V/H/S (2012) User Reviews (377)

Creeper Compendium.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 10 February 2013]

The horror anthology has a chequered history, some are bad but saved by one great segment, others boast a couple of genuine creepers but are undone by one instalment so bad it tarnishes the film forever. And on it goes. V/H/S brings the format into the new age by unfolding its tales by wrapping around the latest craze of found footage.

Six indie directors have produced a picture that was well received at Sundance but has proved to be most divisive with critics and horror fans on internet forums. This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows their horror anthology onions. The usual problems are evident here, a couple of great stories are surrounded by mediocre ones, but at least there is something for everyone, with most bases covered, but that in itself is a problem, all horror fans have preferences, it's a big ask to expect a fan of stalk and slash to love a story about a winged harpy!

Then there is the issue of the found footage format, here recorded on actual VHS. Not everyone is a fan (myself for instance), and much of V/H/S is dizzying and often hard to follow, especially as regards the Tape 56/frame narrative story that cloaks the other five stories as a bunch of no-mark young crims burgle a grotty house and sift through the tapes. It's a format loved by many for its supposed realism factors, I don't get that myself, but for those people this really is up their trees!

Amateur Night (David Bruckner) and The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger (Joe Swanberg) are the standouts. The former is a cautionary tale of frat boys out for sex who get more than they bargained for when they take home the mysterious Lily, the latter an eerie tale unfolded via Skype communication as Emily appears to be a victim of a haunting whilst chatting to her doctor boyfriend.

However, if you ask another fan of the film what stories they feel standout, you may just get two different answers. So as with any other anthology horror, you roll the dice and take your chance, just don't expect genius in every story, for that is purely folly of expectation. 7/10

I LIKE YOU

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 24 June 2019]

For those who love shaky fake found footage, this one is da bomb. A group of criminals film their escapades of vandalism and assaults to sell to a buyer. They then enter a house to get a VHS tape, they will know it when they see it. The rest of the movie shows us found footage film within a found footage film. Oh joy. There is a dead man in the house sitting in front of a series of TVs. Each hooligan watches a film segment, then disappears from the movie. The film segments are not connected, i.e. there is no real common theme other than it is more snuff than horror with a different type of monster/entity in each piece.

The final installment, I thought had the best special effects, but with the jerky camera motion and people screaming makes it difficult to enjoy any of it.

Parental Guide: F-bombs, sex, and plenty of nudity, including full frontal (Hannah Fierman).

Too much

[brijs82-458-528496 · 6/10 · 27 August 2012]

What we have in V/H/S are a bunch of prolonged horror moments that in usual cases would be the climax to any average horror movie. The movie manages to throw 5 of these 'money shots' at the viewer without the need to tell any real story, build any of the characters or introduce their personality's to the audience. Whether this is a stroke of genius originality or just laziness is the question. You'd be forgiven for thinking that V/H/S is the result a brain storming session where five writers pitched five stories, with one 'Eureka' moment of making a movie of the ending of all five. What they seemingly failed to spend any real time on though was the glue to bind the five stories together. It is completely irrelevant, in fact I would go as far as to say the movie would be better without it, a "Here are five tapes that were found, now watch them" instead. I have to say I am a fan of 'found footage movies'. To me they achieve the desired effect and can, at times, create some truly chilling moments. This movie does have it's moments but after a while it all gets too much, the 'found footage' angle is somehow lost with the constant change of story. You are never really allowed to reach the same level of suspense as with other films in this genre. 6/10. It passed the time but I eventually found myself wanting it to end and asking myself "How many stories to go?"

Anthology

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 14 November 2012]

What's your initial reaction to "Found footage Anthology" or found footage in general? That should give you a bit of a clue, if you should watch this or not. One thing is for sure, if an Anthology movie is only as good as it's weakest link/story, than this would be really bad (the story covering the whole thing is tedious, boring and annoying at best)! But I don't think that it would do the short movies justice that accompany the movie.

I actually enjoyed most of them. They don't make sense as usual when it comes to Found Footage (why would they film that again? The who cut/edited them is either easy to answer or makes even less sense, depending on the way you look at it), but the stories themselves are mostly decent. Acting is good to OK (apart from the "covering" overall story as mentioned) and the scares are decent too. I still don't get the fascination with Found footage and I sure can't tell you why this spawned a sequel ...

Hell yes! Extremely creative with plenty of scares, nudity, and gore!

