Review - V/H/S (2012 - Dir. Ti West, Adam Wingard, Radio Silence, Joe Swanberg, Glenn McQuaid, David Bruckner)

In my recent review of Dying Breed I talked about it being a contender for a film that sums up everything that is bad about horror films. It may have been a contender but it's been brutally beaten into submission by V/H/S.

This is an anthology by up and coming horror directors (I expected more from Adam Wingard after the reasonable A Horrible Way to Die) all framed by a story of some dodgy characters breaking into a house to find an old video tape. Normally anthologies contain a mixed bunch of tales, some good, some bad. Not so in V/H/S. They are uniformly terrible.

Vast swathes of irritating characters assail your senses as the found footage cam charges through yet another forest as the Paranormal Activity drone kicks in again. At many points I thought about leaving and going and getting a pint, but I kept wondering whether the next little story would be better. Should have got a pint.

The best story is shot on iChat. What iChat footage is doing on an old video is anyone's guess, but even so it's the only one that can be described as vaguely watchable. Even this one starts to annoy with a character hacking away at their own arm and prodding around in it without even wincing. 

I'm not going to waste any more time on this. I'm already gutted that I spent two hours watching the thing in the first place. Save yourself the pain and watch Lake Mungo instead.
0/10
evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:

Paranormal Activity, Lake Mungo.