V/H/S (2012)

The hype behind this movie in the horror community was awesome! V/H/S was and still is being hailed as "Best of the year" by Fangoria, "The scariest, rawest horror movie of the year" by Rolling Stone, and Dread Central called it "A Phenomenal piece of work." Needless to say I was very excited to check it out. I had been following news on the film since hearing about it on Bloody Disgusting around the time it hit Sundance, so to finally get to watch it was quite a treat.

V/H/S/ is about a group of jackasses that are hired to steal a vhs tape from some old dudes house in the middle of nowhere. However when they arrive and find hundreds of vhs tapes depicting horrifying tales they realize they may have bitten off more than they can handle. V/H/S is a "found footage" and "anthology" which at first sounds like its gonna be a fucking mess, but the film develops a nice pace and before you know it your sucked into the TV.

All together there are 6 shorts in this film (including the main story). While I liked them all, I found some to be more effective than the others. The first and last stories Amateur Night and 10/31/98 were my favorites! I really feel with the time that each story had the respective directors and writers did a fantastic job. My only beef was with the short "Tuesday the 17th" I felt a little empty as far as the story. It left me with questions and I felt it could have been explained better. Regardless, it still found enjoyment in that short, so I am not extremely disappointed. The other 3 stories were good and I really have no criticisms.

The writers and directors Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, and Radio Silence did a great job overall with their respective shorts. I was really impressed with the special effects of Radio Silence's "10/31/98" and David Bruckner's "Amateur Night". While Ti West's "Second Honeymoon" was a bit slow the ending was awesome. It left me with a chill and eerie feeling throughout.

For the gore hounds out there, there is plenty of the red stuff. Throat Stabbings, disembowelment, decapitations, surgical cutting, and plenty other body parts are removed, chewed, and violently torn off. As for the stories themselves I really liked the diversity, I felt there was something for everyone. Slashers, Monsters, Aliens, Demons, Ghosts and more prove that this film is not just a one trick pony. The found footage aspect was a nice tough, I felt like i was 10 years old again watching my favorite splatter pic on vhs again. I will say though that if you have trouble with dizziness, or nausea with handheld films like Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity and those alike that you may want to take an antihistamine or some sort of anti-nausea medication.

Lastly this film is heavy on the nudity! I for one love a nice T&A shot in a movie, but this film is FULL of them. The guys get about 4 or 5 different beautiful pairs, a full frontal, and some nice thong action. But wait thats not all, Ladies you're in for a treat too. The girls get some dudes with their shirts off, a full frontal male, and a couple of butt shots. Everyone wins!

In short V/H/S lived up to the hype for GLP. while a couple of shorts has some flaws, the film as a whole was extremely entertaining. Magnet Releasing did a wonderful job bringing the fans a worthy film, that will surely be a must have for a lot of collectors. GLP gives this effort 5 out of 5 stabs for originality, special effects, and overall badassery! For more information on the film visit the Official Site, and Facebook. Catch this film as soon as you can on-demand because it is scheduled for its theatrical release on October 5th and will probably be removed at that time. View the NSFW Redband trailer below!

GLP Rating