[robocopfansliveforever · 9 March 2012]

It took three hours by car to see this at the True False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri, but I couldn't have been happier I went. As far as anthology films go, this is the best I've seen (sorry Tales from the Darkside), and as far as a horror film, it has everything you want and more... boobs, blood (practical too), and monsters. One of the best parts is how they were able to tell five completely different stories, all of them with good acting, excellent FX, like-able characters, etc.

My favorite was the webcam piece since it had a really funny moment involving a knife in a girl's arm. Plus, there were a lot of well-done scares in it. You don't even want to look at the screen since you're afraid of what's coming next. Then the reveal at the end turned it upside down and left me thinking about it long after but in a good way. I really liked the performance of the lead girl in that one. She was endearing, and it was actually kind of sad what happens. I think I liked her character the most of anyone in the film.

All the segments are good though. The first one took a little bit of time to get going, but once it kicks in, you're hooked, and the payoff is that much better since you had to wait for it. It also had some dark humor, wicked gore, nudity, etc. It's true blood and boobs don't make a good film, but in the case of a horror film, they sure can help, not that this movie needed it since the storytelling and the writing was fantastic too. They didn't have to worry about too much exposition as well since it's an anthology, and they don't have to explain everything, but that's part of the fun. You get to see some really crazy stuff like a pretty insane, inventive slasher, but you also get ghosts, a demon, etc.

The only downside is rather inherent in anthology stories, which is you basically start from scratch with each section so you have to build character and story again, but there isn't much of a way around that. Maybe Trick r' Treat handled that better, but I still prefer VHS. It's a little more evident when you have five stories without much connective tissue, but again, you get more variety this way, and the film was well paced so it wasn't a big deal.

I'm kinda sick of the whole found footage thing, but I didn't mind it with this movie. They didn't call attention to it a lot or try to explain why they're filming (Diary of the Dead shame on you) so it works, and you just get engrossed in the stories. The audience gasped a lot, but they laughed too (intentional humor only). Besides seeing Freddy vs Jason with a crowd, this was one of the best times I've had watching a movie in a theater.

V/H/S (2012) - A Found-Footage Style Horror Movie! Doesn't that Remind You of Anything? Yeah, That's What I Thought!

[nickmesafilms · 7/10 · 29 September 2012]

Released early on demand, after it's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, "V/H/S" is a horror movie told through the "already tired" aspect of found-footage material, shown from the perspective of a hand-held camera. A group of hoodlums has been strangely assigned to break into an abandoned haunted house, and steal a particular V/H/S tape. But once making it to the house, they start to find a wide collection of plenty of V/H/S tapes, and we are introduced to a series of "found-footage" shorts, as the group starts to watch each tape at a time, as if the audience is in the room, with these guys, watching the tapes. Each tape has a different particular horror story, some work, and some doesn't. Let's recap each one! 1. A group of guys start to become haunted by a strange woman during a "guys night out" (Works), 2. A married couple on their second honeymoon, whom doesn't realize that a certain someone has been sneaking on them (Kind of works), 3. A group of friends being hunted down while on a trip to the lake (Hardly works), 4. A young girl communicates with her "doctor-to-be" boyfriend over the Internet, believing that her apartment is being haunted (Doesn't work), and 5. A group of guys awaiting an awesome Halloween party, but they got more than what they bargained for (Perfectly works). "V/H/S" is probably one of the most scariest, and one of the most disturbing movies I've ever laid eyes on. Filled with plenty of great scares, some disgustingly grotesque moments, and tons of scenes that will leave you speechless. Now, there are times when this movie follows almost every horror cliché in the book, and although this movie is supposed to be portrayed as a "found-footage" feature, the camera movements are a little too shaky. But, this movie does stay true to it's promise by giving such scares that won't let audiences sleep later at night. Although I prefer "The Cabin in the Woods" as the better horror movie this year, I prefer "V/H/S" as the better horror movie in the terms of scaring me, grossing me out, and leaving me awake at night! In ordinary horror movie fashion, there is plenty of great fun to be found in "V/H/S". I'm just saying you've been warned, because if you're somewhat interested in seeing it, I must warn you that this movie is sick and grotesque, leaving audiences in a stage of vomiting and sleeping with the lights on. "V/H/S", in my review, "A freaky, original, and grotesque scare-fest".

A shoddy, overlong tribute to anthology horror movies.

[im_goode · 5/10 · 21 November 2012]

I'm a big fan of anthology horror movies, and horror in general and I'm willing to accept found footage movies if they're done well enough. That being said this is not done well at all. They use every found footage cliché except night vision. Constant "glitch cuts", people carrying the camera around while in danger for no reason, disoriented confusing action sequences. The found footage aspects are the main weakness in this movie, but I'll put that aside for now and review this movie on its other aspects.

