As Crônicas do Medo

Listen, the only way to truly enjoy a horror film is in a large, pitch black room with deafening surround sound and a group of people just as scared as you are. Other times, a laptop works too. But I, and a group of about 100 others were privileged to catch the first Canadian premiere of V/H/S presented by the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Enough plugs, onto the film right? My review. See it! If you love horror, if you hate horror, if you think you might like it and wanna try it out, just see it! Without spoiling anything I will say that there are about 5 or 6 anthology stories tied around a main story in which four guys break into a house to look for a specific video tape. They find a lot more, let me tell you. Some of the segments are better than others (trust me, you'll know which ones) but overall, V/H/S is one of the most imaginative, jolting, riveting, heart-beating-outside-of-your-chest-because-its-so-intense horror films of recent time. Fans of Creepshow 1 and 2, Tales From the Darkside, Twilight Zone (the movie) and even Stephen King, if you get the chance to watch V/H/S, do it! It's bloody, it's scary, it's haunting, and if you're anything like me, you'll know it scared you when it's 1:43 in the morning and the only thing you can do to make yourself fall asleep, is to review the film on IMDb.

I love found-footage films, especially when they are done well. I also love horror anthologies withe some of my favourite TV shows being The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Tales From The Darkside. The two joining together for V/H/S was a very exciting idea and gave me very lofty expectations. I was amazed to find that for the most part they were met. V/H/S sees a gang of guys break into a house in order to steal a video cassette for blackmailing purposes. Once in he house they find a huge collection of videos, each one showing a different tale of horror. The first is the story about a couple of girls picked up from a bar and recorded secretly on camera glasses. This is probably the scariest tale with some very disturbing imagery. I still can't get the look of a certain character out of my head. In it's short running time it also hits upon some emotional notes that I wasn't expecting. Perfect effects and nailbiting tension make this a great start. Video number two sees a couple on a road trip who are secretly filmed at night. The idea of an intruder watching you at your most vulnerable is nerve-racking. Story number three was my least favourite but was still mostly effective. It was let down by cheesy dialogue that over explained the details of the plot. The effects here were again very well done with a sickening look at an eyeball sliding out of a socket. Story number 4 is shot through Skype and has the biggest ambitions in terms of plot. I would like to see this again as I didn't enjoy it at first because of a terrible performance from the male lead, but there is a reason for this which makes sense after viewing. The final tale is a haunted house film that builds up incredibly well. It starts with an empty house and moves towards all hell breaking loose with some of the most flawless effects I have ever seen. Each story was interesting and most importantly it kept to the rules of found-footage. Everything appears as though it was done in-camera. It's left me thinking about the stories and getting my imagination to work overtime as not a lot is explained. The only real let down was the wrap-around that tried to connect these stories. It really didn't work and just made the film a bit too long. When I buy this on DVD I am pretty certain I will be skipping those parts. Hope we see a V/H/S 2.

I can understand if you do not like the so-called 'found footage' films, for example; Blair Witch and Cloverfield. I must admit, some of them work, some of them don't. Cloverfield worked for me, but only on the big screen in a cinema. Blair Witch worked for me, but only on a small PC monitor. Some things work better depending on the way you view these things, but also, what works with one person, will not work with another, everybody is different.

With that out of the way, let me honestly try to convince you that my small review on this film is mainly based on its merits, and not just what I enjoy personally.

I think the credit is due to the effort that went behind making this film, because even though each of the video tapes the guys find and watch are very strange and hard to swallow, they have genuinely tried hard to convey a sense of realism.

But it also helps if the viewer made a little effort, and suspended your disbelief in order to get into the film. Some people can do this easier than others. If your a horror fan, this will entertain at the very least. Each of the five found tapes start off innocently enough like home movies, but each one reveals shocking footage of something strange or unravels into a horrifying ordeal. It reminded me of 'Tales of the unexpected' or 'The Twilight Zone' but with the use of a hand-held camera instead.

Again, it'll either work for you or it wont. But the makers of this film tried hard and kudos to them. The effects were great, the acting was as expected, just as in any 'found footage', if its going to convey realism, its NOT going to have Oscar worthy acting, don't forget these are meant to be 'real' people. And the stories behind each tape were all entertaining.

In the end then, before you watch it, heres some top tips; Turn the lights out. Keep telling yourself that what you are watching is 'real'. Open your mind. And enjoy.

What's your initial reaction to "Found footage Anthology" or found footage in general? That should give you a bit of a clue, if you should watch this or not. One thing is for sure, if an Anthology movie is only as good as it's weakest link/story, than this would be really bad (the story covering the whole thing is tedious, boring and annoying at best)! But I don't think that it would do the short movies justice that accompany the movie.

I actually enjoyed most of them. They don't make sense as usual when it comes to Found Footage (why would they film that again? The who cut/edited them is either easy to answer or makes even less sense, depending on the way you look at it), but the stories themselves are mostly decent. Acting is good to OK (apart from the "covering" overall story as mentioned) and the scares are decent too. I still don't get the fascination with Found footage and I sure can't tell you why this spawned a sequel ...

Arranged around and within a tenuous wraparound home invasion scenario, the vignettes that comprise this shakycam shocker prove memorably effective, each lulling the viewer into a false sense of security via meanderingly mundane set-ups that abruptly shift to more unnerving, visceral territory. Old tropes such as alien interference, haunted houses, serial killers, and femmes fatales find themselves fed through the lens of the hand-held camera to rather impressive effect. The overall picture painted by these series of snuff flicks-within-a-flick is one of a world sporadically at the mercy of an otherworldly array of entities, with the glaring unremarkability of its setting serving to amplify, rather than undermine, the atmosphere of cosmic malevolence. All these elements amount to a punchy anthology which succeeds in overriding my antipathy toward the dreaded jittercam technique - no mean feat!