"When a group of petty criminals is hired by a mysterious party to retrieve a rare piece of found footage from a rundown house in the middle of nowhere, they soon realize that the job isn't going to be as easy as they thought. In the living room, a lifeless body holds court before a hub of old television sets, surrounded by stacks upon stacks of VHS tapes. As they search for the right one, they are treated to a seemingly endless number of horrifying videos, each stranger than the last."
Partly produced by the site Bloody Disgusting, V/H/S is an anthology of found footage shorts written and directed by a bunch of grass-root filmmakers and horror geniuses (Ti West, Joe Swanberg, Chad Villella, Tyler Gillett, Glenn McQuaid, Adam Wingard, Nicholas Tecosky, Justin Martinez, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Simon Barrett and David Bruckner) with an appetite for brutal inconsistency, mind perversion and lethal suspense.
V/H/S is basically divided into six different sequences, opening with a group of sleazy criminals filming their en route of harassment which includes attacking women and acting like complete jerk-offs. For those who've read some of my previous posts you might be aware of the fact that I loath any sexual brutality or female opressing behaviour. Which made the first couple of minutes of V/H/S intolerable for me. Luckily the storyline changes direction as the gang breaks into a house to steel an important VHS tape. Who ordered this job or why, is never explained (or I just missed that part) but wandering around the house leads them to different tv-monitors and recording devices, from which each of the five found-footage stories play out for the audience.
Containing nasties as follows, each hand-held horror story has you on the suspense delivering unique turns and surprises as you don't know what each story holds or for how long it will play out.
OBS! THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!
1. A group of horny guys set out for a night of clubbing wearing a hidden camera in one of their eye-glasses with the purpose of recording whatever sexual action will be achieved. This, however, goes disturbingly wrong as the guys bring back the wrong girl to their motel room.
2. An all-American couple is on a weekend getaway to Grand Canyon, when an anonymous intruder visits their motel room in the middle of the night. Although it sounds like the typical Hostel scene, it's anything but just that. This was my favorite segment of the movie and, directed by Ti West, it offered an unsettling enviroment disturbed by an even more uneasy ending scene, which was cut abruptly and without further explanation. Just the way I like 'em!
3. This segment offers the best visual effects with heavy distortions and blurry serial killers zooning in and out of the forest. A bit unnerving but as the sequence reminds a bit too much of The Blair Witch Project (c'mon, even stealing punch lines from it?) it's not far from lazy-ing back to being a gimmick.
4. During several Skype conversations with her boyfriend, a young woman reports having difficulties sleeping due to some racketing going on in her hallway at night. Her boyfriend guides her in trying to find out who's playing tricks in her apartment, but the man behind the machine turns out to be an unexpected guest. This is Joe Swanberg's 'The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger'.
5. Four party-hungry men drive to an address where there's supposedly a huge Halloween party taking place. Entering the house they realize they've stepped into another form of hell. This is rumoured to be favorite sequence of all the people involved in V/H/S and it is a damn fine and mind wrenching way to end the terror tales.
Each installment in V/H/S varies in quality and lenght; with shaky camera work, partly doubtful acting and seemingly incomprehensive plots and storylines. But despite its low-budget effects and low-rent feel it flashes some very sinister images and has some disturbed visual tricks up its sleeve. Truth be told - this is one of the scariest and disturbing movies I've seen for quite some time.
Each installment in V/H/S varies in quality and lenght; with shaky camera work, partly doubtful acting and seemingly incomprehensive plots and storylines. But despite its low-budget effects and low-rent feel it flashes some very sinister images and has some disturbed visual tricks up its sleeve. Truth be told - this is one of the scariest and disturbing movies I've seen for quite some time.