First of all every character in this movie is terrible. They're either perverted frat boy assholes or completely void of personality. They're not the kind of characters you can't wait to be killed, they're the kind of characters you can't wait to stop listening to. I know there's no time to really flesh out any characters in an anthology, but you can at least give them a personality, these guys are just boring, boring, boring.

The plot of most of these shorts are only possible through monumentally stupid decisions from the characters. They never call the call the cops, are constantly tripping while running away (maybe if you dropped the camera...), and the overarching plot characters are the stupidest of them all.

There's no bow-tie at the end connecting all these stories, and therefore no need for the very bland overarching story itself. However in a few of the tapes the mystery is strong enough to keep you interested and some of the tension is pretty thrilling, although it never really pays off.

I would be more forgiving of the cliché story and characters if it was easier to watch, and I'd be more forgiving of the found footage faux-pas if it had better stories. But this is the worst of both worlds, I would give this a 4/10 but I'm bumping it up 1 for the tits.

Hmm, it was OK...

[Jesse_JFI · 6/10 · 6 August 2012]

I just finished watching V/H/S, and it did surprise me.

The movie tells a story about a bunch of guys, going into a creepy house, looking for a special VHS. In the meantime, the movie shows you a couple of independent, short stories, recorded with a handy cam. If movies like Paranormal Activity, REC, etc. are really scary to you, then VHS will really scare you. Otherwise, don't watch it... Don't get me wrong, some of the short stories were a bit frightening, but personally I don't like movies that are filmed like this. Also, some of the characters were VERY annoying. At a certain point, I really wanted some of them to die, because of the bad acting.

So like I said, if you liked REC and PA, you are going to love this one. It was enjoyable, but I certainly will not watch this a second time.

6/10.

Hype and Immense Disappointment

[hinesgtrservice · 1/10 · 8 September 2012]

Really a massive disappointment. I had read over on a blog that this film would "restore my faith in horror films". I read all over the internet about just how great this film was. So I spent ten dollars to view it last night.

The found footage idea isn't wholly a terrible idea, the problem is that it just doesn't usually work. By usually, I mean ever. Horror as a genre has been falling apart at the seams for years, and the advent of "found- footage" certainly hasn't helped. In fact, it feels like it's making a mockery out of horror rather than restoring it to glory.

Enough about that. Regarding the film: The first problem we get here is that the writers/directors have two hours to piece together six cohesive stories. That's fine, but if that's the case, we need to only focus on the important stuff here. Half the time, you'll feel like you're watching some stranger's home movie collection. It's drab, it's boring, it doesn't serve to build suspense, it just drags. You see, when we only get twenty minutes with characters, we don't give a hoot about what they're like. All footage should serve the story, and it just doesn't here. So yes, a lot of the film dragged and a lot of the film was boring.

The second huge problem: the scary stuff. There isn't enough of it. There isn't enough that was supposed to be there in the first place, and most of what you get is just goofy. There were a few jump scares that weren't done all that effectively due to some of the worst camera work the world has ever seen. We understand that this is supposed to be amateur shot footage. That doesn't mean people film themselves walking around with friends while wildly waving their arms around like a complete lunatic. So when you aren't sure what you're looking at and your eyes are constantly struggling to adjust, the few jump scares that were put in the film no longer serve a purpose.

I'm not sure if my next complaint should be lodged against the actors or the writers. Maybe both? All of the characters, I mean ALL of the characters, are incredibly unlikable or plain bothersome. There's a character that basically just cackles through an entire story. There's a character that has no personality aside from leaving her mouth agape at all times. So yeah, the acting was pretty bad, but the writing was probably the worst part of the whole thing. One story in particular was such a joke on the writing front, we couldn't contain our laughter watching it. Not because it was supposed to be funny either.

So here we have six basically nonsensical and incomprehensible stories that lack direction, character, motivations or scares and we throw it all together to create one low-res pile of crap. We have scenes that make NO SENSE in regards to how it ended up on a VHS tape, uninspired concepts, terrible camera work, and just terrible writing.

Here is another Paranormal Activity: TONS of hype, great press and reviews, but underneath all of that is a really uniquely awful film. I'm serious; I thought it was really that bad. Uniquely awful in just how inept and uninspired it is.

Want a compilation horror film that tries to tackle a few sub-genres of horror? Try Trick-R-Treat. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was enjoyable and well written. V/H/S is something I hope dies and people forget about by Christmas. What an awful, awful film.

Don't Watch Random Video Cassettes!

