V/H/S (2012)

[Mofo Rising]

So, V/H/S is a anthology horror film with the central conceit being that all of the stories are "found footage" films, meaning first-person camcorder footage.

The trailer made me interested in watching this.

Also, looking at the people involved made me sort of excited to see it. Ti West, the guys behind The Signal.

Sadly, it doesn't really work. I was almost ready to pan it, but the last segment was pretty fun and exhilarating. The other shorts vary quite a lot in quality.

First warning sign, the movie does not even believe it's own central idea. The idea is that these guys find a pile of VHS tapes with horrible stories on them. However, almost every story involves video shot on digital (with digital glitches to boot). Why would anybody transfer digital film to VHS?

Alright, none of this is really meant to be taken seriously. Every segment is all about audience reaction and jump scares. However, and I hope anybody who ever plans to make a horror movie reads and understands this, do not populate your film with douchebags. Spending time with douchebags in real life is awful, and they are not better in film. Sure they get murdered with alacrity in horror films, but that doesn't give me back the time I had to spend with them. Maybe write a film with actual characters I care about. That way when they die it's like a mean-spirited sucker punch to the gut. That works. It's the reason Stephen King stood supreme in the horror genre for two decades.

It's not a completely awful film. It is kind of fun. The last segment, directed by something called Radio Silence, has a ball with the SFX, which are featured prominently in the trailer. I'm actually most disappointed with the Ti West segment, because he's a director I like. Absolutely nothing happens, except for a brief interlude with a well-worn urban legend. I watched his commentary, and the movie he thinks he made is just not there on screen.

Well, not really as bad as I make it out to be, especially for an anthology film. How can you boo a movie that features a segment titled "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger"?

[Trevor]

I read online last week that there will be a limited number of VHS tapes (in big boxes, yet) made available once this goes out on home video.  

www.totalfilm.com/news/horror-anthology-v-h-s-getting-a-limited-edition-vhs-release

Nice. 

[Pacman000]

First warning sign, the movie does not even believe it's own central idea. The idea is that these guys find a pile of VHS tapes with horrible stories on them. However, almost every story involves video shot on digital (with digital glitches to boot). Why would anybody transfer digital film to VHS?

Actually, there are digital VHS's:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-VHS

[Criswell]

From what I've seen it looks like this movie's idea had tons of cool potential, but was executed badly.

[indianasmith]

I was disappointed with this one for the reasons you name: the connecting story did not work well, and the characters were all jerks.  I did rather like the first segment - where the guy with the video camera in his glasses goes out with his friend to pick up girls at a bar - but I forget what it was called.  The vignettes would have worked better with a better connecting story, and above all if the guys in the film had been remotely likable.

[66Crush]

I hated it all. Ever since BLAIR WITCH and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, we have been hit with a ton of inferior films using the same formula. This is a convoluted mess with no real story development or satisfying resolution. I wish I had my money back from seeing this piece of crap.

[Torgo]

I'm not the biggest fan of the found footage genre but I did actually like V/H/S and give it *** out of ****. It's got it's problems but the filmmakers largely succeeded on what they were trying to do and I thought that the found footage angle actually worked wonderfully for the most part. I'm looking forward to "The ABC's of Death" as it's being done by the people that were largely responsible for V/H/S and includes a ton of additional worldwide filmmakers.   

[indianasmith]

It was too herky-jerky and disconnected for me, and every single character was pretty much a jerk.  It definitely had some great moments, but there was just no one to sympathize with in the whole film.

[Cult Movie Mania]

Good information/opinions about V/H/S.  We did a horror/cult movie event in 2012 in Tampa, Florida called the Cult Movie Mania Screaming Cinema Series.  Thinking about doing another one for 2013, but I'm not sure if V/H/S quite makes the cut; I'm trying to find sure-thing cult crowd-pleasers.  Saw the trailer here on this forum for Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis", that's worth considering.

[dean]

Good information/opinions about V/H/S.  We did a horror/cult movie event in 2012 in Tampa, Florida called the Cult Movie Mania Screaming Cinema Series.  Thinking about doing another one for 2013, but I'm not sure if V/H/S quite makes the cut; I'm trying to find sure-thing cult crowd-pleasers.  Saw the trailer here on this forum for Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis", that's worth considering.

Based on horror cult status I'd say V/H/S, as when it did the rounds here at one of the major film festivals people were talking about it whereas nobody really batted an eyelid about Cosmopolis.  That being said, Cosmopolis does look like the better film.

[Cult Movie Mania]

I've read some good reviews of V/H/S and it was highly-anticipated, but the comments that it didn't quite live up to expectations stuck with me.