V/H/S/2

It's back...

Yes, a sequel has been made for V/H/S that's set to hit theaters this weekend. It's also available for digital download right now if your as interested as I am. My reaction the first movie wasn't so great - other than I was excited for another horror movie compilation - however, with the initial reviews on RT ranking this guy at 88% fresh I thought they may have worked some of the kinks out of the story. 

For the most part, they did. 

It's a lot better than the first time around. There's still a similar framing device of the main narrative that introduces each horror vignette, but at least now there's a some semblance of a story that's tying everything together - something the first film completely lacked. 

Anyways, like before, I'll give a quick breakdown on each story and how they ranked for me.

The film opens on a pair of boobies. (So far, so good.) However, instead of a bunch of malevolent hipsters filming their destruction rampage, we're now following a couple that work as private investigators - they're spying on a husband cheating on his wife at a seedy motel. Moving on, these PI's break into the home of a college kid who's apparently gone missing. The kid's mother has hired them to find any information on her child. They break in, no one can be found, then, boom... we have the same set up as the first film - a wall of TV all playing static surrounded by VHS tapes. Trying the figure out what the hell is going on, they being to play the tapes.

Tape 1: Phase I Clinical Trials

I have an issue with my left eye. It sees dead people. 

Here we've got a guy who's just received this top-of-the-line prosthetic eyeball. He's the subject of some sort of clinic experiment so the footage is all being recorded through the eye - kind of a neat, original idea for that whole found-footage filming technique. The only catch to all this? He sees dead people. Yup, apparently the weird electronic eyeball doesn't only allow the guy to see, it's allows him to see the ghosts that regularly exist all around us. Another character who has a ear implant from the same company (and can apparently hear the ghosts) visits this guy halfway through. Her advice to avoid the ghosts is to ignore them... so they, of course, bang (it's also the last time you see boobies in the movie - shocking). But it all ends up being for naught. You can piece together what probably happens to them. Basically, the ghosts turn violent when they know you can see them. What's more exciting is the weighty decision the guy has whether or not to keep his fake eye (what the photo above alludes to). Yesh...

Wasn't a huge fan of this story. It's not the worst in the bunch and it's definitely creepy. My only major complaint is that what little this franchise has of an over-arcing storyline, this vignette does not contribute to it. However, the next two videos do. 

Tape 2: A Ride In The Park

A day in the life... of a zombie.

Ever wonder what the world is like through the eyes of a zombie? Then this is the film for you. A guy out for a morning bike ride before he meets up with his girl for breakfast is suddenly attacked by a couple of zombies. After being bitten, and bleeding badly, and runs to an open field and collapses. Seemingly dead, a few more bikers stumble across his when he awakes as a zombie and attacks them. Now the game is on. With his own little zombie posse forming, the next group they stumble upon is some little girl's birthday party. A big zombie attack ensues, once again, all from the perspective of our biker friend.

This is my favorite film of the bunch. Other than the fact that I think it's a brilliant idea to have a GoPro camera mounted on a zombie, there's actually a really moving love story here. The biker catches his reflections in a car window (after murder a couple of people) and sees the monster he's become. Next he sees a woman on the ground weeping for her fallen husband. With his next prey in sight, he suddenly gets a call from his girlfriend again. In that moment, you can hear faint sounds of crying gurgle out of his throat. To his side he spots a shotgun and well... maybe there's always a little human left in all zombies. 

Tape 3: Safe Haven

Don't drink the kool-aid!

This is the creepiest film of the bunch. A film crew of journalist head to southeast Asia to investigate this controversial cult that preaches finding inner-peace, enlightenment, and all that hippie garbage. Of course when the news crew gets there things go terrible wrong and they all have to scramble for their lives as this is the cult's day of reckoning. 

This story is really wacky and out there, so I'll refrain from divulging some of the bigger shocks and twists. I will say this. In keeping with a similar storyline from tape 2, it does involve zombies again. Plus another surprisingly hilarious guest. In fact, the last shot departs from the creepy, far out horror the entire segment builds on, and is just so stupid it's funny. 

Sorry if that's really vague, but for anyone who watches this I would be ruining the best part of the whole film if I revealed the true ending. Even the Wikipedia summary wouldn't do it justice. You've got to see it for yourself.

Tape 4: Slumber Party Alien Abduction

The truth is out there... in your backyard.

Last at bat is just what the title says. It's an alien abduction that occurs to a bunch fo kids that are having a sleepover with their friends while the parents are out of town for the weekend. I was having fun with this story until the very end. The aliens were freaky. A lot of suspenseful camera angles and aliens chasing the kids. But, in the end, the segment did one thing I can never allow: they killed the dog. If you look closely at the still above you can see hair on the bottom of the image. The camera in this story is another GoPro only mounted on top of the family dog. In the last scene, the one surviving kid still on the run finally gets sucked up into the spaceship's tractor beam while holding the dog. Unfortunately, he loses his grip and drops Rover to his death. The last shot is the camera (after being dislodged from the dog upon impact) angled at the dog's face as you watch him die with a whimper.

Boo... Sad and unnecessary. Needless to say, this was my least favorite segment. I don't have many rules in movies, but unnecessarily killing animals (especially cute, innocent ones) is never allowed. 

So, in between all of these videos we've been following this investigative team searching through the house for this missing college kid. Of course, the kid is in the house with them - seen occasionally lurking in the background. What was brilliant on the film's part was that you're slowly watching this webcam video the kid was taking on his laptop vaguely explaining these videotapes. By the end, you see that he intends to make his own video. Next thing you know, out comes a revolver and he blows off his head. A few seconds go by and the kid regains consciousness, now a zombie. What really blows my mind is that you hear some clamor in the background. The kid runs off. Then the two investigators shuffle into the shot. Ah! Great moment. 

In total, the film is still not exactly where I want it to be, but it's lightyears above its predecesor. In fact, if you were ever considering getting into these movies, I would just skip the first and move right into the second. It's also satisfying that they're starting to allude to some explanation behind the whole V/H/S mythos. I mean, what do these tapes do? How is it that they make people go insane? Where are these tapes even coming from? Seems like the answers to these questions mostly revolve around the idea of the undead. It's still a long way from any concrete answers, but at least it's something to go off of. The best thing this series could do is to have their horror vignettes become an essentially part of the main story, meaning as the main characters (and audience) watch these tapes, they may piece together some current mystery and figure out what's in store for their future. 

I'm sure there will be more sequels to come. And I'm sure that these answers will be fleshed out as time goes on. It's at least promising that the series is taking a step in the right direction.