V/H/S (Bruckner et al.)

[EvilShoe]

[EvilShoe]

There's a really unpolished feel to this, that most other found footage films are lacking, which I liked. By not restricting themselves to a normal camera, the directors have come up with ways their characters would be recording in the first place. There's less suspension of disbelief required than usually.

Unfortunately, as is always the case with anthology movies, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The wraparound story is a waste of time, I'm not sure what the Ti West was trying to do, and there's one set in the woods that is just abysmal.

That leaves 3 good stories, none of them mind-blowing, but quite fun with some inventive set pieces.

[number8]

Good god, the one by the director of I Sell the Dead was fucking TERRIBLE. I get that it's meant to be a slasher satire, but that is completely out of place with the found footage gimmick. You've got the actors trying to be naturalistic because it's found footage, while the script wants them to do broad humor and outlandish sequences. What a ridiculous short.

The other ones are well done for what they are. The benefit of recruiting mumblecore peeps to do a found footage movie is that they know how to do low-key and naturalistic, and the fact that none of them offer satisfying exposition or conclusion add to the believability, but at the same time makes this on a whole a rather unsatisfying and hollow experience.

The Halloween haunted house one is the best.

[ciaoelor]

SPOILERS...

The bug-eyed actress in the first episode was not only the creepiest character in the movie, but also it's most interesting character too. As vicious as she was, she had a strange vulnerability too. Her repeated line "I like you" inspires both suspicion and... a kind of sympathy (consider the moment where she crawls away and cries after the cameraman seems horrified by her). The creature make-up was awesome, but her naturally over-sized eyes were creepy from the beginning. I wonder if the actress inspired the creation of that character...

Another thing: the actors playing frat boys were so good at playing that type of character that I forgot they were acting.

[Winston*]

Yeah I thought the succubus one was genuinely unnverving. Same with the first intruder sequence of Ti West's one, but that one undoes itself with its ending.

[KK2.0]

I actually like the tourists segment the best, it was slow burn but it was one of the most satisfying for me in many ways.

i also enjoyed the skype one.

overall i gave it a yay, it's flawed but still a very interesting flick, the camera shaking gave me a serious motion sickness during the first episode (the bug eyed girl one).

[Spun Lepton]

Overall, not bad, if a little unsatisfying in the long run.

Story 1 -- 7/10 (I like monsters.)
Story 2 -- 3/10 (Uninspired and wholly predictable, my least favorite of the bunch.)
Story 3 -- 6/10 (Unsatisfying, but I liked the way they played with the format.)
Story 4 -- 4/10 (Bad twist.)
Story 5 -- 7/10 (Legitimately creepy.)
Wrap-Around -- 4/10 (Ho-hum.)

[Rowland]

Did the first five minutes make anyone else feel as though they were mistakenly watching a Trash Humpers sequel? Anyway, this was disappointing as a whole, with only the Bruckner-directed "Amateur Night" being really good, which is particularly surprising given that I hated his segment in The Signal, now pending reevaluation. The remaining shorts and wraparound range from fun and technically adept but slight (Radio Silence's "10/31/98"), to promising beginnings and creepy ideas hampered by poor follow-through (West's "Second Honeymoon", Swanberg's "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger", Wingard's "Tape 56"), to formally and conceptually ambitious but otherwise inexplicable and lousy (McQuaid's "Tuesday the 17th").

[megladon8]

So I kind of really liked this. Jen wasn't too hot on it but I think we were both pleasantly surprised with a couple of the stories.

It's too bad that the one smack-dab in the middle ("Tuesday the 17th") was so terrible. I really wish that it hadn't been there at all - it was such a jarring change from the tone of all of the other stories, the acting was subpar, and it left a sour taste in the mouth for the rest of the film's runtime.

"Amateur Night" was kind of brilliant, as was the final haunted house segment "10 / 31 / 98".

The film was genuinely frightening at times, with "Amateur Night", "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" and "10 / 31 / 98" having some exceptional scares in them.

I'm anxious to see what stories are in store for us with the sequel this year.

Far from perfect, but still enjoyed it thoroughly. And while it's not exactly saying a lot, I would say this is one of the best horror anthology movies I've seen (up there with Creepshow and Black Sabbath).

[EyesWideOpen]

The most mildest of yay's. The wraparound was terrible. The video chat was probably my favorite but none were particularly impressive.

[Dukefrukem]

All of the stories were terrible except for Ti West's. That is all.

I only watched this because Ti West was one of the storytellers and his story is clearly the most thought out and superbly executed. Overall I am pretty sick of found footage films, which this movie is a collection of 6.5 of them. But each director tells their story from a different medium.

Amateur Night by David Bruckner (who also directed The Signal which is also on my Netflix queue) did a great job developing a creepy monster type. I just didn't think the context worked very well.

Tuesday the 17th by Glenn McQuaid- this was clearly the worst short in the collection. Horribly acted and horribly executed on all counts.

The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger by Joe Swanberg was a fantastic idea... but poorly executed. I couldn't tell what was happening at the very end and only finally understood when I was reading the comments on a movie forum.

10/31/98 by Radio Silence is probably the creepiest, but the ending is too cliche for me to enjoy it.

Overall this collection was disappointing. I was expecting more grit.

[Dukefrukem]

No that is not "that is all"

She wanted to go back with them, the short sets up the males as the predators only to reveal them as the prey. Her initial presumed characterization as the cliched "shy girl" was supposed to seem fishy, given that the only words she speaks are "I like you," her behavior suggest no social experience whatsoever, and she has that creepy bug-eyed stare, so her "personality" is explained when it's revealed that she's a monster merely playacting as human.

I'm surprised to liked the West segment so much, what did you get out of it? I was disappointed by how indifferent it left me. In any case, just wait until you see The ABCs of Death, his short in that one is inexplicably the worst of all 26.

I didn't like The Signal, and I especially recall feeling that the Bruckner segment (it's divided into three chapters, each by a different director) was distastefully mean-spirited and abrasive, though I'd like to give it another look.

I think that's my whole point about the shy girl going back with them. I didn't see one string of dialog that led me to believe she was OK going back to the hotel with them other than the "I like you" line. I realize the camera was jumping around in time but all of a sudden she was just there, having added nothing to the 10 minutes prior.

ABCs of death is on my short list. I hope to get to it soon after my Nicholas Cage marathon and Match Cutties viewings.

[B-side]

I've written an essay on this, and in the interest of saving space should anyone actually return to this thread, I'll simply link to my Facebook note containing said essay. It's public viewing, so you don't have to be my friend (or like me at all, really) to read it. As a tease, I think it's fantastic and obscenely undervalued.

[Skitch]

All of the stories were terrible except for Ti West's. That is all.

His was my least favorite. It was okay I guess, but it bored me. I'm hoping part 2 will be added to netflix any day now...