The latest V/H/S sequel went Viral this week. Read Shayne's thoughts here.
 |
| "Yo! Is this Tattoine?" |
Magnet
Releasing has treated us with the latest installment of the V/H/S series, V/H/S: Viral and it's an utter mess from start to finish. Every single thing that was frightening,
inventive and awesome in the first two films has been thrown out the window and
replaced with an incoherent script, dead end story lines and feeble acting. Buckle up folks. Watching this thing is a
bumpy ride.
As we’re
introduced to the extremely weak wrap around story, the film already feels
out of place in the series. There’s
nothing here to remind you that you’re watching a V/H/S movie and that's a major disappointment to say the
least. Here we’re also greeted by our
first touch of sub-par acting. The first
two people on screen aren’t convincing in the least, so caring about the three upcoming segments is completely out of the question.
The three
segments of this film are without a question the absolute worst in the
series. Clunky writing, cheesy effects
and a confused sound design plague all three and they never pull themselves out
of the holes they started in. The
camerawork lacks depth, as well as any sort of creative trickery
whatsoever. It feels as if cameras were
just handed out on set with no direction at all. Even the GoPro shots (which were used so
cleverly in V/H/S 2) feel cheap and
uninspired.
 |
| "Stand back. I'm armed with a terrible sequel." |
Scares are nonexistent,
there are no big climactic moments and there isn’t even enough gore to keep audiences somewhat entertained while counting down the minutes until the credits finally
roll. While trying to follow these half
thought out scripts, the mediocre acting actually becomes somewhat of a
distraction.Some of it is just so bad that it requires a moment of reflection
to actually qualify how terrible this is.
After painfully chugging
through these three segments, if you haven’t turned the movie off yet, you’ll
be privileged enough to witness the asinine final act. At this point, the writers take somewhat of a
shot at today’s society by doing (or trying to) do so in a sci-fi horror
fashion. What results is a bland and
confusing ending to a film that felt like a cop out from the start.
All in all, this is a complete catastrophe from beginning to end with really no redeeming
qualities. Personally, this is easily my
biggest letdown all year. Stick to the
many other wonderful films Magnet Releasing has to offer, such as the recent ABC’s of Death 2.
-Shayne McGuire