“V/H/S” is one of those films that I have been waiting to see, since first hearing about during this year’s Sundance Film Festival. One of the unique things about this film was the fact it’s directed by six directors. These directors are Adam Wingard (A Horrible Way to Die, You’re Next), David Bruckner (The Signal), Ti West (House of the Devil, The Innkeepers) Glenn Mcquaid (I Sell the Dead) Joe Swanberg (Hanna Takes the Stairs) and Radio Silence.
The film follows the found footage format and is about a group of thieves that are hired by a mysterious person to break into an isolated house and find a rare tape. They discover a dead body, a hub of old televisions and hours of cryptic footage on V/H/S tapes, when entering the house. What they find on those tapes is something more horrifying than they ever imagined.
Film Review:
The directing was very good here. I liked, the way that each of the directors brought something different to their segment of the film. Each of them did a very good job making their segment different from each other. Whether the films dealt with supernatural occurrences, paranormal activity, slashers with an identity being totally obscured, demonic monsters attacking people or mysterious stalkers, each director does a very good job making their segment differ from each other in both direction and screenplay. I didn’t feel like I was watching the same film in every segment. Also, each of the directors does a very job making their story intense. This was one of those films where the blood and gore added to the story, as it made the moments shocking. If the moments weren’t shocking and bloody, then I might be talking about this film differently.
If you had to tell me, what were my favorites out of the bunch? I enjoyed Ti West’s “Second Honeymoon”, with the stalker stalking a couple, Glen McQuaid’s “Tuesday the 17th” with the digital obscured slasher and Joe Swansberg’s “The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger” which has a very good performance from Helen Rogers and is inventive in the way the segment was filmed.
Blu-Ray Extras:
The extras on this disc start off with the Cast and Commentary track. There are too many people to list, as various cast and crew members are coming in and out. Everyone on the track made the track fun to listen. The only drawback was the fact that there wasn’t much information on the production and stories about the filmmaking process, but I still liked this track.
After the commentary track, there are a couple of interview featurettes. First, you have the “Cast and Crew Interviews”. It was a very good featurette, as I watched all of them as one. All the interviews were in-depth interviews about the filmmaking process of “V/H/S”. They all looked like the unedited form, as bits and pieces of some of the interviews can also be found on “AXS TV: A Look at V/H/S” featurette that can also be found on the Blu-Ray. The other interview featurette is Webcam Cameras. I also hit the Play All button for this interview segments. These were both conducted by Joe Swanberg and done on Skype, which was also used when filming “The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger”. It features interviews from the segment’s writer Simon Barrett and actress Helen Rogers. I liked both of those interviews, as it went into the film’s segment and how each of them approached it.
After that, the disc wraps up with deleted scenes from the film’s segments “Tuesday the 17th” and “Amateur Night”, Alternate Ending another segment called “(10/31/98)”, “AXS TV: A Look at V/H/S”, Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery, Conceptual Design Gallery – Lily, and Theatrical Trailers.
Final Summary:
I was very surprised that “V/H/S” was very effective horror film, considering the experimental nature of this film. Very effective filmmaking and entertaining segments made this a very fun film. I cannot wait for the upcoming sequel “S-VHS”, which will be coming out next year.
Review Rating: Five Stars
Extras Rating: Three and a Half Stars