[view_and_review · 7/10 · 1 January 2016]

Let me ask this: has anything good ever come from watching random videos in unusual places?

Some young adults committing a crime stumble upon some old video cassettes. They decide to watch them and wind up witnessing some horrifying events.

There were several different videos shown and each of them unique in its own way. They were all similar in that they were creepy. A couple were supernatural and another was just two bad people. The variety adds to the movie because you're not locked into one story line.

I'm normally not a fan of found footage films but it seems they are getting better and better and this film is no exception.

WARNING: May cause sleepiness, anger that you paid for it, and disgust that you wasted your time watching it.

[ferloinvinnie · 1/10 · 31 August 2012]

Wow. Where do I start? How about by telling you not to waste your time at all. I'm unbiased yet critical in my reviews, I will admit, but this movie deserves to be destroyed and never shown to the public. Ever.

I'm highly disappointed, the previews made this look good and I couldn't wait for it to come out. It's B list work at best. The cast is a group of unknowns but it wouldn't even be considered a "good movie" if the cast was made up of more recognizable faces. The fact that people are trying to pass this off as "found footage" is sad. For a "found footage" film to be successful, the story as to why it was recorded in the first place should be plausible at best. The 5 "found footage" VHS tapes/stories that make up the length of this movie are no where near plausible by any means.

There are very few scares, if any at all. The only parts you could consider scary are when there's a sudden loud noise you weren't expecting or a quick turn of the camera towards something you weren't expecting. But don't get me wrong, even those typical hallmark scares aren't even scary in this particular film.

If you want to add two hours of disappointment into your day, then I would suggest watching this movie.

Fresh from Toronto After Dark

[turbo_t_7 · 9/10 · 11 July 2012]

Listen, the only way to truly enjoy a horror film is in a large, pitch black room with deafening surround sound and a group of people just as scared as you are. Other times, a laptop works too. But I, and a group of about 100 others were privileged to catch the first Canadian premiere of V/H/S presented by the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Enough plugs, onto the film right? My review. See it! If you love horror, if you hate horror, if you think you might like it and wanna try it out, just see it! Without spoiling anything I will say that there are about 5 or 6 anthology stories tied around a main story in which four guys break into a house to look for a specific video tape. They find a lot more, let me tell you. Some of the segments are better than others (trust me, you'll know which ones) but overall, V/H/S is one of the most imaginative, jolting, riveting, heart-beating-outside-of-your-chest-because-its-so-intense horror films of recent time. Fans of Creepshow 1 and 2, Tales From the Darkside, Twilight Zone (the movie) and even Stephen King, if you get the chance to watch V/H/S, do it! It's bloody, it's scary, it's haunting, and if you're anything like me, you'll know it scared you when it's 1:43 in the morning and the only thing you can do to make yourself fall asleep, is to review the film on IMDb.

Well-Done Low-Budget Horror

[jackseney · 7/10 · 15 July 2019]

"VHS" is a somewhat roughly made low budget horror anthology movie including contributions from Bloody Disgusting.com type of people and others. Each short film in it has the notion of being shot with a character's handheld video camera.

The roughness of this production I would assume is supposed to be part of the horror fun, and for me it was. So too with the inconsistencies regarding who's holding the cameras and how does the filming seem to go on in the midst of all kinds of chaos. If you're not going to suspend some disbelief when watching such movies, then you probably shouldn't bother with them. On the other hand such movies should not make such a great big deal out of the video angle that it becomes a distraction in itself, so that disbelief suspension is near impossible. "VHS" strikes the balance well enough between these factors in my view.

The stories here include a group of drunken guys out on the town looking for girls on a summer night of partying. They take some chicks to a motel room, including a rather strange big-eyed girl who talks oddly. Then there's one about a couple driving to Vegas who appear to be being eerily stalked in the towns they stop in. Then there's another bunch of party guys who end up in a big spooky house on Halloween. A girl being haunted in her home who talks via video link with her boyfriend. And a group of dopey friends going swimming at a lake but finding horror in the woods.

The wraparound story has to do with yet more wastrels who have been paid to break into a house and steal a VHS tape. The videos they watch make up the movies we see.

The gore is fairly good here and is present in each episode. There are standout moments with a throat-cutting, a monstrous person butchering folks on-camera, a person digging skin-crawlingly into their own strangely wounded arm, a character having horrific things removed from their gut, and on and on.

Some complain that this movie "should have been shorter," but I think the way it takes its time is fine and builds tension in a slow, creeping manner.

This is viewable on Hulu and possibly on You Tube and is recommended for those low budget horror fans like me who will enjoy it most.

