V/H/S blends one of the newer fads in horror - the shaky found footage movie - with one of the oldest - the portmanteau anthology. It is an interesting blend, on paper at least, allowing the hottest new indie directors to flex their creative muscles in shorter form films whilst tackling a range of horror sub-genres. Unfortunately the results are far less interesting than the film’s potential. Rather than utilising the strengths of the portmanteau structure - allowing for wildly different stories with great hooks and twists - it merely accentuates the problem with the current trend of found footage stories.

Although the film works its way through most sub-genres of horror (vampires, stalkers etc.) all the self-contained stories are…

A succubus? Aliens? Supernatural murderers? Zombified people? Demons? Even though this film was overall kinda shitty, you have to commend the episodic style for offering up many different kinds of scares and creepy scenarios. This makes V/H/S feel like its always changing, and seeing what comes next is pretty fun. Fun turned to disappointment more often than not, but it was still a unique experience. I feel dumb for waiting until just now to see it, but I hear the second one is a big improvement, so I needed to catch up. Here is what an thought of each individual tape:

Tape 56/Overarching Narrative
This is the tape that ties all the other ones together and reoccurs throughout the film.…

I can only assume that V/H/S here stands for Very Heavy Snoring, because I found this film to be an absolute bore. "Hey, you know those bits at the beginning of horror films where nothing of note happens to horrible boring characters? How about a film with 6 of those sections!?" This leaves the film with about half of its bloated 2 hour runtime dedicated to setting up the bits we actually want to see. But we can't really see the scary bits anyway as the camera is shaking like its being held by a toddler after a bag of Haribo.

I kind of like the anthology idea behind V/H/S but the execution is very poor. There are some inklings…

I know it's not a favorite for a lot of people, but I really like the found footage genre. Sure, it's overdone, most of it never makes sense, and they all follow a similar formula, but I love how most of them (the good ones anyways) rely on atmosphere more than jump scares. It's a genre where most of the films suck, but the ones that are good usually manage to be a lot of fun. V/H/S is one of those films.

This film actually tries something different by making it a bunch of anthology shorts. The results, as usual for any anthology film, is mostly hit and miss, but boy are the hits fun.

The film has a wraparound…

I can only assume that V/H/S here stands for Very Heavy Snoring, because I found this film to be an absolute bore. "Hey, you know those bits at the beginning of horror films where nothing of note happens to horrible boring characters? How about a film with 6 of those sections!?" This leaves the film with about half of its bloated 2 hour runtime dedicated to setting up the bits we actually want to see. But we can't really see the scary bits anyway as the camera is shaking like its being held by a toddler after a bag of Haribo.

I kind of like the anthology idea behind V/H/S but the execution is very poor. There are some inklings…

V/H/S has gotten a lot of criticism for not living up to its potential. I whole-heartedly disagree with that, as what can be seen here is a slick, interesting and gruesome horror film that manages to creep you out, deliver some interesting ideas and shock you with both jump scares, bloody violence and creepy twists.

This time around, I noticed how few story-based clichés are in play here, and how fresh it all seems. We're introduced to our characters and how they're doing the recording, with the knowledge that these people are going to die horribly before the short is over. It's a nice piece of dramatic irony as the stakes are huge, but the question becomes "why" or "what's…

I like anthology films, particularly horror, so I thought I'd check this out............
The main linking device that introduces us to the various vhs horrors on offer is pretty lame, has annoying characters and a jerky camera that really irritates after a while. Unfortunately, the various stories/tapes that these cretins discover are not well thought out, full of cliches and pretty inaffective.
However, the first tape/story IS worth viewing. It's eerie, fairly disturbing and is worth a mention. It features a particularly weird and striking looking girl who turns out to be far more than what the dumb jock guys are looking for. She is very effective and this is by far the best tale here. It kept my interest,…

A succubus? Aliens? Supernatural murderers? Zombified people? Demons? Even though this film was overall kinda shitty, you have to commend the episodic style for offering up many different kinds of scares and creepy scenarios. This makes V/H/S feel like its always changing, and seeing what comes next is pretty fun. Fun turned to disappointment more often than not, but it was still a unique experience. I feel dumb for waiting until just now to see it, but I hear the second one is a big improvement, so I needed to catch up. Here is what an thought of each individual tape:

Tape 56/Overarching Narrative
This is the tape that ties all the other ones together and reoccurs throughout the film.…