‘V/H/S’
Release Date: Oct. 5, 2012
Director: Glenn McQuaid, Ti West, Joe Swanberg, David Bruckner and Adam Wingard
Starring: Sophia Takal, Joe Swanberg and Kate Lyn Sheil
Genre: Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Rating: R for pervasive language, graphic nudity, bloody violence, some drug use and strong sexuality.
Grade: A
Ti West’s “Second Honeymoon.” Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
The thing that is particularly great about “V/H/S” is the short story format: it is comprised of five completely unrelated horror vignettes of all styles ranging from the supernatural to typical slasher killers. Each individual story is interesting in its own way, and the time frame is just enough to make them captivating and creepy without going overboard and ruining it. I have a difficult time choosing a favorite, but I love the title of Joe Swanberg’s offering, “The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger.” The worst part of the film is the attempt at an overarching narrative to tie all of the stories together. The continuing storyline is uninteresting, distracting and unnecessary.
‘The Theatre Bizarre’
Release Date: Jan. 27, 2012
Director: Buddy Giovinazzo, Tom Savini, Jeremy Kasten, Richard Stanley and David Gregory
Starring: Udo Kier, Virginia Newcomb and Amanda Marquardt
Genre: Horror
Rating: Not Rated
Grade: F
Photo courtesy of Severin Films.
“The Theatre Bizarre” was a big disappointment. The film is an anthology of six short stories tied together with a semi-interesting, somewhat-creepy overarching narrative. Only two of the six are at all tolerable: “I Love You” and “The Accident,” although neither of which could be considered at all scary, and “The Accident” is certainly not horror. The rest of the poorly-written, poorly-acted stories seem to fight incredibly hard to be considered the worst of the bunch. In “Mother of Toads,” a guy goes to an old French woman’s house to read The Necronomicon because why not and then proceeds to have sex with a giant toad monster. What the fuck. “Vision Stains” is too preachy; “Sweets” tries way too hard to be esoteric; “Wet Dreams” is awfully boring, and considering there’s a shot of a giant insect’s pinchers protruding from a vagina, that’s quite a feat.
‘V/H/S 2’
Release Date: July 12, 2013
Director: Gregg Hale, Eduardo Sanchez, Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard and Jason Eisener
Starring: Kelsy Abbott, Lawrence Levine and Adam Wingard
Genre: Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Rating: Not Rated
Grade: D
Gareth Huw Evans and Timo Tjahjanto’s “Safe Haven.” Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
Since I enjoyed the first “V/H/S” movie and love the horror anthology format, I was excited to give this sequel a try. However, it turned out to be a letdown. Seemed promising at first: the overarching narrative this time follows a private investigator and his girlfriend who find a collection of creepy VHS tapes in a college student’s apartment while on the job. This narrative is a lot stronger and more compelling than that of the first “V/H/S” movie. Where this one goes wrong, however, is with the ensuing short stories. More supernatural than the stories in the first film, these come off hokey and aren’t scary. “Safe Haven,” about an Indonesian cult, would have been a great story had it stuck to one idea, but it instead devolves into silliness when it reveals a demonic creature that just looks like a puppet on a stick. The only good story was “A Ride in the Park,” which employs innovative filming techniques to tell of a zombie apocalypse from a unique perspective.
‘Little Deaths’
Release Date: March 11, 2011
Director: Simon Rumley, Andrew Parkinson and Sean Hogan
Starring: Holly Lucas, Jodie Jameson and Kate Braithwaite
Genre: Horror
Rating: Not Rated
Grade: B
Simon Rumley’s “Bitch.” Photo courtesy of Imagination Worldwide/Image Entertainment.
“Little Deaths,” a UK horror anthology, immediately starts off on the right foot by not attempting to tie its three unrelated stories together with an overall narrative. The pièce de résistance of the set is the third offering, “Bitch,” because it features a sadistic woman with a pushover boyfriend, kinky sexual deviancy and some mysterious, creeping fear. I wasn’t crazy about the ending, but I really appreciate the depravity. The other two stories are less impressive but pretty good nonetheless. The first, “House and Home,” begins effectively menacingly, but it allows for a rather goofy twist ending. The second, “Mutant Tool,” is quite interesting and if not a bit convoluted. Altogether, “Little Deaths” is a pretty solid anthology, and I wish there had been room for a few more stories.
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