review by Robin Gee
V/H/S 2012
Watched Aug 03, 2012
Robin Gee’s review:
An old school style anthology of horror..based around the found footage (VHS Tapes) premise. It’s great to see the anthology of fear idea being resurrected. The film is a mixed bag and although I'm sort of over first person found footage films, a couple of the film makers managed to put their own twist on the genre. Highlights for me... Tuesday the 17th (Glenn McQuaid) .. who employed a nice digital distortion technique to bring his villain into daylight but preserve the ability for them to be able to pop up from anywhere in an a friends picnic by the lakeside slasher. Amateur Night (David Bruckner)..which stood out for it's uncomfortable storyline with bloody results. Brucker manages to overcome the need-for-a-handicam dilemma, managing to create a reason for us to "see" through one one the characters eyes...as well as this the main characters are not particularly moral.. the audience can be justified in asking if our characters didn’t really get what they deserved? I was lucky to go to a screening where David Bruckner attended a Q&A .. He proved articulate and smart ..as if his film wasn’t evidence enough. The generally low fi, distorted VHS quality of most of the pieces really works...Horrors don’t need to be Hi Def...after all it’s the “added value” of the viewers imagination that hightens the fear in any horror story. .
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