V/H/S made some waves back in the day with the horror gulliable, but didn’t resonant with normie film goers. This one is simply for the horror faithful that see a name like Bloody Disgusting and immediately lose any trace of critical thought, it’s almost a MAGA thing folks, which has lead to a lot of biased reviews and reporting that far exceeds the actual reach of the movie. Simply put, this is a found footage flick that has limited appeal to those not prepared to sit down and rock to the format. What do we get then? Well a framing device and five short movies, explained later, though some idiots are reporting six movies because the concept of a framing device is beyond their analytic ability. Sorry, I get real upset with false narratives, and a lot around Brad Miska’s ego boast is definitely on the false side of the argument. There are some good aspects to the movie, I’m not going to tell you it’s all bad, but whether or not those aspects are enough to really justify your attention is what we are going to explore in this review.

First up the framing device, titled Tape 56 - it gets a title so they can claim a sixth movie, it’s a framing device morons! Anyways a group of frat boys are racing around the countryside assaulting women and vandalising vacant buildings, so they can film it for social media, hey no one is going to employ any of these micreants. Like their idiot ilk, they run away like little bitches if confronted, or a car drives by. You get the idea, we hate these arseholes and are hoping for the worse as far as they go. Anyways one of them has made a deal with an unknown party to break into an empty house and steal a video tape. They duly break in, discover a room full of vhs tapes and an apparently dead old dude. So what do you do, frack around viewing the tapes till you find the one that you will “know it when you see it". So framing device happening, let’s check out the actual tapes these stains on humanity view.

First up we get Amateur Night, arguably the best movie in the anthology. Keeping with the Bros are arseholes theme, three frat boys have a pair of glasses with a camera hidden somehow in the frame – sure this technology was available when vhs tapes ruled the world. Anyways our dudes are out to score some chicks, make their very “one girls gone wild” video, and get down and dirty with some sexy times. Naturally the concept of “date rape” isn’t high on the agenda and things go in unexpected directions with the lads bringing I guess a vampire back to their dingy motel room. Queue some nasty gore, and one of the better endings to happen in recent found footage outings. David Bruckner directed and wrote this one, which sort of makes a mockery of the claim of movers and shakers in the horror genre, as he had only made two previous movies of dubious quality. But hey, the whole MAGA thing right, who is going to do fact checking on a found footage flick, well okay us.

Second Honeymoon is not a good follow up movie, with the twist ending seen lumbering over the horizon. If you haven’t sussed this one within the first five minutes you really aren’t in the right genre. A couple are on a cross country trip, and you know early on it isn’t all wine and roses with neither in a good relationship. But what’s this, one night a college age chick knocks on their motel door after a ride the next morning. The late night visitor is viewed as creepy, and there is no way the couple are going to offer one of their spare seats on the next day’s journey. And hey who is this later on in the couple’s room filming them asleep and committing the ever reliable larceny, crime goes unpunished throughout the movie, and this is just another example. No prizes for guessing the final outcome, if you thought Thelma and Louise then you are right on target, though the budget didn’t stretch here to a car going airborne over a cliff.

Third out of the tunnel is Tuesday the 17th, which as the name might imply is directly out of the slasher playbook, though with a tad of otherworld going down. A group of friends are headed for the backwoods to do the normal thing, and we gradually learn a few of them are there under false assumptions. Further one of their number has an agenda and is using the others as bait to bring out a killer and exact some undefined revenge. Unfortunately, the killer can only be seen as distortion on a video camera, and is pretty good at getting the body count rocking like it’s going out of fashion. While we have a decent and fairly unique premise, none of the victims is likable and hence the audience are not really hoping they survive to the end credits. Worse this one stretches out well beyond its welcome and by the time the end credits rolled I was edging into boredom.

Having the longest title in the anthology if not in horror generally The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger should have fans of SciFi horror lapping it up. The movie works through its Skype like format as the conversations between a separated couple while introducing a possible haunting of the girl’s apartment. We are also introduced to the girl being irritate by a lump under her skin; anyone else already know where this is going? Things progress rapidly, we learn there hasn’t been previous issues with the apartment, and we find that there is an actual “haunting” going down. There’s something of a surprise twist at the end of this one, and I was pleasantly surprised by the movie’s end credits. Not the worse found footage outing I have experienced, The Sick Thing… did need a bigger budget to really nail the requirement, but in the wash up enjoyable enough as entertainment. 

Rounding out we have a final story that had me bright eyed and bushy tailed. 10/31/98, as the name might suggest takes place on Halloween night. A group of friends are gearing up to go to a party, what could possibly go wrong. Naturally they are unsure of the address and land in what appears to be an empty house. Clearly the Bros aren’t the brightest tools in the shed. Exploring the house they come across what appears to be some sort of cult conducting a ritual with a screaming chick tied up. With things starting to get freaky the team decide to exit stage left, but then remember they are dudes and set out to rescue the chick from whatever the dubious intent of the cultists is. Surprisingly success, and the team are soon zooming off with the chick, and then, well you will need to check out this excellent short film to find out.

So that would be five movies and a framing device, not giving away the obvious conclusion to that one clearly. The movies themselves are pretty uneven with Amateur Night and 10/31/98 being standouts and the other three ranging from good to terrible, seen it before, should I get a postcard. Arguably, not sure if this will hold water, the movie is worth your time for the two highlighted films but hey that’s up to your viewing schedule. Got any free spots on your horror dance card citizen? As an aside Amateur Night was made into a feature length movie titled Siren (2016) which I haven’t been able to source Downunder, did we get a release here? Okay only seeing region 1 DVD, so guess copies of this flick weren’t rushing off the shelves.

If I haven’t mentioned already this anthology is all found footage flicks, with detours into social media, so that might not be a selling point for a lot of readers. I was reasonably okay with what was on offer, slight recommendation, but was not seeing anything to get horror fans moving and shaking to. There’s a bunch more movies in this franchise, we’ll check them all out and see if things improve, we get new ideas, or we start entering cash grab territory. Guess a bit too much to ask for, but would love to see a horror flick with a twist I don’t see coming, hey not all V/H/S doing the wrong, though the tape is getting worn with age.