V/H/S Viral

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!

This movie is so awful it put me in a bad mood. Stay away, and I say this as a guy with an original VHS poser.

The wraparound story tries to break formula but ends up being a mess. I'm fine with a mess if it's entertaining or scary, but this felt like it was shot in a weekend.

The first story doesn't feel like it belongs in a VHS movie and the tone doesn't match. It's something your mom would like.

The middle story starts out promising but manages to feel like a parody of itself by the end. My favorite (?) of the bunch.

The third story feels like it should be airing on MTV in 2003.

Another bummer is that the directors have done good movies (Resolution and Timecrimes), I don't know how they lost their mojo here.

Also, there are only three stories. I'm cool with a shorter movie if it's a better movie, but they cut the fourth. People speculate bit was axed because it was so bad. How terrible must it have been to be left out of this limp, toothless pile?

Any soul, any scary or funny from the first two is not here. Avoid.

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.

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.