Mayhem goes viral.
2014-11-21
N/A
81 min
As the streets of Los Angeles overflow with camera-wielding gawkers seeking to capture images of a bizarre police pursuit, the same people who sought to exploit the suffering of others for amusement on the Internet become the stars of a gruesome viral video from which no one gets out alive.
Following on from my stle of review from previous entry, V/H/S/2, I'll just bne giving my quick thoughts segment by segment, rather than the whole thing (star rating is still for Viral overall though).
Vicious Circles: Of the various framing devices found across the V/H/S franchise, "Vicious Circles" is the best/makes the most sense, but it wasn't great or anything.
Dante the Great: The most fun of the entries across the whole series. It does stand out in a bad way a little bit, firstly because it's a combination of fake "found footage" and fake "documentary" which... Like it's weird to have sat through all these shorts and then suddenly have a guy giving an interview to a camera crew, and secondly because I think calling it horror is a stretch. More of a... Fantasy-action-comedy with some heavy gore right at the end.
Parallel Monsters: Has the same problems as the previous film's "Safe Haven" entry, but fewer pros to counterbalance it. Could probably be explored in a full length movie to better effect, but even that I'm unsure about.
Bonestorm: The silliest and worst acted of the entire franchise, which truly is saying something. Would probably make more sense as something outside of a _V/H/_S film, say... playing silently on a loop on a TV in a skateboard shop, for instance.
Gorgeous Vortex: The "hidden" V/H/S: Viral entry is an odd one. The only thing it has going for it is also the dumbest thing about it. It's a 15 minute movie that is entirely aesthetic in value, the first and only entry with good video quality. But this is supposed to be a collection of crappily filmed, glitchy footage, copied over to VHS tapes - so in what universe does it make sense?
Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.
