
Moreover, the use of the found footage technique gives the overall work an extra edge, making it appear original and up-to-date, as well as clever in turning necessity into virtue. It must be said, however, that at least on one occasion, specifically in the video chat episode, the transfer to VHS is not justified, partly showing the flaw of a project that could thus give reason to those who considered it anachronistic.
But let's get to the episodes specifically.
The segment that serves as the frame is directed by Adam Wingard, director of "You're Next" and "A Horrible Way to Die," and is titled "Tape 56." Nothing exceptional, to be honest, and if we exclude the narrative utility that serves to tie all the other segments together, it would be hard to recognize any merit in the film.
Excellent, however, is the one that is the first real episode, "Amateur Night" by David Bruckner, one of the directors of the apocalyptic "The Signal." In this case, the framing is constantly in subjective thanks to the small video camera placed on the glasses of one of the protagonists, three young men looking for strong pleasures and intending to film an amateur porn without the partners knowing. Excellent management of spaces and times, as well as the combination of sex and horror that occurs in the character of the girl/victim played by a brilliant Hannah Fierman, who transforms into a bloodthirsty executioner, a monstrous and winged creature that unleashes itself in the motel room where she would have unwittingly become the star of the porn show. All in all, "Amateur Night" is the best of the five.
Next is "Second Honeymoon" by the indie-horror king Ti West, director of "The Roost," "The House of the Devil," and "Cabin Fever 2." The episode, which is nothing more than the vacation film of a couple in the midst of a crisis, has some good moments of unease in the nighttime incursions of the stalker into the protagonists' room, but it drags on slowly and boringly for most of the time (it's a real vacation film!) and the ending does not satisfy too much, transforming everything into a "Bounce"-like thriller.
The third episode, "Tuesday the 17th," is simply the worst, a thing that would pay homage in mockumentary key to "Friday the 13th" (the title is explanatory, in this regard) but it only turns out to be awkward, confused and poorly made from all points of view. The four boys slaughtered by the "intermittent" killer are not convincing and even the Irish director Glenn McQuaid, already the author of the horror comedy "I Sell the Dead," does not seem at all inspired.
Better with the next episode, "The Sick Thing that Happened to Emily when She was Young" by Joe Swanberg, a ghost story that manages to be unsettling in a couple of scenes and boasts an unexpected ending. Swanberg, who also acts as the protagonist in Ti West's segment, focuses on technology and is the only one of the 5 episodes to use the internet. In addition to creating the "problem" of the support mentioned above, this episode is incredibly similar to the contemporary "Paranormal Activity 4," bringing with it a very strong sense of déjà-vu, starting with the figures of the ghost children who remind many films and even scary videos circulating on the internet. It convinces halfway.
Much better, however, is the last episode, "10/31/98," made by the collective The Silence. We start from well-known premises, such as the Halloween holiday and a group of boys who want to party, but when we get to the horror part, with a satanic sect and a house haunted by the devil with arms coming out of the wall and objects levitating, the show is guaranteed. The frenetic rhythm of the second part is a successful choice, some situations scare and only the ending with a taste of urban legend seems a bit out of place. Overall, it is one of the best episodes.
With ups and downs, as happens with every film composed of multiple episodes, "V/H/S" can be considered an overall successful project. Curious and original in its concept, it perhaps has the flaw of being too long (we approach 2 hours), with the fatigue effect - surely also given by the shaky shots - that at the end of the viewing grips the spectator.
Anyway, worth watching.
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