Thursday, September 13, 2012

V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S (2012)
V/H/S (2012)
Genre: Horror Anthology
Director: David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, Adam Wingard
Language: English
Duration: 115 min.
Rating: 6.5
Summary:
When a group of misfits is hired to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.
V/H/S is a short-film anthology conceived by Brad Miska, and directed by David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, Adam Wingard, and a four member directorial collective (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, Chad Villella) who call themselves Radio Silence. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Comprised of five self-contained found-footage shorts and one central story that loosely ties everything together, V/H/S delivers pretty much what one would expect from a horror anthology.  A couple moments of brilliance, a few scares, a bit of sex, a lot of blood, and a whole mixed bag of ideas that play out with varying degrees of effectiveness. The one thing that is clear from watching this, for me at least, is that found footage is much more tolerable in short form than long. At roughly 20 minutes a piece, the segments are just long enough such that even the bad ones can be endured, because they'll be over soon; and the good ones don't drag on too long and wear out their welcome.

The main glue segment, directed by Wingard, is probably the weakest part. A shame because it slightly drags down the whole. It consists of a group of idiots who break into a deserted house to steal a VHS tape, and one by one they sit down to watch a film. Not enough back story or information is provided for us to have even the slightest interest about either their quest, or their fates, and nothing of significance really happens for so long. It's all just a weak and repetitive way to present the rest of the shorts to us.

The remaining pieces are all quite different from each other: A drunken night out with a group of frat boys, a young couple's road trip to the Grand Canyon, the well worn weekend at the lake, a long distance relationship with a twist, and a Halloween party gone wrong. None of them really blew me away, or really frustrated me too much either, so that's always a good thing. I felt they each had their moments, and they all had inventive ways of dealing with the camera work. If I had to choose the best one it would be the last segment, it's well executed from start to finish but the less you know about it the better; and the worst would be the lakeside one, there's one decent gimmick in it, but other than that, it's basically a throwaway.

Whether you are able to enjoy this or not will likely have a lot to do with your tolerance for exceedingly shaky camera work. I have to say it crossed the line a couple times for me in that respect. Not just the usual handheld running around, but some of the POV helmet-cam stuff will surely make you sick if you are at all prone to seasickness. There's also a very high overall ratio of douche-bags to likeable characters. I suppose that's not as crucial in a horror film because it makes watching them die more fun, but it still gets annoying at times.

As far as quality of writing, directing, and overall creativity it's surprisingly better than average for a horror collection. There's even some very cool effects in a couple unexpected instances. Worth a single viewing, but likely not a second one.
Bonjour Tristesse

18 comments:

FrontRoomCinema said...

no thanks.... LOL arghhhhhh

Will said...

Seen it. My friends love it, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. However, the Skype segment is kinda creative.

Michaël Parent said...

Personally, I think that the whole found footage was fully explored with Blair Witch Project. Since then, everything is just a pale copy of it...

pturner1010 said...

Very keen to see this! Always on the look out for more found footage and this sounds a little bit different from all the others, if not totally successful!

Two Tickets For... said...

This is a film that I've been looking forward to since I heard about it simply because horror is my favorite genre but also because I'm curious to see how a film with a number of directors will show how they all use POV differently. My excitement is more tempered than it used to be, but still curious. Good review! - Andrew

evl keith said...

I can't say I'm looking forward to this. Not keen on anthologies. Not keen on found footage. Put the two together and you get a huge bag on not keen-ness.

Mavi said...

my whole thing with VHS was what is the point and why was it called VHS... a couple of the stories were fairly interesting but with such little time we haven't got time for anything and after watching alot of shorts recently their is a real skill in getting people invested and noone here manages it at all.. and the wrap around story is ridiculous...

d_4 said...

I don't know. If the writing and directing is better than usual that's a good thing, and the shake-cam never frustrates me, yet I still feel I'd be let down if I watch it.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Haha, I expected nothing less.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

That was the one I expected to hate the most, because I'm not a fan of Swanberg, but it was a cool concept, and the girlfriend was the best actress in the entire film.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I thought [REC] was well done, but I agree most of the ones that come out are complete wastes of time.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

If you're a fan of the genre, definitely check it out.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yep all of them have unique twists/excuses for having the camera there. A couple of them are pretty damn cool, but the novelty wears off fast. You wouldn't ever want to watch an entire feature from those perspectives.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Fair enough. Thanks for visiting still.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Heh, 'what is the point?' is not a question at the forefront when I'm watching horror films, but I understand your reasoning, and I do agree none of them really get us invested. I think a stronger wrap around segment would have made a world of a difference for my overall impression.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

There are better ones around to see first.

Mavi said...

I don't usually either... But with there being no arch bring the stories together..

I'll just get a few short stick them together and have a feature... Individual some are decent but other all it shouldn't really be a feature film...

evl keith said...

It's on at the Celluloid Screams festival in Sheffield in October and my tradition of watching every film shown will be continuing. You never know I might enjoy it despite my lack of enthusiasm.

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