It's hard to make a truly scary horror film these days.
Nearly every aspect of the genre has been touched on at one time or another. To
find something new, fresh and scary is almost impossible. And yet some
directors have accomplished this. Some have simply gone back to recreate old
scares or make sequels to other famous ones. And then there are those that
remember what it was like to go to a video store, to see those clamshell or
oversized boxes on the shelf with creepy images and titles. Some of those film
makers have come together and unleashed a tribute of sort to those days called
V/H/S.
The film is comprised of several stories with a connecting
story that is perhaps the weakest of them all. A group of trouble makers is
hired to steal a VHS tape from a house they've been told is safe. Don't let the
first minutes of this movie stop you from going on. It's nothing more than
showing what idiots these guys are. When they get to the house they find a dead
body in a chair upstairs sitting in front of a TV with nothing more than snow
showing. Around the TV stand are a number of tapes. While several members go
looking for a special tape, one stays behind to start going through these. As
he watches, we're allowed to see what is on the tapes as well.
The first story is one of my favorites. It shows three
friends on a mission to help the geekiest one lose his virginity. They've
rigged his glasses up with tiny cameras so he can capture the entire night on
tape. At the local bar they hook up with two drunken girls but only one of
these two goes back to their hotel with them. Also going back with them is a
strange girl who keeps telling the geek "I like you". What happens
when they get back must be seen rather than described and offers one of the
real scary moments in the film.
Another story follows a young couple traveling across
country and filming as they go. Without noticing it appears someone is
following them. When they awake to find someone in their motel room the horror
is revealed.
A third story has a group of friends going out for a picnic
in the woods. Once there they tell the story of a group of friends that was
murdered in those very same woods. Of course as with all these stories one has
a camera and for some reason a glitch keeps distorting the picture. Each time
it does a strange and horrifying figure appears.
A fourth story involves a young woman who is chatting online
to a friend found elsewhere. Their conversations have them talking back and
forth and as is often the case, never realizing what is going on around them.
When some scary figures turn up behind the girl as she talks, we get a chill as
we wait to find out what happens.
The final set piece involves a group of friends out and
about sent to a house in the country. When they arrive they first find no one
but after checking out the house they discover a secret ceremony going on in
the attic. But just who is being killed and who needs saved isn't apparent from
the start.
Rounding out these stories is the main one with the search
for the mysterious VHS tape going on. While each film here falls into the
category of lost footage tapes, not all are truly scary and the connecting
device falls short of being done as well as the separate stories. The first
time I watched this I was honestly a bit bored and waiting for something to
happen. The second time I enjoyed it more and took a bit more time to watch
what was happening. As I said once you get past the first portion of the film
it picks up speed.
The one thing that did damage to this film was the hype
surrounding it. Before it was released word was hitting the internet that this
film was the scariest thing seen in years. Fan film fest were heaping praise on
it and several of the directors involved had done some great films that came
out prior to this one leaving expectations high. Each segment was done by a
different director which would explain the look of each tape being different.
Unfortunately each director did not live up to expectations.
But there are enough scares here to keep you awake and
enough memorable moments that might cause you to lose sleep if you think about
them too much. You can't hold the look of the film against it since this is
supposed to be a lost then found video and even taking that into consideration
it does have a nice look to it for the most part. Horror fans will want to make
sure and give this one a watch. Others might get a few good goose bumps from
it.
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