V/H/S (2012)

When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.

Directors:

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, David Bruckner,

Writers:

Brad Miska (concept), Simon Barrett,

Stars:

Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes, Adam Wingard

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Calvin Reeder	...	Gary (segment "Tape 56")
Lane Hughes	...	Zak (segment "Tape 56")
Kentucker Audley	...	Rox (segment "Tape 56")
Adam Wingard	...	Brad (segment "Tape 56")
Frank Stack	...	Old Man (segment "Tape 56")
Sarah Byrne	...	Abbey (segment "Tape 56")
Melissa Boatright	...	Tabitha (segment "Tape 56")
Simon Barrett	...	Steve (segment "Tape 56")
Andrew Droz Palermo	...	Fifth Thug (segment "Tape 56")
Hannah Fierman	...	Lily (segment "Amateur Night")
Mike Donlan	...	Shane (segment "Amateur Night")
Joe Sykes	...	Patrick (segment "Amateur Night")
Drew Sawyer	...	Clint (segment "Amateur Night")
Jas Sams	...	Lisa (segment "Amateur Night")
Joe Swanberg	...	Sam (segment "Second Honeymoon")

Storyline

A POV, found footage horror film from the perspective of America's top genre filmmakers. A group of misfits are hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house in the countryside and acquire a rare tape. Upon searching the house, the guys are confronted with a dead body, a hub of old televisions and an endless supply of cryptic footage, each video stranger than the last.

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Plot Keywords:

found footage | vhs | anthology | television | ghost in mirror | 

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Taglines:

This collection is killer.

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody violence, strong sexuality, graphic nudity, pervasive language and some drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 September 2012 (Russia)

Also Known As:

Las crónicas del miedo

Filming Locations:

11840 W. Telegraph Rd., Santa Paula, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$36,402 (USA) (5 October 2012)

Gross:

$99,770 (USA) (9 November 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bloody Disgusting, Collective, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Lily: I like you.

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Connections

Followed by V/H/S/2 (2013)

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Soundtracks

"How Do You Ruin Me"
Written and Performed by Annalisa Tornfelt
Sugar Hill Records
Annalisongs (BMI)
(segment "Amateur Night")

User Reviews

A shoddy, overlong tribute to anthology horror movies.

I'm a big fan of anthology horror movies, and horror in general and I'm willing to accept found footage movies if they're done well enough. That being said this is not done well at all. They use every found footage cliché except night vision. Constant "glitch cuts", people carrying the camera around while in danger for no reason, disoriented confusing action sequences. The found footage aspects are the main weakness in this movie, but I'll put that aside for now and review this movie on its other aspects.

First of all every character in this movie is terrible. They're either perverted frat boy assholes or completely void of personality. They're not the kind of characters you can't wait to be killed, they're the kind of characters you can't wait to stop listening to. I know there's no time to really flesh out any characters in an anthology, but you can at least give them a personality, these guys are just boring, boring, boring.

The plot of most of these shorts are only possible through monumentally stupid decisions from the characters. They never call the call the cops, are constantly tripping while running away (maybe if you dropped the camera...), and the overarching plot characters are the stupidest of them all.

There's no bow-tie at the end connecting all these stories, and therefore no need for the very bland overarching story itself. However in a few of the tapes the mystery is strong enough to keep you interested and some of the tension is pretty thrilling, although it never really pays off.

I would be more forgiving of the cliché story and characters if it was easier to watch, and I'd be more forgiving of the found footage faux-pas if it had better stories. But this is the worst of both worlds, I would give this a 4/10 but I'm bumping it up 1 for the tits.