V/H/S DVD REVIEW

 

Just a side note before i start this review i know the irony in the V/H/S and i'm reviewing the DVD of it {well it made me chuckle anyway..moving on} So as you can tell by the trailer and indeed the thumbnail which does look like Michael Jackson during one of his many plastic surgery procedures, that this film is a Horror movie, of sorts. This film consists of 5 short films converted into the 1 main story. Now as we all know, the found footage genre has been done to death, from Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch Project and even comedy wise with Project X, but this film actually suits the shaky cam style and adds a certain level of scare and tension that in my opinion is much needed in horror films nowadays. I will go into a certain amount of detail with all the shorts but my personal , to me, is the 1st and the last ones as there in my opinion the most suspensful and creepy.

 

The main plot centres around a group of petty burgulars who are attempting to break into a house for one particular, and in my opinion stupid reason, to steal a video tape. Yes you read it correctly, to steal a video tape, now before you lose interest in the review and indeed the film, bare with me as it does pick up and makes the story relevant. As they are looking for this one tape they stumble upon a large collection of old vhs tapes and unsure which one is the right one, they decide to watch each one, which in turn is the tape the viewer ends up watching too. The first tape is a couple of guys out on a night out, and you notice straight away that theres this one girl who is very creepy looking and when one of the guys ends up hooking up with the creepy girls friend, end up going back to the guys' hotel room and what you expect to happen, starts to happen, until the creepy girls friend passes out, however the creepy girl, at first, makes out with one of the guys while the other is in the bathroom, a loud scream is heard and when he rushes back in the bedroom, lets just say he gets scared shitless! Of course i'm not going to reveal anymore on that part as i wont spoil anything for you but to me it creeped me out, a lot and in all honesty horror films don't do that to me very much nowadays.However the ending to this part was awful and for me killed the tension the scene was trying to build. The second mini movie is of a couple on their honeymoon and on a nightly basis someone enters their room and lurks over the couple, also steals money from the guys wallet and causes tension within the couple, leading to the finale which is good but very predictible.

 

The 3rd mini movie in my opinion was the most inovative, but the dumbest at the same time. It takes place in the woods with a group of friends and follows all the horror movie cliches, attractive women randomly taking their clothes off and doing drugs etc, but the twist is there is a killer in the woods, but its shown as static image and while ive never seen that done in a horror film before, it looked ridiculous and took me completely out of that scene. The 4th mini movie is a Skype conversation between a man and a woman and the woman is convinced her flat/apartment is haunted, this one was okay and had a slight twist but was very corny in parts and although Paranormal Activity 4 came out a year after this film did, i think it heavily copied certain elements off V/H/S.

 

Whilst watching the old tapes, the burglars encounter "problems" from within the house, and after each tape is shown, the camera shows the burglars watching and you notice certain things in the room in which they sit, some things seem to disappear and move around and it throws you off abit and is creepy to an extent.

 

The last mini movie centres around a group of friends off to a halloween party, but turn up at the wrong house and what appears to be a quiet vacant home soon disappears and while it can be scary and is intended to be, i thought the special effects were very good in this part and made it cool as opposed to being really scary.

 

Overall, i liked the effort this film made to try and be different in this boring and stale genre, however in my opinion, this film had 2/3 good sketches but when it's bad, its awful. The special effects are good for an indie movie. The first tape though did scare me, that creepy woman scared the shit out of me and i have to applaude a film that makes me still freaked out!

 

I would recommend this film for fans of horror,if you're a fan of the Paranormal Activity style shaky cam production, then i think you will enjoy this alot. If the shaky cam elemnt annoys you, and to be honest i could see why if it did, then this is probably not in your vibe.

 

My Rating - 7/10

 

Positives - Very good sound and special effects, 2/3 of the tapes were good and creepy, tried to be different to same old horror formula

 

Negatives - 1 particulat tape was terrible and boring as hell, at times too much shaky cam, the ending felt very flat and in my opinion killed the tension

 

Thanks alot for reading this review guys be sure to check in every friday and sunday for more reviews and if you want to leave a comment below feel free :}