Directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti
West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, “Radio Silence.”
2012. Rated R, 116 minutes.
Cast:
Calvin Reeder
Adam Wingard
Kentucker Audley
Sarah Byrne
Hannah Fierman
Mike Donlan
Frank Stack
A group of wayward twenty-somethings are having fun filming
themselves attacking women in parking garages and forcefully exposing their
breasts to the camera. Their mothers must be proud. Anyhoo, sales of these
videos aren't as lucrative as they’d like. One of them knows about a VHS tape
they would be paid handsomely for. Of course, they have to break into someone’s
house and steal it. Once there, they discover a dead body and an extensive
library of unmarked videotapes to rummage through, spread throughout the house.
Of course, only one of these bozos has enough sense to press play on the VCR,
even though the TV is already on. While his buddies are digging around in the
various piles of tapes, he sits and watches. We watch along with occasional
breaks to see how the boys are doing.
Essentially, V/H/S is a collection of
vignettes whose only link is that they appear to be on the same tape and that
one of the characters is watching them. On top of that, what’s going on in the
house where he and his buddies are amounts to another vignette. Therefore,
looking for a unifying theme is pointless, unless you count the fact that
they’re all twisted. At that, each succeeds. To achieve this we get a vampire
(something like a vampire), aliens, and “regular” folk.
Surprisingly, almost all of the shorts work wonderfully.
None of them have a plot, per se, they’re more like little slices of the end of
life. Very bloody, violent ends. As stated, they’re mostly bent on making you
use some variation of the phrase “that’s messed up,” and they do.
Perhaps most notable is that it manages to put a new spin on
the found footage sub-genre. Like all the rest of these type of movies, it’s
heavily influenced by The Blair Witch Project.” It marries this with
its love for other anthologies to give us something that feels fresh and
completely unrestrained. Each vignette stretches long enough so we’re never
quite sure where things are going. When they get there, our inner sadists will
be quite pleased.
MY SCORE: 7/10
Man, you and I are on point with these horror reviews. Completely agree with what you said here.
ReplyDeleteSeen the sequel? That one didn't work for me at all, save Gareth Evans' segment.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen the sequel yet. Soon, I hope. Thanks for the feedback!
ReplyDelete