Review of V/H/S/2 (2013) by Yosmany M — 25 Oct 2014

For a sequel made as quickly as this one was, I am very happy that not only has the quality not dropped, it has actually improved. It may have one less story and be 20 minutes shorter than the first but it really works in its favor as all these stories are really good and are developed quite a lot.

You might be expecting the same amount or more stories in a sequel, which would make sense because sequels are supposed to add not take away but with a smaller amount, if even only by just 1, the possibility for it to feel uneven decreases. All 4 of the stories in this are exciting, interesting and certainly do feel more complete than before, as does the whole movie, they just feel like they had more money to spend. Story 1 is very interesting, takes place from a unique perspective and has an interesting story. However, there were a few jump scares in there which is a shame because I don't recall the first movie even having one. Story 2 is a lot better than it sounded at first, having a first person perspective of a zombie didn't sound too exciting, considering how slow we see zombies walk, but it is actually quite tense and a little sad. I think the bikers name was Mike Sullivan and that made me laugh. Story 3 started off really slowly but it actually built to something quite horrifying and has some deeper meaning to it all. I'd really like to see a feature film like that one. Story 4 was quite creepy and always had me on edge. And of course, again, very little of anything is explained and if you don't like that, you're going to find this movie annoying.

The wraparound story is better this time too, featuring characters who actually have a shred of likability to them helped but what they were doing was more interesting and you could tell that something about the whole scenario was wrong. They even explain why the reaction to the tapes are so minimal and for most of them you don't even know what her reaction is, at first I was thinking to myself just because they're investigators doesn't mean that don't have emotions but it's all explained. It has some references to the first movie, most notably the old man and a few other subtle hints here and there and it is really effective at tying it together. The way it was filmed was odd, in the first movie everyone has a atleast a camera on show and in the fourth story of that movie, a webcam, but in this movie, two of the stories had mounted cameras and the others seem to be built into something. For the first story it makes sense because of his eye but in the third there seemed times where something was being filmed and no one was holding a camera, it's explained that some people have them built into their tshirt but it seemed kinda cheating, with the exception of some in the third story, no one was holding cameras.

Yes, it is true you'd expect more content in a sequel but in this movies case less is more. The stories are longer, we don't spend as much time in the wraparound story and the overall quality of everything just feels like it has been stepped up quite a lot making the movie feel more complete than the original. The movie even looks a lot better, I understand the original title was S-V/H/S so maybe that explains the quality jump but it still has all the same visual flair as the first movie and still looks really authentic. You can't help but wonder if this had 4 stories because of the poor reception of the second story in the first one. Either this was a really happy accident or the filmmakers knew what they were doing because V/H/S 2 is everything that is right with a sequel and like the first one, I'm going to watch this again at some point.