V/H/S Contains Short Films Of Varying Quality - And Some Of It Is Damn Good!

[philosoraptor42]

V/H/S (2012)

"V/H/S" is an anthology movie, with all the problems that entails. And unfortunately the biggest problem with V/H/S is the wraparound section which ties the individual short films together.

The premise of V/H/S is that there are a group of absolutely obnoxious people who like to destroy property and drink a lot and are trying to make money by selling footage they've captured around the place. For example, they grab a woman and forcibly expose her breasts to the camera and this is apparently going to make them some money.



Anyway, one of them has a tip that a random house has a special videotape that it worth a lot of money. However, when they get to the house there are videotapes everywhere. It seems like their only option is to watch all the videotapes one by one. This over-arching plot is a complete waste of time and whenever we have sit through one of these sections of the film, enjoyment drops dramatically.

However, many of the short films are actually very good. Sadly, the one I was most excited for was from director Ti West. While I am a big fan of his films "House Of The Devil" and "The Innkeepers" (which was one of my favourite films of last year), this short film wasn't anything like the same level of quality. Ti West's story features a couple who are on a road trip, but there's signs that there may be something wrong in their relationship. When a fortune telling machine tells one of them that they are going to be reunited with an old friend, they are very happy with that prediction, but should they be?



Ti West's short film is far too slow and the payoff just isn't good enough. It's probably the story least reliant on special effects though.

The best three stories, by my reckoning, all have some great special effects work. There's one story where a group of immature blokes pick up some girls including one who is particularly withdrawn and quiet. That ends up involving some bigger effects work than you'd expect.



There's another story about a bunch of teenagers who decide to go on a trip into the woods and are preyed upon by a killer that seems to have supernatural powers, appearing like a glitch in the film.



There's another story about a group of students going to a halloween party who may possibly have gone to the wrong house. This last short film appears to be the most popular amongst the views I've read online and while it takes its sweet time setting things up, it admittedly has a very cool (and special effects heavy) payoff.



The one short film I still haven't mentioned involves a very explicit haunted house story and a discussion that takes place over Skype. (Let's not ask why the discussions are now on videotape. I can't help but feel that's an unnecessarily petty question.) Unlike the last three stories I mentioned, I felt rather unimpressed by the twist (if it even deserves to be called a 'twist' at all). A girl keeps on waking up her boyfriend because she's seen strange apparitions in the house and that's pretty much the entire story of that short film right there.



In spite of the wraparound section being practically unwatchable, I cannot deny that I had a great time with most of the short films here. Three of them are a must-watch by my reckoning. While on their own those three would be at very least a B+, the fact that you inevitably have to watch (or at least fast forward through) some rather less impressive stuff too, I'm going to knock down the score a bit.

B-



Great news is that unlike this first movie that has mostly been fairly poorly received, the same cannot be said for the sequel that has been touring the film festival circuit. Originally titled S/V/H/S but now titled V/H/S/2, it looks kind of incredible. Check out the trailer below:

(video link)