Monday, October 06, 2014

V/H/S 2




(2013) ****

Two detectives looking for a missing student break into his house for clues about his disappearance. In his living room they find piles of unlabeled V/H/S tapes. As they start watching the tapes they begin to learn about more about the missing student and his activities prior to his disappearance.



Phase 1: Clinical Trials

On the first tape is a story about a man who undergoes radical surgery for a prosthetic eye. Unfortunately there is an unforeseen side-effect to his new vision.

“A Ride in the Park”

What happens when you are wearing a Go Pro while bike riding and you stumble across zombies? This excellent segment showcases one unfortunate soul who is riding his bike at the right place at the wrong time. Funny and gory.


“Safe Haven”

In the film’s best segment, director Timo Tjahjanto (The Raid: Redemption) follows a group of documentarians as they set out to interview the leader of a cult. Entering the Heaven’s Gate-like headquarters they are chaperoned by very friendly followers. As they are led through they see children in school, prayer meetings, etc. When finally given access to the leader for an interview all hell breaks loose.



“Slumber Party Alien Abduction”

A group of friends having a sleepover catch Earth’s first alien invasion while filming each other doing the stupid things teens do at a sleepover.

As everyone knows, the anthology format is a tricky thing to pull off. There are very few truly good anthology films out there (i.e. Creepshow) but most include at least one clunker. I disliked the first V/H/S but I am happy to report that V/H/S 2 is firing on all cylinders! Aliens, zombies, cults, and ghosts, there's something for everyone here!  Although the first segment is certainly derivative of “The Eye”, every segment is fun. Safe Haven will remind you of The Sacrament however it is much more tense and gruesome. It has a slow build that pays off handsomely. I highly recommend this to all who can handle a little gore.

7 comments:

Catfreeek said...

Slapping it into the queue right now.

DKC said...

Excellent! I've been waiting to hear your thoughts - I'm definitely adding it.

Mr. AC said...

Sounds perfect! Looking forward to watching it.

JPX said...

Mr. AC, I actually had you in mind when I wrote this review! It's almost like this film was tailor made for you...

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Also adding it to my queue!

AC said...

Great review, though this one might need to be a solo for mr. AC.

Landshark said...

Is there some reason for the slash marks in the acronym? Would VHS just be too lame as a movie title, so they came up with V/H/S instead? I kinda hate it.

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...