The found footage genre popularized by The Blair Witch Project (and copied by innumerable horror movies ever since) receives the anthology treatment in this low-budget effort, which offers five short films by different directors, with a wraparound story to loosely tie them together. The linking segment has four goons being hired to break into a house to retrieve a VHS tape; once inside, the quartet stumble on a dead body and roomfuls of videocassettes—ultimately examining five. The first shows three friends taking a girl to their motel room, only to discover that she has a strange taste for human flesh. The second concerns a young couple followed during their cross-country drive by someone or something, and the third finds a quartet of teenagers going off into the woods to visit a lake where a mass murder occurred years before (which we know is never a good idea). The fourth is a tale told entirely via video conferences between a young woman who's suffering from odd physical problems—while also harboring suspicions about an intruder—and her best friend, a med student. In the closer, four young guys attend a Halloween party where the action isn't all in fun. V/H/S suffers from tired tropes—including extreme shaky-cam and fuzzy blackouts—while the payoffs generally fall flat. Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by the cast and crew, cast and crew interviews (29 min.), webcam interviews (14 min.), an ASX TV behind-the-scenes featurette (5 min.), a “More Tuesday the 17th” clip (3 min.), an “Amateur Night: Balloon Night” behind-the-scenes segment (3 min.), a “(10/31/98)” alternate ending (2 min.), photo and conceptual design galleries, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an unremarkable horror anthology.] (F. Swietek)
V/H/S
Magnolia, 116 min., R, DVD: $26.98, Blu-ray: $29.98, Dec. 4 Volume 28, Issue 1
V/H/S
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