Happy Friday the 13th everyone! To celebrate, I have a review of perhaps the most
anticipated horror film of 2012, the new anthology V/H/S. I
was very fortunate to get into the sold out show that was part of
Toronto After Dark's summer screening series. The second part of a
double-bill with Detention (review), the buzz around V/H/S was enough
to pack The Bloor on a Wednesday night.
A group of petty criminals are hired to
steal a particular VHS tape from an old house. Finding many when
they arrive, they start playing them and discover the horrors within.
So yeah, V/H/S was a good time. It
didn't knock my socks off, but I didn't dislike any of the segments,
which is kind of a rarity when it comes to horror anthologies. The
wraparound story by Adam Wingard was functional, but I
feel he could've done more with it. It started to fall apart toward
the end, but it's forgivable because the meat of the project was the
short films.
I liked the first short, “Amateur
Night” by David Bruckner, quite a bit. This cautionary tale should
be made required viewing at frat houses everywhere. The make up
effects work was a big highlight and the story thankfully goes
further than the jump scare spoiled in the trailer. Hannah Fierman (pictured below)
is the standout here. Not since Angela Bettis in May have I seen a
better portrayal of the “quiet & weird” type.
Glenn McQuaid's story “Tuesday the
17th” clearly the weakest of the bunch. This is a shame because
I'm a huge supporter of his 2008 debut I Sell The Dead and was really
looking forward to seeing something new from him. This slasher-in-the-woods yarn had a very intriguing concept, but it was
unfortunately populated by the most grating characters of the entire
project, so giving two shits about what happened to them was a little
hard. Even the gore seemed a little empty in this one.
“Second Honeymoon” was the easiest
to identify with its director. With its mix of dialogue and atmosphere, its style is fundamentally Ti West. A lot of people I saw it with were not happy with how it
ended, but that shouldn't be surprising, as finales have never been
his strong suit. I didn't have a problem with it myself.
In fact, it was Joe Swanberg's bit that
had an ending I wasn't fond of. As the trailer sets up, “The Sick
Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Young” begins as a solid
creepfrest with two characters talking over Skype. Then, just when
this “ghost” story hits its fever pitch, it goes for the gross
out and pretty much negates all it had built.
And therein lies my only real beef with
V/H/S. It lathers on the gore at almost every opportunity, which is
fine - I love blood & guts as much as the next guy - but that is
not how the hype machine had pitched this movie to me. It
was billed as scary, and it rarely was. The aesthetic is very similar
to that of the shower-inducing Poughkeepsie Tapes, but V/H/S never
gets anywhere near as disturbing. It may not be a fair comparison
because one is a feature and one is vignettes, but I just wanted to
point out that it can be done.
Lastly, there's the segment from Radio
Silence entitled “10/31/98”. Who would've thought that put up
against all these indie horror darlings, this practically unknown
filmmaker collective from L.A. would come up with the best short.
The group of drunken buffoons in this short are not nearly as
annoying as the ones in Bruckner's, and I had fun watching them goof
off as they walked around this seemingly abandoned haunted house.
This short featured some genuine freak-out moments with wonderfully
implemented visual effects. This was the perfect short to end on
because by this point, the movie was getting a little long in the
tooth.
V/H/S is not the saviour of horror that
some are hailing it as, but it's certainly entertaining. If producer Brad
Miska & company were to cull together some more filmmakers to
make a V/H/S 2, I would definitely be onboard, as this analog conceit
fits the anthology medium very well.
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