V/H/S (2012) - Energetic, periodically intensely creepy if flawed found footage horror anthology

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The inventively designed, sinister poster for Batt Bettinelli-Olpin, David Bruckner, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Chad Villella, Ti West and Adam Wingard's V/H/S

Some very simpleminded guys get a job of breaking into a house to locate a VHS-tape. In the house they find a dead man, - and a lot of scary tapes. - They nevertheless try their best to complete the job ...

This accounts for the framing story of anthology horror V/H/S. Both that and the first story within the story, (all coming from tapes found in the house), are about really awfully dumb people, who yell brainlessly and break stuff. This combined with the nausea-inducing shaky camera technique that is the modus operandi for much of V/H/S makes for an inauspicious beginning that might lead some audiences to simply leave or switch off the film. It is a general problem for V/H/S that its stories are inhabited by too many foolhardy loudmouths.
But it also offers some well-functioning and extremely creepy periods, - SPOILER especially the motel break-in story (Second Honeymoon), the Skype woman (The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger) and the concluding, wild 1998 Halloween haunted-house story (10/31/98). The video aesthetic lends an uncomfortable realism to the film's best sequences, although many of the glitches and shakings are a bit much.
Still, V/H/S is an energetic and inventive anthology, - obviously made by true horror-lovers. It is made by a very long row of people, so take a deep breath: Conceptualized by Brad Miska (co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bloody-Disgusting.com); Tape 56 (frame story) written by Simon Barrett (Blair Witch (2016)), directed by Adam Wingard (Blair Witch); Amateur Night written by Nicholas Tecosky (SiREN (2016, based on characters created by) and co-writer-director David Bruckner (Southbound (2015, writer-director); Second Honeymoon written and directed by Ti West (In a Valley of Violence (2016)); Tuesday the 17th written and directed by Glenn McQuaid (Chilling Visions: 5 States of Fear (2014), writer-director); The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger written by Barrett, directed by Joe Swanberg (Happy Christmas (2014) writer-director); 10/31/98 written and directed by Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, Chad Villella (Devil's Due (2014), all)).

 

Here is an unrelated video of what is supposedly a real found-footage video found in Croatia of something very creepy ... Watch if you dare

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 1.9 mil. $

= Unknown (likely a big flop)

[V/H/S premiered January 22 (Sundance) and runs 116 minutes. Filming took place in California. Magnolia Pictures purchased the distribution rights for around 1 mil. $ at Sundance, where it was reported that two movie patrons had to be seen to by paramedics, one of them collapsing after tumbling out during a screening of the film. Notoriously horror-bashing Roger Ebert gave the film a 1-star review. The film opened #52 in 16 theaters to a 36k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 19 theaters but didn't go above #52 and grossed just 100k $ (5.3 % of the total gross). If projected at a very modest 1 mil. $ budget, the film remains a big flop theatrically, though it has likely made money through home-video and VoD. Besides normal home-video releases, V/H/S has also been released on VHS in 2013. It has spawned two sequels, V/H/S/2 (2013) and V/H/S: Viral (2014) and the Amateur Night spin-off SiREN (2016). V/H/S is rotten at 55 % with a 5.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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