READ THIS Review before purchasing VOD/itunes - Spoilers

[nrkist2424 · 1/10 · 3 September 2012]

I had heard a lot of hype concerning this film through Bloody Disgusting and was eager to get this VOD when I discovered it was available...this information again revealed by none other than Bloody Disgusting. After sitting through incomplete and poorly executed short after short, and as I try and figure out WHY this had so much buzz about it...the credits roll. Who's name do you think comes up a TON? Brad Miska! AKA Mr Disgusting, the guy that runs Bloody Disgusting. This film is definitely bloody disgusting but not in the way you think. I'm surprised Ti West was involved with this, though I don't care to know which segment was his as they are all awful.

Wrap-around: 30 something douchers acting like angsty pre-teens inexplicably move from assaulting couples for the purpose of filming boobs, to home invasion to find a VHS tape. We get into the group dynamic when a heated discussion arises whether they should grow their brand from filming boobs to filming asses as well, which inevitably escalates to someone smashing a TV with a bat. Let it be known, that it's strictly boobs -- and stealing creepy tapes -- from here on out. They have no idea what tape they are supposed to take in a home filled with 'creepy' tapes. Why are they still there?! There are way too many tapes to take. They are all strange. They have no idea what they are looking for. Let's sit down and watch some of the strange tapes? How will that help you find this needle in a haystack. The most poor thing about this wraparound...is that we never discovered the tape they were looking for that might have shed light on this clumsy setup.

First Tape: Definitely the strongest, though it ended very weirdly. I thought the girl was some sort of feral cat-woman. The story plays this up pretty nicely...and in the last 30 seconds throws that all out the window revealing that she is full-on vampire with bat-wings...sigh. I will reiterate that this is the strongest tale.

Second Tape: Some newlyweds(?) go on a boring roadtrip. Of course they must record every minute of this tired, banal odyssey. If you think the level of contrivance for why the camera is running is high at this point, just wait for the reveal...

Third Tape: Awful. Kid's go to lake to get high and screw and get massacred. The 'twist' is that one of the girls planned this to lure out a madman that had killed her friends years ago. The second 'twist' is that he's paranormal and can't be filmed. The third 'twist' is...I dunno. If the first part of this short is a mess, the third act is the inevitable mindless lobotomized result.

Fourth Tape: Nothing in this one makes sense. It also isn't scary. The characters are all annoying. I can't believe this even survived the cutting room floor and made it in THIS horrible anthology.

Fifth Tape: The finale! The tale is pretty lackluster and seems like a student film project focusing on CGI effects work.

Did I mention that the wraparound ended before the fifth tape was even played? Sloppy at every step.

Good one Brad Miska, you conned your entire community to make a quick buck on your crappy film. No wonder you concealed the fact that this was your aborted baby while punching it up all over Bloody Disgusting for months.

Just a series of ineptly made, badly shot, student films, the best of which gets a C-minus.

[The_Film_Cricket · 19 August 2013]

"V/H/S" is the latest in the "found footage" horror genre. Like "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity," you are suppose to feel as if you are watching newly recovered raw footage that begins as an ordinary home movie but then goes horribly wrong. The chief problem is that the movie leans on a premise that the filmmaker's never seem able to master and develops plot elements that they are never able to adequately explain. Those other films made you feel as if you were really watching a video that was picked up and put on Play. This one feels like a series of ineptly made (and badly shot) student films, the best of which gets a C-minus.

The difference here is that this film is not a single narrative but an anthology wrapped around a framing device that is never really explained. That device contains a group of thugs who video tape themselves assaulting women in parking garages then smashing up unfinished homes with crow bars. Later we learn that they have been hired to break into a house and find a certain VHS tape. In a run-down house, they find an old man sitting dead in front of a bank of television sets surrounded by hundreds of video cassette tapes. One of the guys sits down to watch the tapes, thereby providing an excuse for each of five separate short stories.

The stories range from interesting to just plain stupid. They all involve ordinary people – mostly slow-learners with disciplinary problems – in an ordinary situation who slowly begin to realize that they are in the middle of something bizarre. One story, called "Amateur Night" involves a group of friends who pick up two women in a bar only to find out that one of the women isn't human. Another, called "Second Honeymoon", involves a vacationing couple who are besieged by an intruder who is apparently operating their video camera. And yet another, called "10/31/98", involves a group of guys who go looking for a party on Halloween Night and end up at a real haunted house.

The best story, directed by Joe Swanberg and written by Simon Barrett, involves a young woman (Helen Rogers) on a video chat with her boyfriend who begins to get the unnerving feeling that her apartment may be haunted. That story does not go where we expect. It is different from the others in that it actually bothers to explain what's going on.

