V/H/S- Matt Bettinelli-Olpin/David Bruckner/Tyler Gillett/Justin Martinez/Glenn McQuaid/Joe Swanberg/Chad Villella/Ti West/Adam Wingard

V/H/S is a movie that I've been hearing about constantly lately and it's the newest installment in one of my favorite sub-genres of horror: the anthology. A group of indie horror directors (including the extremely promising Ti West) teamed up to create five short stories all based on the concept of found footage from a video camera, with a wraparound story of the same style to loosely tie them all together. Basically, a group of thieves are sent on a mission to obtain a VHS tape from a strangers house, only to find there is a corpse in the living room in front of a stack of static televisions. Naturally, the thieves decide to watch a few of the tapes, and thus, the short stories begin.

Personally, I've been burnt out on the found footage craze in horror for quite a while, but I found V/H/S to be a great balance between inventiveness and nostalgia, so I think it works in this case. All five of the stories vary somewhat in quality, but they all complement each other very well to make a great final product. One of my favorite things about this movie was how nostalgic it is. It clearly references classic 70's and 80's films, and the found footage dynamic reminded me of the golden era of seeing my favorite genre films on a fuzzy tape instead of the glossy high definition of today. It is also worth mentioning that the young unknown cast did an excellent job throughout the movie. Especially with this sub-genre, creating believable characters and conversations is essential and V/H/S clearly understood this. Like all found footage films, there is definitely some annoying filler to start all of the stories, but once they start they definitely kept my attention with eerie atmosphere and intense violence. If you want a fairly unique, edgy and entertaining new horror film, I think V/H/S would be a fine choice.



4/5


Cody DeLarge