This is an anthology of six short horror movies. Five of
them are stories within the central tale. They range from the truly bone
chilling and mind numbing to the ridiculous.
Three guys spend their time shooting videos for porn sites. They
grab women, tear off their clothes and film the exposed body parts. They are
hired to steal a V/H/S tape from a person. However, on reaching their
destination, they find a dead body and a cache of these tapes. One of them
begins viewing the tapes while the others go out to search the house. The tapes have on then stuff which is
positively mind-fucking.
For me, the best segment was the first. Three college guys go bar hopping to pick up
girls. The nerdy looking dude has these glasses which have in built camera in
them. The story is told from his P.O.V.
The horror is sprung suddenly on the unwary viewer. The end is
absolutely fantastic. At the end of the segment, I was practically kicking
myself for not viewing this earlier as I have had this movie for nearly six
months.
The second segment is about a couple who are on a holiday. Their
stay in the hotel turns into something terrifying when a young girl shows up
one day asking for a lift.
The third segment shows four people going to a cabin in the
woods. There is a legend of a killer who used to operate in the area. Is he
still around?
A girl is chatting with her boyfriend/fiancée on Skype. Some ghostly entity is visiting her at night.
There is a mysterious bump on her hand. She starts showing him the ghostly
manifestations using Skype.
Four guys go to a Halloween party. However, the house is
empty. Thinking it as a prank they go to the top of the house from where some
muffled moans are coming. What do they find there?
The last segment shows the date as 1998 which gives a valid
reason for it to be recorded on tape and not a CD/DVD. It is kind of stupid to
assume that someone would keep a Skype chat on V/H/S .But if one stops
nitpicking about these small technicalities and immerses himself in the
experience, he would not be disappointed.
The majority of the stories are novel twists on old themes. The
way they lure the viewer into a sense of complacency and then unleash doom is
unsettling.
This would have been a terrific horror classic if one or two
segments would have been chopped off and there would have been a better end to
the central story. The promise of the first segment is squandered away by the
succeeding ones. However, this is a far cry from the pedestrian Evil Dead and I
loved it for the twisted ways the stories unfolded.
I read that the sequel is out and has garnered
extraordinarily good reviews for a shoe string budget horror anthology. I can’t wait to check it out.
I recommend this to the viewer who has had his patience stretched
thin by the recent crop of so called terrifying movies. Kindly watch this. May be
an iota of your lost faith in this genre would be restored.
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