Review of V/H/S/2 (2013) by Damir A — 18 Jul 2013

"V/H/S 2" (2013) - With the found footage genre dominating cinemas around the world since its conception with success of "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999, one might start to ask if the style might be over staying its welcome. This perception has grown more and more apparent with the decline in interest for the "Paranormal Activity" franchise, however a little movie in limited release plans to try and make you believe that found footage still has some legs.

"V/H/S 2" is an anthology horror film which is comprised of a series of short films all of which have different directors, tones and styles within horror. The film's setting is simple enough, two private investigators search for the disappearance of a male college student in his old abandoned home. In the house, an an old tube television with a large collection of VHS tapes scattered across the floor are found so the investigators start their search by watching the tapes individually but get more than they originally bargained for.

While the concept of having several horror short film's within a cohesive narrative is unique, it can also fall flat in structure unfortunately. The different directorial styles of each film don't always mesh together as well they should. The original "V/H/S" film was decent enough in the scares department but far too uneven where only 2 of the 5 short films were memorably good. There was also far too much character stereotypes and indecency to women for my taste. So with this sequel, the good news is the short films are more interesting (and creative as hell), there are less obscenities and stereotypes and also the run time was reduced by 30 minutes which is a definite plus in the movies favor as the first movie felt way too long. Unfortunately, some lingering issues that were present in the first movie still exist in this sequel albeit to a lesser degree.

Instead of five unique short films inside one big story there are four this time around. Make no mistake, this movie is bat-shit-crazy and doesn't hold anything back sometimes to a detriment. It's ridiculous, unapologetic and explains little to nothing in terms of an actual plot (or where these VHS tapes came from exactly). This movie exists for the simple purpose to disturb and scare the bejesus out of the viewer and for the most part, it works really well. For me personally the first short titled "Phase I Clinical Trials" and the third "Safe Haven" were easily the best and most memorably scary of the lot. The other two fall flat for completely different reasons despite having really interesting concepts. What I liked in particular about VHS2 was that it's really trying something new with found footage as a genre. It's pushing its limit and comes up with unique, interesting and often experimental methods to get a variety of reactions from an audience using the shaky, low quality footage to its advantage.

Where the movie goes wrong for me is mostly in shock value. Some of the shorts contain imagery and content that just goes way too far in the disgusting zone for my taste. I don't like gore being used for the simplicity to revolt; I like good practical effects to be used to add to the scares not make me turn my head in sickness. The weakest of the shorts is oddly enough the main plotline mostly because the reactions the main characters have to the tapes are borderline deadpan which subtracts from your own reaction in a small way to what was viewed. Therein lies this movies biggest pit fall, for every short film you like there will be one that you hate because of how vastly different they are in all aspects of filmmaking.

Despite this movie being far too uneven in quality there's some value here especially if you're a diehard fan of the horror genre. This plays to a more niche crowd so I wouldn't recommend it to everyone because the content just isn't accessible to most viewers in my opinion. This movie franchise has some kinks to work out but I think it's commendable that they're at least trying new things. This movie is definitely notches above its predecessor and a step in the right direction though I probably won't be revisiting it in the future. There are definitely enough scares and creativity to check this one out on DVD/Blu-Ray if this kind of pure horror interests you but if you're not prepared/devoted (and trust me, you will need to be) stay far away from this one.

MY SCORE: 6.4/10.

GPA: C.