V/H/S Viral

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.

The original VHS was great, VHS 2 was fun and tied in the first one, but I have no clue what the hell they were thinking when they put together this piece of garbage. A couple of the "videos" were mildly entertaining, and the one dealing with the alternate universe had great potential, that was, until the end. I watched this with a group of friends and we found ourselves laughing more than anything and questioning if this was a joke or if we were watching VHS to begin with. I am pretty much writing this review just tell anyone who is remotely interested in seeing this to save your money. If you just can not resist, try to watch it with friends so you can, A) split the price of renting/buying it, and B) enjoy sharing laughs with them at the expense of the ridiculousness of this film. Other than that save your precious time, and money

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.

Coming off of a franchise that I at least enjoyed V/H/S Viral was a massive disappointment! This film feels like nothing more than a cheap parody off of the other two (far superior) films in the franchise. As found footage horror film, the goal is to be scary and/or disturbing using the realism factor of "found footage", something that the first two films pulled off fairly well. Viral takes that film premise and makes a mockery out of it. While V/H/S Viral can be at least "entertaining" at times, I can with certainty tell you that you aren't missing much if you skip this one and stick to the first two.

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!