V/H/S (2012) review

(7/10)

I've heard many mixed reviews for this one, but in the end, I believe it to be a pretty good horror anthology. It definitely isn't the best and is very flawed, but it entertained.

PLOT:This group of friends make money off doing bad things and putting them on film for others to see, such as breaking into houses and molesting women. However, one night they're asked to do a job where they break in a house and steal one VHS tape. They break in and find upstairs an old man's corpse surrounded by TV's and VHS tapes. One by one they choose to go through them, not knowing what's on the tape. What they find is horrifying footage of a date with buddies gone wrong, a second honeymoon with mysterious results, a trip to a peculiar lake with a bunch of friends, a webchat session between boy-and-girl gone wrong, and a Halloween night in peril. It's a decent plot executed decently.



ACTING:The acting in here wasn't the best I've seen and was kind of hit-or-miss, but some of it was actually good. The best performances I believe were Joe Swanberg as Sam, Sophia Takei as Stephanie, Calvin Reeder as Gary, Helen Rogers as Emily, Hannah Fierman as Lily, Mike Donlan as Shane, and Norma C. Quinones as Wendy, as well as other actors I can't place the name of. Most of the time, however, it depended on the moment.

EFFECTS:There wasn't really any score, so I'll move on to effects. The effects in here were pretty cool. They weren't totally realistic, but they looked really cool. The best effects would have to be in the first video (even if they were unrealistic) or the third video. The worst were definitely in the fourth video.



OTHER CONTENT:This wasn't as bad as some people say it was, but it also wasn't as good as some people thought it was. Besides the hit-or-miss acting and the unrealistic effects, this really didn't have any character development in any of the shorts. The characters are really one-dimensional and almost don't matter unless it's by their one personality trait that's dominant. Also, the execution in some of the shorts is really hit-or-miss. The first video? Great. The second? Okay. The third? Not so much. The fourth? Decent. The fifth? Good. The overall execution? Just enough to be decent. I believe a lot more could have been done to make this better, but it still has some positives. This succeeds to build suspense for certain scares so you don't know what will happen, and the scares are pretty shocking when they do come. The execution needs some work, but otherwise it's pretty good. It's definitely a stereotypical horror movie (blood, guts, jump scares, swearing, drugs, sex), but it does some of it oh-so-right.

OVERALL,a good horror anthology with a decent plot, some good but hit-or-miss acting, cool but unrealistic effects, little character development at all, execution problems, suspenseful moments, good scares, and the stereotypes of a horror movie.