Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 10 (V/H/S 94)

Alright, here we go, another deadly dance with the found footage franchise. So far, me and the VHS series (I'm not typing it out with all those slashes in the post, deal with it) have had up and downs. The original VHS film was one I did not care for, being real sicknasty towards women with a particular cruelty and straight up just doing one as a goddamn Skype call in a haunted VHS tape movie. VHS 85, on the other hand, kinda ruled. A nice variety of segments, spooky and gross and intriguing, and a movie that did not overstay its welcome. This is a movie with Mexican death gods, technopaganism, and dreams about a serial killer recorded onto analog tape. It's kind of crazy but kind of fun. I was going to give the newest entry, VHS Halloween, this slot. Unfortunately that one is getting sort of mixed reviews, so maybe another year. For now, we picked VHS 94. How is it? It's pretty good. Not quite as good as 85, but nowhere near as dire as the original. Let's talk about it a bit.

This poses a problem, as the segments are all pretty straightforward. With an exception here or there, the presentation and narrative isn't really being fucked with like it was in VHS 85. You kind of get exactly what's on the tin with these four stories and their wraparound, and I don't know how much of this will devolve into a plot summary but we'll find some way to fill out the time together while still being a review and not a glorified Wikipedia. One credit I will give this film over VHS 85 is the fact that its wraparound segment actually has some connection to watching haunted VHS tapes; in 85 it was just some bullshit about a slime monster that had nothing to do with anything and was just "this is the segment which advances further between segments". By contrast, the wraparound here involving a SWAT team investigating a weird building broadcast haunted VHS tapes, surrounded by bodies that have taken their own eyes out, is creepy and weird and builds on the idea that the tapes and segments have power, a dangerous indulgence that you yourself are indulging in. The resolution is a little messy, it just being some sort of fucked up snuff film factory that bashes a guy's head in with a video camera, but it's the thought that counts.

Oddly enough, there is a theme underpinning through at least three of the four segments: madmen who want to alter the status quo of the world in horrific ways. A priest ranting about how the world needs to be cleansed of sinners builds a whole counter religion about a fucked up rat man god thing in the sewers. A mad scientist in Indonesia is creating fucked-up cyborgs in order to either prove his peers wrong or get revenge on them. A far-right militia is planning to kill a bunch of people, take down the current America they see as corrupt, and instill themselves as rulers. If I really wanted to stretch, I could make something of this involving the idea of the End Of History and the "winning" of the Cold War in the 90's, but let's not get too crazy here. This is a found footage movie with rat monsters, face meltings, zombies, vampires, and killer cyborgs. It's kind of shlock, but damn it if it's not entertaining shlock. The only one of these status quo changers arguably winning are the people worshipping ratmen in the first segment; the mad scientist and the soldiers who kill him and then try to kill the cyborgs all get horribly murdered, and the militia? Well, they're complete morons whose scheme hinges on using vampire blood in broad daylight which explodes like a bomb. They get drunk and high and the vampire gets out and kills them all. They're a far-right militia, though, so no great loss there. 

There are some good and fun choices for POV and perspective in this movie, even if some things here and there make no sense, like the news footage in story 1 cutting between the newsroom and the raw camera footage. You kind of have to let shit like that slide, and at least it's taped and not a goddamn video call. The HUD for the poor lady turned into a cyborg in story 3 is really good, a battery life icon slowly draining as shit goes from bad to worse. The second segment with a woman at a wake where the body in the casket breaks out is fun, with multiple camera angles cut between because the wake is being recorded before she takes a camera and we follow it. It's not crazy inventive, but it does work. That could end up being the capsule review for the movie. It's a step above fine for me. Nice and visceral, good and spooky, a solid found footage time. VHS ends up having a 2-1 record so far. Next year we'll see if it can keep up the streak.