The worst, called "Tuesday the 17th" (directed by Glenn McQuaid) involves the ancient formula of kids camping in the woods and being picked off one by one by a figure that is obscured by a flaw in the tape. The conclusion of this story is hard to follow because the camera is shaking so badly that we can't really get a foothold in what is happening.

The biggest problem with "V/H/S" is that the shaky cam is often used to obscure things when we really need clarification. The tape quality sputters and shakes for maximum effect, but after a while it becomes a headache, especially if you're trying to orient yourself. Since we are suppose to be watching found footage of an actual event, we expect that it would feel like someone simply picked up the camera and started filming. The problem is that the editing is done in such a way that no amateur with a video camera could have pulled it off. That takes us out of the moment.

Then there's problem of the framing device. After each story, we return to the house that the thugs are rummaging through, but we never get any answers. Who hired them? Which tape are they looking for? Who videotaped all those terrible events? Was this trip really necessary? * (of four)

Real well done, folks!--

[dahauk-1 · 7/10 · 8 August 2012]

Real well done. The anthology's link material (some guys on a $ errand to retrieve a VHS tape) is the weakest, but all the various clips/sequences on 'the tape' are remarkable in their own ways. Best of the 'hand held cameras' genre, lots of PRACTICAL FX in a variety of 'found cam' stories.We've got Vampires, Ghosts, Haunted Houses,and things best not described all presented completely believable. When I was in my late teens I had a 6mm camera hand-me-down and made use of it. I quickly realized after viewing developed films I'd made, what my limitations were. This has been taken to heart by contributors to this film.. They realize what their resulting footage looks like and have directed their cameras,each in their own style, all VERY effective.. to record accordingly. The results are gripping and effective! I'm 58 yrs old and thot I'd seen it all. Glad I didn't miss this! Do Ye Dare?...

Too many loose ends to be satisfying

[Armin_Nikkhah_Shirazi · 6/10 · 28 May 2022]

V/H/S is a horror anthology in which every segment is shot in a found footage format, and the selling point is that the videos are shot in VHS, an idea which presumably enhances the realism of the events. In principle, the idea is not bad, but unfortunately the execution here is flawed.

The problem already begins when considering the overarching story (TAPE 56): a gang of petty criminals break into a house in order to steal a video tape for a paying client, and the conceit is that each individual segment is a video a member watches in order to check that they have the right tape, and once the segment ends, that member has mysteriously disappeared.

Starting already with TALES OF THE CRYPT (1972), horror anthologies with an overarching story usually reveal some piece of information at the end that connects the segments to the main story, and is also instrumental to understanding the conclusion of the film. That is completely absent in V/H/S: if there was a thematic connection between the main story and the individual segments, it completely escaped me, and furthermore, there is no explanation of the mysterious happenings in the main story either. That means the movie is not really integrated as a whole, even though at first it might give the appearance that it is. For example, individual segments could have been randomly substituted by other segments, but the story of the movie as a whole would be no different.

Perhaps some people don't care about such things, but to me, one of the pleasures of watching a good film is being able to discover the connections within its structure that make it uniquely what it is.

An analogy might help: consider a painting you really like. If now some parts of the painting were randomly substituted by something else, would you still appreciate the painting for what it is?

If it was a Jackson Pollock you might not even notice the substitution (and that is, incidentally, why I am not really a big fan of modern art), but if it was, say, a Vermeer, even if you appreciated the substituted painting just as much, the work would be so well-integrated that yours would be an appreciation for an entirely different work of art.

There are horror anthologies which do not feature an overarching story but are collected by means of some other feature, and that is fine (a good example of this is ABC'S OF DEATH (2012), made the same year as V/H/S but far superior to it, where each segment is based on a thematic key word, and the segments are organized according to the words' first letter). The filmmakers, however, chose the segments-within-a-main-story format, and so it is disappointing that they did not follow their choice up with the natural (or, really, any) unifying connections between the stories suggested by it.

As with any anthology, there is variation in quality between the segments, but pretty much all of them suffer from the same problem of leaving loose ends that leave the audience baffled about why things occurred the way they did. Also, in some of the segments the choppiness of the VHS footage with the shaky cam technique becomes noticeably annoying.

Nevertheless, I thought three segments still had enough going for them despite these flaws to make them worthwhile for found footage horror fans, these are "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger", "Amateur Night", and "10/31/98".

The others, including the main story, were rather forgettable, though all stories had promising potential.

