20131109: Horror Review--VHS

V/H/S

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, rated R, 116 minutes.  Spoken language is English.
2. IMDB: 5.7/10.0 from 24,860 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 55% on the meter; 41% from 12,868 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 420,630 audience ratings.  804 users posted reviews.
5. Directed by:  Many, see below.
6. Starring, Tape 56 (the connecting arc): Calvin Reeder as Gary, Lane Hughes as Zak, Kentucker Audley as Rox, Adam Wingate as Brad.
7. Starring, 'Amateur Night': Hannah Fierman as Lily, Mike Donlan as Shane, Joe Sykes as Patrick, Drew Sawyer as Clint, Jas Sames as Lisa.
8. Starring, 'Second Honeymoon':  Joe Swanberg as Sam, Sophia Takal as Stephanie, Kate Lyn Shell as Girl, Graham Resnick as Local DJ.
9. Starring, 'Tuesday the 17th': Drew Moerlein as Joey, Jeanine Elizabeth Yoder as Samantha, Jason Yachanin as Spider, Bryce Burke as The Glitch, Norma C. Quinones as Wendy.
10. Starring, '...Emily...': Helen Rogers as Emily, Daniel Kaufman as James, Liz Harvey as The New Girl, Isaiah Hillman as Boy Alien, Corrie Lynne Fitzpatrick as Girl Alien.
11. Starring, '10/31/98': Chad Villella as Chad, Matt Bettinelli as Matt, Tyler Gillett as Tyler, Paul Natonek as Paul.


2. Setup and Plot
1. This is a collection of shorts.  In the ruling arc, thieves are hired by an anonymous third party to steal a rare VHS tape from an isolated house.  The thieves find a dead body plus a host of VHS tapes.  They watch the likely tapes to find the target that will get them money from their employer.


2. Tape 56 (directed by Adam Wingate):  The opening shows a small crew of petty thugs filming while: forcibly exposing a woman's breasts in public, vandalizing an abandoned building, being intimate with a girl friend who does not know about the camera.  They discuss rates.  Fifty bucks for each porn incident, and so on.  One of the crew recommends jump shifting to loftier crimes that pay better.  
3. They line it up, and that starts the adventure of finding that one special tape.  They find a dead older man plus a great deal of television equipment for viewing.  Beyond that, they find a supply of video tapes that they decide to go through to get the target.
4. As the film goes through the segments, the thugs meet problems that they cannot solve.


5. Amateur Night (directed by David Bruckner): Shane and Patrick setup Clint with 'video glasses' so he can record what is in front of him.  They go to a bar and pick up Lisa and Lily and proceed to a motel.  Lisa soon passes out.  Patrick seems terminally drunk, and only sits and laughs.  Lily wants to do things with Clint, who shies away from the opportunity.  Shane takes off Lily's dress, which was all she was wearing.  Clint gets enough courage to record Shane and Lily.  Patrick is still wobbly, but he takes off his clothes so he can sandwich Lily with Shane.  Clint runs away again; Lily bites Patrick.  Lily is straddling Shane as Clint approaches again.  She's morphed into a vampire.  Things end very badly for Shane, Patrick, and Clint.  Oddly, these large hulking fellows (Shane and Patrick) do not even try to defend themselves against the 90 pound Lily.


6. Second Honeymoon (directed by Ti West):  Sam and Stephanie go on a road trip in the desert of the American West for their second honeymoon.  They are recording a tape for future memories.
7. These are two germaphobes on a field trip who stop at cheap jack motels.  Clever.
8. Sam wants to record Stephanie while they are making out; she demurs.  Sigh.  Turn the camera off and record later.  Knock at the door; it is some girl who asks for a ride the next day.  The figure Sam saw earlier quietly breaks in, steals 100 USD from Sam, nearly cuts up Stephanie's underwear while she's still in it, but makes a clean, silent getaway.
9. The next day they discuss the loss of 100 USD, but do not figure it out.  They do some sight-seeing and plan the remaining parts of the trip.  That night, they get a visitor who films them again.  This time, she kills Sam, and records herself kissing Stephanie.  Ah, pro-lesbian PC, plus anti-male PC.


10. Tuesday the 17th (directed by Glenn McQuaide): Joey, Samantha, Spider, and Wendy are on a field trip.  They stop by a lake for a drug smoking break, then go swimming.  Wendy tells a story about a killer who took out four people by the very same lake.  Then she laughs it off.  Spider and Samanthe get a giant knife through their brains.  Wendy gets the camera, then returns to Joey, and asks him to have sex with her.  Things do not turn out well for Joey or for Wendy.


11. The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger (directed by Joe Swanberg): Weird things happen as Emily and James have a video conference.  She refers to a time when she and James were apart when they were young, and bad things happened to her.  He should have recorded their chat the second time when the weird noises start.  She uses a Kodak on her living room and catches the figure of a child. 
12. She asks the super of her apartment about previous deaths in her apartment.  No such thing; the only renters were students without children.  That night he records, and several figures are captured on the chat.  They start a partial dissection of Emily.  James is in cahoots with them.  James keeps communicating with her, and never lets her know what a complete traitor his is.  How can this turn out?  Was Emily the only one James is abusing?


13. 10/31/98 (directed by Radio Silence):
14. Four young adult males (Chad, Matt, Tyler, and Paul) go to a Halloween costume party.  They bring a nanny cam.  The house where the party is to be held has an unlocked door with the lights on.  No one is at home.  They keep looking for the party.
15. They call out for their friend Justin, who should be there, but no such luck.
16. They hear voices in the attic, and think that is where the party is.  They find several men torturing a tied up woman.  At first they think it is the party, but the torturers very much convince them it is not.  They run away at first, but decide her trouble is for real, and go back to save her.  That sort of works until she leads them into more problems.


3. Conclusions
1. This is one of the worst films I have ever seen.
2. One line summary: Thieves review ever more horrifying tapes in order to get paid.
3. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 2/10 Features low-end cameras, bad framing, insufficient light, bad focus, and terrible lack of contrast.  Then of course, there are shaking camera movements, anti-relevant POV, and old bad recording media.  One of my least favorites is where the camera is left on to record time going by in a room where nothing moves, often in complete darkness.


2. Sound: 5/10 Who cares?  More often noise than anything else: audio chaos to go with the video chaos.


3. Acting: 0/10 The only actor of note is the camera.  The camera trumps the efforts of all actors.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Boring.  Short on plot.  Badly executed with next to zero motivation.  Worst of all, not the least bit scary.