V/H/S

V/H/S, 9/10. Gory, fun and inventive - if flawed - portmanteau horror pic shot in the cinéma vérité (Cloverfield, [REC], The Blair Witch Project) style. Like all anthology pieces, some ideas work better than others but V/H/S is packed with good stuff, containing as it does six "stories" (including the wraparound segment that tenuously links them all), each directed by a different up-and-coming bright young thing in horror movies. The wraparound story is by far the worst, and bizarrely it wraps up second-to-last, but still: a bunch of petty-criminal ****ers, presently making small-but-quick…

Creeper Compendium. The horror anthology has a chequered history, some are bad but saved by one great segment, others boast a couple of genuine creepers but are undone by one instalment so bad it tarnishes the film forever. And on it goes. V/H/S brings the format into the new age by unfolding its tales by wrapping around the latest craze of found footage. Six indie directors have produced a picture that was well received at Sundance but has proved to be most divisive with critics and horror fans on internet forums. This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows their horror anthology…

Anthologies are, by their very nature, pretty mixed. And found footage horror is not my kettle o' fish. So a found footage horror anthology did not have me ecstatic. I actually didn't mind _V/H/S_ though, this was actually better than a loot of the found footage stuff I've seen, even if they do lean hard into the most annoying things about it, say for instance, video quality, which is (intentionally) abysmal. The framing device didn't work for me though, like, at all. I was very confused, and even if I hadn't been, I wasn't engaged by it at all. Which is a real shame, because I am…

77/100 This anthology centers around a gang of thugs breaking into a home to steal a specific VHS tape. What they find is a lot of tapes and when they start viewing them, things fall apart. The five stories, plus the wrap-around story are intriguing, frightening and disturbing. All made with hand held (or similar) cameras (including one made entirely from webcams), the stories feature a different director and writer for each providing us with some very unique and disturbing visions. This is good stuff! -- DrNostromo.com