A Bloody Disgusting waste of time

[veark · 1/10 · 28 January 2020]

I thought the premise of the movie sounded boring and unimaginative so I avoided seeing this until a stumbled across an old article on Bloody Disgusting raving about this film. I figured if a "reputable and unbiased" site like Bloody Disgusting gave it a glowing review then I'd give it a go. Oh how I was wrong to trust their judgment!

I could go into why this is such an atrocity of a film but plenty of other users have adequately done so. What I will tell you is that anyone who is raving about this film is either 1. a person with a vested interest in the film or 2. a conformist who's too afraid to be a contrarian in the face of seemingly credible endorsement.

When I saw that Brad Miska was credited as a producer, it suddenly all made sense; Brad Miska is one of the founders of the horror website Bloody Disgusting. So obviously the website is not going to be impartial when reviewing a film one of its founders stands to profit from.

As for other positive reviews; I can only assume that these reviewers have been hoodwinked into believing (against their better judgment) that this film has artistic merit and/or is inspired. With so many indie filmmakers contributing to this film plus the fact that horror aficionado's (like Bloody Disgusting) hail this as "groundbreaking", I have to conclude that these users unwittingly believe they've watched an arthouse masterpiece rather than a collection of cheap, lazy student films complied into a nearly 2 hour long crap.

great

[nicholasmoulaison · 7/10 · 9 August 2012]

There's a lot of found footage type movies coming out, no plot, no original ideas and nothing to contribute to the genre but a couple of cheap scares. Now this movie heads in a different direction by giving original ideas that keep you interested along with a kind of story line. Low budget movie but I have to say they did great with the effects except for one of the tapes. As for the movie itself I have to give it a 7/10. Interesting ideas at work. I rated this movie 7 simply because of the ideas and what they did with the budget. Another note I'd like to add is for all the people complaining about the shaky camera. It is a found footage horror movie, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have a super still hand as they are being chased by a murderer.

V/H/S (2012) Review

[fluffylomkins · 1/10 · 4 February 2013]

What has happened to the good old suspenseful hair standing up on the back of your neck horror movie? I watched approximately twenty minutes of this film before turning it off. I am sorry but it is just pure dirt. I cannot believe how low the horror movie industry has gone. The freelance camera work is so tired. It just runes the quality of the movie. You may as well have the video camera tied by a piece of string to the end of a stick. I find the graphic content appalling the way both men and woman are degraded is disgusting. There is no need for it. It extremely distasteful.

I would hate to think that teenagers are watching this filth. What is the world coming to at all. I thought horror movies were supposed to be scary. This was a yawn fest. I was genuinely so bored I had to turn it off. I could not connect to any of the caricatures and the story line or lack of it was going nowhere. If this is, were horror movies are going it is a travesty.

This is only my opinion of what I thought of this film. Everyone is free to voice there own. I have always been a lover of a good horror movie. However, this one just does not make the cut. That is why I am only giving it a 1-10 unfortunately. I think the word beside the number speaks for itself (awful).

Surprisingly decent

[lareval · 6/10 · 10 October 2021]

A good anthology of creepy stories that actually have a decent, worthy bite. I don´t think it´s a masterpiece at all (some stories are kind of weak in comparison with others), but you can see talent in here.

A skeleton popped out

[dillon_ktm_06 · 1/10 · 22 August 2012]

First off, thank god I didn't pay for this movie. It is the biggest steaming pile of disjointed crap that I've ever been unfortunate to watch. The 'movie' is basically a few disjointed segments with no creative glue holding them together. A group of thieves break into an old man's house to find him dead watching static, they were supposed to steal a VHS tape. The thieves are clearly intelligent enough to take a video recording of all their crimes and this is the main plot in most of the movie. Long story short they find a bunch of tapes and each of them documents people dying in different paranormal circumstances, the characters of the main plot don't even react to what they're watching, they just stick on tape after tape while chilling out beside the dead guy as people from their group disappear. I'd disappear if I had to watch this again. After the 'main characters' (who barely deserve the term as there was no plot development or revelation amongst them) cop it it cuts to more shoddily filmed crap of a group of kids who end up in a real haunted house for Halloween then get accidentally by a train. I have no idea how people could possibly enjoy this, it's a series of uninventive shorts with no solid connection put together by a weak and predictable plot line. The camera-work is so shaky that I thought the producers must have filmed in Haiti during earthquake season and the acting is horribly substandard. The only good thing about the film was the gore and special effects.

suspension of disbelief

[darksideofthespoon-622-36121 · 8/10 · 31 August 2012]

I can understand if you do not like the so-called 'found footage' films, for example; Blair Witch and Cloverfield. I must admit, some of them work, some of them don't. Cloverfield worked for me, but only on the big screen in a cinema. Blair Witch worked for me, but only on a small PC monitor. Some things work better depending on the way you view these things, but also, what works with one person, will not work with another, everybody is different.

