Two private investigators are looking into the disappearance of a student. After sneaking into his house, they find a multitude of videotapes. So, while one goes to explore the house, the other starts watching the contents of the VHS tapes.
First VHS. A man undergoes an experimental surgical procedure following an accident. He is fitted with a bionic eye, but in addition to normal vision, the man also gains the ability to perceive the otherworldly presences around him.
Second VHS. A biker is on an excursion in a park but is attacked by what appears to be a real-life zombie. From that moment on, the biker himself transforms into a zombie hunting for living flesh.
Third VHS. A television crew manages to secure an exclusive interview in a building housing a mysterious Indonesian sect. As the journalist is interviewing the sect's guru, hell literally breaks loose in the building.
Fourth VHS. A girl, her little brother, her boyfriend, and his friends are having a good time at home. In the middle of an impromptu party, something strange and unsettling happens: a blackout is followed by annoying noises and strange figures manage to sneak into the house: an alien invasion is underway!
After the success of "V/H/S" in 2012, thanks mainly to word of mouth on the web, Brad Miska, head of the famous horror cinema web portal BloodyDisgusting.com, attempts the sequel card. Same episodic structure, same mockumentary technique, and a confirmed director, Adam Wingard, for a follow-up that for various reasons manages to surpass the prototype.
The world of episodic cinema and the mockumentary technique have become the favorite territories of the low-budget and independent horror landscape, so the proliferation of films of this type everywhere is obviously dimming the novelty halo that initially surrounded these experimental productions. The relative "novelty" that could be behind "V/H/S" is therefore gone in this second chapter, also due to the carbon copy replication of the original film. Yet in "V/H/S 2" there is a sense of improvement, an adjustment on some issues that were less convincing in the previous film. First of all, there is a higher overall quality of the episodes, which, becoming four (plus the frame), make the entire film more fluid and compact.
It starts in the same identical way as the previous one, namely with a frame that can justify and connect the stories we see. "Tape 49," this is the title, is signed by Simon Barrett, already author of the scripts for "Dead Birds – The Cursed House," "Frankenfish – Mutant Fish," "You're Next" and a segment of the first "V/H/S." In this case, although not particularly striking for technique and inventiveness, the frame seems to have a greater narrative function within the work, capturing the tradition of supernatural mockumentary more effectively.
The first episode, "Phase 1: Clinical Trials," is the worst of the quartet as it suspiciously reminds one of an episode from the first season of the anthology series "Black Mirror," which in turn suspiciously reminded one of the episode directed by Tobe Hooper of "Body Bags." Adam Wingard, director of "You're Next," directs it, who just has the good intuition to justify the POV by showing it as an unnatural subjective video of the protagonist's bionic eye, who, by the way, is played by the director himself. For the rest, there is an abundance of ghostly presences in the house that too much resemble a thousand other films seen in recent years, never managing to scare or engage.
The second episode, "A Ride in the Park," is instead signed by Eduardo Sánchez, famous for being part of the duo of "The Blair Witch Project" and for having directed the remarkable "Altered" and "Lovely Molly." This episode is very interesting because it manages to find an interesting point of view on the overused theme of zombies. The novelty? Show the entire film from the subjective point of view of a zombie! Or rather, of a poor soul who is attacked by a zombie, dies, and resurrects, transforming into a living dead himself. We follow the protagonist in his frantic roaming and his hunt, which culminates in a real bloodbath. Innovative and fun.
The third episode, "Safe Haven," is the real knockout of the film. At the helm is the Englishman Gareth Evans, who rose to fame with the stunning Indonesian action film "The Raid," with which this episode of "V/H/S 2" has several points in common. Here too all the action takes place in an apartment building, but this time we do not have a hive of criminal martial arts experts, but rather a sect that plays with the Devil and harbors monstrous and bloodthirsty demons within it. This episode, which is also the longest of the four, has a frantic action that makes Evans' hand well recognizable and manages to plunge into total delirium, with monstrous creatures and splatter at incredibly high levels, with people exploding and dismemberment. On its own, it's worth the whole film!
To conclude, there is another worthy episode, "Slumber Party Alien Abduction," by Jason Eisener, the director of the crazy "Hobo with a Shotgun." Here, adolescent horror is combined with the alien abduction film with a rare effectiveness that leads to truly tense moments. Here too the pace is frantic, with a first part focused on the pranks of the kids celebrating at home and a second with the arrival of unsettling "greys" that are heralded by an annoying roar. The biggest novelty lies in the subjective point of view, which is that of the house dog, on which one of the boys mounted a small video camera at the beginning of the film. Not bad at all!
In short, "V/H/S 2" is a quality sequel, it has the flaw of replicating the ideas that were already behind the first film in the same way, but at the same time it manages to straighten the course with greater compactness and a higher overall quality of the episodes... then there is the one signed by Evans that alone makes this film absolutely worth watching.
Add half a pumpkin.
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