VHS 2 released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 24th from Magnolia Home Entertainment
It has become popular to dislike VHS, the first installment of the VHS found footage horror anthology franchise. Found footage movies are wearing out their welcome, a bit of a misogynist streak seemingly running throughout the first film… yeah, I can understand the rising dislike aimed at that first installment. Interestingly, I feel that most people enjoy VHS 2 significantly more than that first installment, in spite of an even more protracted revolt against found footage films that seems to be rising among the geeks. I’ve now seen both installments and have come to a conclusion: These are simply audience films. Some segments in both films work better than others. But when I first saw VHS in a midnight audience at South By Southwest I went nuts for the film. I was scared and thrilled and the anthology felt like something fresh and frightening. On a second viewing at home with one friend… we ended up much less impressed. VHS 2 played like gangbusters with a group of friends but on my second viewing, just me and the Blu-ray, a lot of the magic wore off. I’m all for a third installment in this fun and inexpensive series… but I’m going to make sure to watch it with a large group to have the maximum fun that these films can offer.
So what about some of my specific thoughts on the second film? As with the first movie, the concept of watching VHS 2 on Blu-ray is sort of antithetical. This is a low-res, dirty, low-budgeted anthology. High definition is something I love, but the aesthetic of these films just doesn’t call for it. The cheapness and “Go-Pro-i-ness” of the whole thing stands out awkwardly throughout this installation when viewed in high def. VHS 2 does have the benefit of having one less short film in it, so that you get a wrap-around story and four shorts that make up the feature length movie.
The Wrap-around: Tape 49, Dir. Simon Barret
Better than the first installment’s wrap-around by far, this still manages to be the least interesting portion of VHS 2. It has the disadvantage of existing solely to string together the “main event”, the four short films that will be found on the VHS tapes inside this wrap-around. There’s not much to it: some private investigators go looking for a missing student, break into his home, discover a bunch of mysterious VHS tapes, and (for some reason) watch them. Some bad things happen, but who cares? I’m in this for the shorts.
Phase 1 Clinical Trials, Dir. Adam Wingard
My sense is that this is the least popular of the four actual short films amongst the geeks that I’ve talked with, but I find it to be serviceable-to-fun. The basic premise is perhaps cooler than the actual execution of the story. Wingard himself plays the lead who has gotten an ocular implant which causes him to begin seeing the dead. And once he begins to see the dead, there’s no going back. Captured entirely through the camera supposedly embedded in Wingard’s eye, there are some fun shots and scares achieved because of the very “first person” element to this story. But a second viewing took a lot of the edge off and the ghosts looked more cheesy and uninspired to me. That said, there’s a beautiful girl, quite a few big jump scares, and an overall fun premise.
A Ride In The Park, Dir. Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale
One of the directors of The Blair Witch Project somehow manages to breathe new life into a straightforward zombie story. It’s amazing what a go-pro camera can do. I would never want to see a feature film from the perspective of a zombie. (At least I don’t think I want to see that…) But as a short film, Sanchez and Hale attach a go-pro to a mountain biker’s helmet and let an isolated zombie outbreak loose on this poor soul. We get to see it all from his helmet-mounted camera and it is gross and fun and tricky and even a little bit sad. When it comes to smart execution of a simple idea, A Ride In The Park scores big.
Safe Haven, Dir. Gareth Evans and Timo Tjahjanto
Undoubtedly the centerpiece to this whole anthology, Safe Haven brings a much-needed international flavor to the series with this Indonesia-set descent into hell within a labyrinthine cult compound. Evans (The Raid) teams with Tjahjanto and centers his story around a documentary crew who are allowed access to a secretive sect’s holy grounds. Too bad for everyone involved “The Father” of this cult has timed this visit perfectly with the arrival of a terrifying and insane-looking goat-demon-centaur-monster-baby. This short has to be seen to be believed.
Slumber Party Alien Abduction, Dir. Jason Eisener
Jason Eisener injects an irreverent sense of humor into all of his work and here in this short film there is a wistful and authentic peek into a bunch of unsupervised teens’ antics at a lake house before the titular aliens show up. The slumber party is a ton of fun and the aliens look pretty great as well. Those elements are enough for me to enjoy this short as well as the unique lake-based alien/UFO angle. The found footage gimmick Eisener uses is to attach the camera to the family dog and tell the story through that perspective and I found this to be unsuccessful more often than not. But that issue doesn’t derail the fun of the rest of the short.
The Package
All anthology films have stronger and weaker entries and VHS 2 is no exception. The wrap-around feels mandatory and Safe Haven is just so wondrously messed up that it casts a long shadow over the other shorts. But in the bonus features of the Blu-ray the filmmakers get their chance to offer commentary over their shorts and this is a great equalizer. Maybe the final products vary, but the ingenuity of how the shorts were conceived and captured on film are very interesting. I would recommend the commentary track here as a particularly engaging one. There are also some extremely brief featurettes based around each short and a slightly longer featurette about the overall film itself. These are pretty much throw aways.
The VHS franchise is about having fun and letting talented young filmmakers do creative things on small budgets. Horror fans should all give VHS 2 a rent if they can still stomach found footage and enjoyed the first one. Folks who already know they are into it should definitely pick up the Blu-ray for a really great commentary.
And I’m Out.