V/H/S Viral

First I'd like to say, as with any horror film, the less you know about the film going in the better it will be. For those wondering if they should spend their money on this. I would say wait for Netflix, IMO it does not live up to the previous VHS movies, and actually seems to lose what the unique premise was. I love VHS and I liked VHS 2 a good bit, but this feels like a drop off of sorts. If VHS was a 9 and VHS 2 was a 7.5 then VHS Viral is probably an average of 5.5 (but the second segment is a MUST SEE).

The previous 2 movies have gotten many talented young horror film makers and collectives together to make interesting short films. VHS was probably my favorite horror film of 2012, some of the shorts fell flat (static monster and connecting story) but most of the others are really amazing, especially the last. VHS 2 lacked some of the originality but still felt like a solid horror film. VHS Viral just feels like it lacks the same vision and direction that VHS 1 and 2 had.

Whether you like it or hate it VHS is built around the idea of playing with portable cameras, experimenting with the "found footage" horror sub-genre, and really presenting a horror film from the POV of those going through it. It is basically like a haunted house on film, some with interesting stories and ideas. VHS 2 didn't really revolutionize anything but was still interesting. It stuck with the premise and kept it going in interesting ways. Probably my biggest issue with VHS Viral is that it ostensibly completely drops the found footage premise, but still sticks with the found footage type editing and shooting. This breaks the immersion, which is The whole point of found footage stuff.

As you can tell I didn't like the movie for the most part. The second segment is the ONLY reason it even has 4 stars out of 10. Ultimately though I am disappointed because they didn't really try anything interesting with the found footage format, especially the way that the previous 2 films did. Also 3 segments feels too short, even though this film has a lot of filler.

Why are people hating on this movie? They're getting basically what they got in the first film! A series of incoherent found footage films strung together with a premise slimmer than an anorexic's g-string!

It really isn't any better or any worse than the other films in the series. It may be the weakest yet it still has something to offer. You've got one great film, Parallel Monsters, very spooky, very trippy. One pretty good film that slowly grows on you, Bonestorm, which is saying something, since I really hate skateboarders. One highly mediocre film, Dante the Great, that's like something out of a lame SyFy Channel movie yet still watchable, and the wrap around film to tie it altogether, (the not so) Vicious Circles, the weakest of the bunch.

Plus there's a short and incoherent section of what looks like a bunch of Latino gangbangers having a party and one vato flips out and slaughters them all for no apparent reason. Weird. Loco.

And there's a gratuitous helping of cringe inducing gore, i.e. a man being dragged to pieces from a moving truck.

You're never getting a masterpiece of horror from the V/H/S movies, you're getting what's expected. One annoyance is the opening segment uses far too much feedback noise, a little of that goes a long way.

Free your mind and watch it for what it is, something to see and enjoy once and forget it! There's no classics to be found here! Adios, pendejos!

This movie was utterly disappointing.

Most of the movie includes an over-saturation of CGI effects and unnecessary action. The plot line did not make much sense at all and left me more bewildered than interested; adding to my disinterest was the terribly written dialogue of our wildly underdeveloped main characters. There are also a lot of forced scenes to progress the plot and just like this movie, they were all over the place.

I was also saddened to see this movie shy away from what made it successful: Fear. There are almost no scenes in this entire movie that makes me jump and the intensity in this movie is just lost.

VHS2 is one of the best horror films I've seen in recent memory. It tightened the overlong editing of the first movie and added genuinely creepy moments. I was looking forward to watching VHS: Viral after seeing VHS2, because I thought they'd gotten a solid pattern down. But no.

No, instead you get skateboarding teens looking "totally rad" while fighting a group of cultists (seriously.) And then, after fending off the angry mob, the 15-year-old boys skate home.

VHS: Viral offers four stories: the magician story, the multi-universe story, the aforementioned skateboarding brats yarn, and a wraparound that ties all these vignettes together. These stories all stink except for "Parallel Monsters," which is good enough to warrant its own film.

If you can, watch "Parallel Monsters" without wasting your time with the rest of this sequel.

So I understand the concept behind these V/H/S movies: An anthology film with a wraparound story, and none of the stories really fully developed or explain much further than what the viewer sees. I'm OK with that and actually find it to be a fun idea. We also see the same concept in the ABC's of Death anthology films. The only downside is that we never get a full grasp of the segments. Granted, some leave a lot to the imagination of the viewer, but some are so vague its hard to piece together. The first two V/H/S films were no gems, but each had 2 or so segments that stood out and actually engaged us while the others tended to disappoint. This new film continued that trend. the downside is that there were only 3 segments this time (not including the wraparound) which I found highly disappointing.

The wraparound was utterly boring and uninteresting. I get the irony of the guy wanting to go viral, but the tie-in at the end was confusing and forgettable.

Dante the Great was cheesy and added no horror value. Some of the visuals with the cloak were cool while some were low-budget. A power-obsessed redneck magician is just not an appealing story.

Bonestorm was absolutely annoying. The shaky go-pro cams and the characters "bottom or the barrel" personalities gave me nothing to root for. There was just nothing there for me to grasp or understand to make this engaging

Gorgeous Vortex was the only gem of this film. The ability to travel into an alternate universe and switch sides with your counterpart was pretty cool. The subtle differences they start off with only gives you clues that this isn't just a reflected world, but that something very strange and evil was happening. The only downside of this segment was that we wanted to see the main character explore the rest of the world even though he can't because of time. Also, the realization of the horror of this segment might seemed far- fetched to some, but I think it was an interesting add to make it that much weirder.

All in all, one good segment cannot carry an entire movie whether it has 6, 26, or in this case 4 stories. I hope this series continues because they are fun....and now I expect them every year, but they are going to have to hold their writers to stricter script ideas and lay off too much independence because thing can get cheesy really quickly!