V/H/S - MIFF 2012

As much of a fan of horror films that I am, I have never really liked the found footage or P.O.V subgenre that has become so popular amongst filmmakers today.  The reason for their popularity is obvious because this style of the film is very cheap to make, and even if you have limited resources, you can use what you have got.  However despite the glut of product, there are very few found footage films that are actually what you would consider good or scary.  According to the majority of the horror websites that I regularly frequent, “V/H/S” is some kind of saviour for these kinds of films, as it is reportedly very clever and incredibly scary, and has been made by some well known horror talent like Ti West, Adam Wingard and Joe Swanberg, to name a few.

The film is about a group of twenty-something guys who have been paid to break into an old man’s house and steal a particular video – they will know it when they see it.  The problem is when they get into the house there are so many video tapes that they don’t know which one it is, so they start watching them to find out what is on each tape.  To add to the creep factor, in the video room lounged in a chair is the corpse of the old man.  Each time a new tape is played we are witness to a new found footage style short.  Each story starts off relatively normal, like friends going clubbing, a couple on a holiday, that sort of thing, before they each end in a strange and horrific twist, be it supernatural or violent.

Personally I have no idea how this film has received the hype that it has because I thought that it was terrible, a complete waste of time.  Actually I do have some idea why the film has generated so much positive online press and that is because the man behind the “Bloody Disgusting” website, Brad Miska, was heavily involved in the production of “V/H/S”.  Good on him for that, it is good seeing someone involved in the horror community actually contributing to it, but sadly I thought the film was woeful and certainly not worthy of any praise.

It was terrible written and performed and the use of obvious and poor CGI in some segments destroyed the sense of reality that the creators were attempting to achieve by this type of film.  When it comes to the twists as well, they were all incredibly lame.  One short that is set in a forest was so terrible it seriously was one of the most embarrassing things that I have ever seen and I feel it definitely needed to be cut from the film.

As far as positives go, there are very few, but I thought the short presented on Skype had a few good moments (let down by its inept ending), and Ti West’s non-supernatural segment was probably the best, but it is still easily his worst work to date.

Sadly I have very little to say about “V/H/S”, at least in a positive format, it was a complete waste of time and an utter disappointment.  Avoid at all costs.

1 Star.