With that out of the way, let me honestly try to convince you that my small review on this film is mainly based on its merits, and not just what I enjoy personally.

I think the credit is due to the effort that went behind making this film, because even though each of the video tapes the guys find and watch are very strange and hard to swallow, they have genuinely tried hard to convey a sense of realism.

But it also helps if the viewer made a little effort, and suspended your disbelief in order to get into the film. Some people can do this easier than others. If your a horror fan, this will entertain at the very least. Each of the five found tapes start off innocently enough like home movies, but each one reveals shocking footage of something strange or unravels into a horrifying ordeal. It reminded me of 'Tales of the unexpected' or 'The Twilight Zone' but with the use of a hand-held camera instead.

Again, it'll either work for you or it wont. But the makers of this film tried hard and kudos to them. The effects were great, the acting was as expected, just as in any 'found footage', if its going to convey realism, its NOT going to have Oscar worthy acting, don't forget these are meant to be 'real' people. And the stories behind each tape were all entertaining.

In the end then, before you watch it, heres some top tips; Turn the lights out. Keep telling yourself that what you are watching is 'real'. Open your mind. And enjoy.

A fine modern take on the anthology horror sub-genre.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 8 August 2012]

Seems that most people are split on this movie. Guess it's being a case of you'll either love it or hate it. And even though I most definitely did not loved this movie, I was definitely able to appreciate it and like it for what it was!

At least thing you can say about it, even if you didn't liked it, is that it's taking an original take on the found footage genre. I definitely mostly got fed up with this genre, some movies ago already and grew tired of movies using hand-held, shaky cams. It worked out quite well for this movie however in my opinion. It worked out successful because they combined it with a classic horror sub-genre; the horror anthology genre, that basically is being a movie with a bunch of short and individual segments, each often featuring their own story and characters, like this movie does as well.

The stories on their own probably wouldn't had been solid or original enough to turn into a full length movie but as shorts they are definitely bearable and even have plenty of good elements in them. It's always a sort of a problem that these type of movies often featuring 1 or 2 truly good and successful short stories and the rest is being just average, or even below that level. That's not really the case for this movie though. Each story has something good and interesting about it and I can't really name 1 that stands out or was being below average. It's a pretty consistent movie all the way through, even while the stories aren't being really connected and each one got done by a different director and cast & crew involved.

Can't really say this is being a very scary movie, unless you're one of those persons that easily gets startled by a sound in the background or stuff that gets only implied. It still has a great classic horror feel to it, even though its taking a modern approach. I also sincerely therefore do believe that most horror lovers shall be able to appreciate this movie and might even fall in love with it, as many other people already seem to have done. There is also still being a decent amount of gore and some good effects present in this movie.

The whole concept is being still a bit faulty though. I mean, it's sort of ridicules once you start paying attention to it, as to how much stuff got filmed by the characters in this movie. Nobody ever thinks about stop filming and start becoming busy trying to run or survive. But that's just something that is an integrated part of the found footage genre and something you more or less have to take for granted, when watching a movie like this.

It also was sort of annoying how nothing ever really got explained in this movie. It doesn't explain where the monsters or killers came from, or what they wanted exactly and what happened after the camera's went dark. There just hardly is any background for any of the stories. Most people won't be troubled by this though and will just have a good time watching this, like I, for most part, did as well.

In my opinion nothing more and nothing less but an enjoyable and fine modern take on the anthology horror sub-genre. No doubt that it shall spawn a couple of sequels or rip-offs. After all, these type of movies are fast and cheap to produce and highly profitable.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Do not bother at all costs!

[bewitchedbooksmel · 1/10 · 30 September 2012]

Probably the most wasted hour and a bit of my whole life - this film would work fine if it picked 1 of the story lines.

the synopsis is deceiving and I was so disappointed I almost stopped watching it.

Really purely on special effects(Which are mediocre at best) and intrigue (Namely, 'Surely this film has to get better?'), it has nothing going for it!

I am a massive fan of the genre of Horror dating back from the 1970s upwards, I'll admit many of the new horrors really lack something these days and tend to go more for the 'scare' or 'graphic' factors, this film is 7, maybe 10 (In honesty I stopped counting through boredom) short films with a sub plot.

The acting wasn't even worth getting excited about. I suppose if I'd gone into this film with more information on what its about I would have been happier.