Video on Demand — August 2012
Video pick of the month
V/H/S
Through six found-footage-style shorts, each by different directors, V/H/S captures many of the classic horror tropes while avoiding feeling stale and formulaic. Adam Wingard’s Tape 56, which sees a group of guys break into a dilapidated house to find a particular VHS tape, serves as a framing narrative in which the other five chapters of the anthology unfold. From the visceral scares of David Bruckner’s Amateur Night to the slow-broiling tension of Ti West’s Second Honeymoon, these shorts cover a multitude of tones and genres (from slasher to haunted house) while maintaining a cohesive thematic bent. In a shooting style and narrative structure that easily could’ve fallen flat, V/H/S manages to become one of the more creative, enjoyable, and scary horror movies in recent memory. (Billy Brennan)
