V/H/S (2012) Movie Review, Cast & Crew, Film Summary

2012 found footage anthology
Rating: 11/20
Plot: Burglars bust into a house looking for a VHS tape and watch a bunch of disturbing VHS tapes in a room with a dead guy in it.
This has, I think, eight directors who are dicking around with the found footage sub-genre. I consider that to be a guilty pleasure of mine and thought I’d check this out. It kind of works as a horror movie. There are a lot of moments that will make you either jump a little bit or shit your pants (I did both), but none of this makes a lot of sense as either a large story where burglars are watching tapes (Seriously–tapes?) or individual stories within the tapes. There’s some creativity here and some really good special effects, but it just kind of feels like they’re clobbering this found footage thing into the ground. You get a webcam thing, people videotaping themselves on vacation, and a guy wearing glasses with a hidden camera for reasons that aren’t fully explained. The frame story, directed by Adam Wingard, makes very little sense. Why are criminals videotaping their shenanigans–breaking windows and exposing the breasts of women in parking garages? The latter, by the way, isn’t the only excuse to show naked women. Oh, no. It’s actually kind of funny how they find ways to squeeze nudity into each one of these little stories. The stories did manage to keep me interested. There are bat women, lesbianism, fuzzy woods monsters, alien children, and a guy in a bear suit. I just wish the whole thing made a little more sense, and although there are plenty of scary moments, you have to get through a lot of nonsense to get to them. I’d probably recommend this to people who like mindless horror movies, but you don’t want to think about it too much.