After watching V/H/S, the first Horror Anthology in this series, I was a bit apprehensive about watching this one. Not only because such serial movies tend to become repetitive, losing the novelty of the first one. But also due to the fact that the first movie did not impress me so much. Yet, I decided to give this one a try. And I can't say I was disappointed. Not that this movie was very impressive or ground-breaking or anything. For it suffers from the same handicaps that the first movie did. But it also scores as good as the first one for exploring some original ideas.
Just like the first movie, this too is an anthology of horror short films, each one directed by a different director, and each one exploring an individual unrelated story. Each short film uses the now well-worn found-footage format. And one of the shorts is used as a frame narrative, which also acts as an individual story on its own.
The movie starts off with "Tape 49" directed by Simon Barrett. This one acts as a frame narrative, within which the other stories take place. It tells the story of a P.I. who has been commissioned by a college student's mother to investigate her son's disappearance. While searching through the abandoned and dark home of the college student, they stumble upon a series of VHS tapes. While the P.I. search the house, his colleague plays the tapes to get a clue as to the missing student's whereabouts. This frame narrative story is even more drab and mediocre than the frame narrative story of the first movie. It tries to explain how viewing the tapes can lead to disastrous circumstances (duh!). There are hardly any surprises and shocks. The story is uninspired. The direction appears awkward. On the whole, I personally did not like it very much.
The next story is "Phase I Clinical Trials" directed by Adam Wingard. There is one thing I really liked about the first movie. That is the use of various types of hidden cams, including a spy cam on eye-glasses. This movie takes a giant leap further in that regard. For example, in this story, the hidden camera is located within the eye-implant of the protagonist. Neat, huh!? A guy, who has nearly lost his vision of one of his eyes in an accident, is fitted with an artificial implant that will help him see again from his impaired eye. It is an experimental device and hence the company will be capturing the footage of whatever the man views through his eye and saving it for a few days, for testing purpose only. But guess what? The guy starts seeing people that aren't supposed to be there... The premise of the story is pretty interesting. Its jolts and shocks are effective enough. So is some of the explanation that comes forward in the form of a girl who comes to the protagonist's help. On the whole, this story was quite better as compared to the other stories in the lot...
The next one is "A Ride in the Park" directed by Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale. It is a short story about horror that takes place inside some sort of national park. Its a zombie story (which is not surprising considering that the Z-word is the new magic buzz-word in Horror movies nowadays, isn't it?). There is one area in which this movie pushes the boundaries of the shaky camera genre even further - that area being, the placement of the camera. In this short story, the camera is located on the helmet of a cyclist who has turned into a zombie. Apart from this very novel idea and an excessive amount of blood, gore and disemboweled zombies, this short film doesn't have anything interesting.
The next one is "Safe Haven" directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans. This one is Indonasian. It is also the longest story in the batch. And personally, I think it is the best one in the anthology. A news crew approaches the "father" of a reclusive religious cult. They are invited to interview him and visit the cult's abode. What they discover there makes a pretty interesting good old-fashioned traditional horror tale.
The last story is named "Slumber Party" directed by Jason Eisener. It is about a slumber party held by a bunch of kids at their home - an open property complete with a barn - near a big lake. There is sibling rivalry and fun and frolic. All is going well until they spot unusual lights on the lake. This one is the most uninteresting story of the lot. Except for one novel innovation. The hidden camera that captures most of the footage of the episode is mounted by one kid on the head of their pet dog!
This movie certainly scores points for pushing the frontiers of the shaky camera sub-genre beyond what its predecessor did. And it loses some points for a few script as well as directorial failures similar to ones evident in some of the stories from the first movie. It has a lot of unnecessary blood and gore and a couple of unnecessary sexually explicit scenes. But some of its stories are so good that they make it a worthwhile watch, at least once, if not more.
Just like the first movie, this too is an anthology of horror short films, each one directed by a different director, and each one exploring an individual unrelated story. Each short film uses the now well-worn found-footage format. And one of the shorts is used as a frame narrative, which also acts as an individual story on its own.
The movie starts off with "Tape 49" directed by Simon Barrett. This one acts as a frame narrative, within which the other stories take place. It tells the story of a P.I. who has been commissioned by a college student's mother to investigate her son's disappearance. While searching through the abandoned and dark home of the college student, they stumble upon a series of VHS tapes. While the P.I. search the house, his colleague plays the tapes to get a clue as to the missing student's whereabouts. This frame narrative story is even more drab and mediocre than the frame narrative story of the first movie. It tries to explain how viewing the tapes can lead to disastrous circumstances (duh!). There are hardly any surprises and shocks. The story is uninspired. The direction appears awkward. On the whole, I personally did not like it very much.
The next story is "Phase I Clinical Trials" directed by Adam Wingard. There is one thing I really liked about the first movie. That is the use of various types of hidden cams, including a spy cam on eye-glasses. This movie takes a giant leap further in that regard. For example, in this story, the hidden camera is located within the eye-implant of the protagonist. Neat, huh!? A guy, who has nearly lost his vision of one of his eyes in an accident, is fitted with an artificial implant that will help him see again from his impaired eye. It is an experimental device and hence the company will be capturing the footage of whatever the man views through his eye and saving it for a few days, for testing purpose only. But guess what? The guy starts seeing people that aren't supposed to be there... The premise of the story is pretty interesting. Its jolts and shocks are effective enough. So is some of the explanation that comes forward in the form of a girl who comes to the protagonist's help. On the whole, this story was quite better as compared to the other stories in the lot...
The next one is "A Ride in the Park" directed by Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale. It is a short story about horror that takes place inside some sort of national park. Its a zombie story (which is not surprising considering that the Z-word is the new magic buzz-word in Horror movies nowadays, isn't it?). There is one area in which this movie pushes the boundaries of the shaky camera genre even further - that area being, the placement of the camera. In this short story, the camera is located on the helmet of a cyclist who has turned into a zombie. Apart from this very novel idea and an excessive amount of blood, gore and disemboweled zombies, this short film doesn't have anything interesting.
The next one is "Safe Haven" directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans. This one is Indonasian. It is also the longest story in the batch. And personally, I think it is the best one in the anthology. A news crew approaches the "father" of a reclusive religious cult. They are invited to interview him and visit the cult's abode. What they discover there makes a pretty interesting good old-fashioned traditional horror tale.
The last story is named "Slumber Party" directed by Jason Eisener. It is about a slumber party held by a bunch of kids at their home - an open property complete with a barn - near a big lake. There is sibling rivalry and fun and frolic. All is going well until they spot unusual lights on the lake. This one is the most uninteresting story of the lot. Except for one novel innovation. The hidden camera that captures most of the footage of the episode is mounted by one kid on the head of their pet dog!
This movie certainly scores points for pushing the frontiers of the shaky camera sub-genre beyond what its predecessor did. And it loses some points for a few script as well as directorial failures similar to ones evident in some of the stories from the first movie. It has a lot of unnecessary blood and gore and a couple of unnecessary sexually explicit scenes. But some of its stories are so good that they make it a worthwhile watch, at least once, if not more.
My Ratings: 2
No comments:
Post a Comment