Review of V/H/S/2 (2013) by Vern H — 17 Jun 2013

Like many anthologies, V/H/S 2 is uneven. It has many inventive concepts and gimmicks that are creative for it's popular genre, and does have a few unsettling spooks. On the contrary, it is darkly uncompromising and relies too much on discomfortingly grotesque shock value. I would just rent it or only watch the better two of its four short films. If you aren't into horror or gore, this is DEFINITELY not the movie for you.

The story: The plot line for this found-footage anthology horror flick is mostly the same as its predecessor. Two private investigators go looking for a missing college student and wind up in his seemingly empty house. That is except for a bright room filled with multiple fuzzy TV's and V/H/S tapes. Filming their search, one of the crew decides to scale the house while the other watches the mysterious tapes. Let's just say that that these ain't any Disney tales. After each tape, strange things begin to increase around and to the investigators...will they uncover the truth, or more importantly, live till the end of their film?

The good: V/H/S 2 has some awesome concepts and ideas for its "hand-held" segments, and some really clever details that did surprise me. In a world of endless Paranormal Activity sequels, the crew here have successfully found their own niche with the style, and pull off many of their unique ideas quite well. It's hard talking about the film broadly due to its basically five separate stories, but I'll still try. Without saying much the shorts about the bionic eye and Go-Pro wearing mountain biker had the neatest moments. The second one also had some funny moments of black humor and I really the path it choose to take and the twist it added as well. The "Safe Haven" segment while horrifically violent and over exaggerated, has a great exposition and tension filled set up that gets as close to a traditionally shot film as possible. The fourth and final segment had a funny beginning and a cool POV for most of it. I can't say much about the actors, they are all fine and do serviceable work. There are a few frightening moments in the film, mostly jump scares, but it has more spooky and unsettling images and thats a credit to the often wise execution of the shorts. Some of the gory effects are campily enjoyable, but they do become overwhelming as the film progresses.

The bad: A problem I had with the film is that while it has some great ideas, it doesn't have any satisfying payoffs to fasten the bow on them and usually ends on a hopeless and ambiguous note. This also goes along with the films immensely morbid tone and content that really did leave me unhinged. I understand why they have the bloody effects, but after a while when they try to up the ante, especially in the third segment, it just becomes repetitive and actually overwhelmingly gory. Story-wise, the first has a promising setup, makes some interestingly creepy choices, but ends abruptly and seems too rushed as well as the second and last segments. The third segment has another great start and has ominous foreshadowing that made me uneasy, but it bit off more than it could chew. It tried to shock the audience by using an overload of abhorrent imagery and and bloody carnage. It got too carried away with itself and also had a bizarre and again weakly conceived conclusion. The fourth film was a bit choppy, escalated very quickly, and was to confusingly shot to fully follow. It had a nice reliance on sound and lighting, but still was too frantic to comprehend towards its ending.

My take: V/H/S 2 has its highlights and moments that will make you smirk, but it is overall a too brutal and coldly unresolved to be completely enjoyable. It actually made me slightly unnerved afterwards, but not as much from being scared as being disgusted. There is a larger fanbase for the film's macabre and shocking nature, but I guess it didn't all appeal to me.