DVD Review: V/H/S/2

-
Less misogyny is always a good thing.
 
There are several things V/H/S/2 does better than it's predecessor. If you recall, I wasn't a huge fan of the first installment.  I'm going to split up each segment and review them separately again, because that's really the best way to approach this film: Like you're watching 5 different movies.


Tape 49 - The narrative basically follows two private investigators sent to find one of those little bastards from the first film. They mention early on the cops are not looking for "some college kid." Like any horror movie, of course the characters split up. Ayesha, while trying to see what is on this kid's lap top starts to watch the nearby VHS tapes. It built quite a bit of suspense through out, although it fell to far too many horror clichés.
Grade: B

Phase I Clinical Trials - This one is about a man who loses his sight in one eye after a car accident. His doctor is testing a camera in place of his eye. Everything he sees will be recorded for research purposes. He starts seeing dead people (ha!) when he gets home. A girl he saw at the doctor's office earlier stops by his house to explain that she can hear them. (She has a cochlear implant) When another one shows up, she whips off her shirt and starts fucking this guy because why the hell not? Tits.  Besides that ridiculous and unnecessary scene, this one was legitimately creepy with its quick cuts in the dark. You kind of have to leave logic behind on this one. Why would something as high tech as a camera in a person's eye be converted to a VHS tape? Who knows.
Grade: C

A Ride in the Park - "You ride that bike more than you ride me" a girlfriend on the phone tells her boyfriend, who's out on a bike trail equipped with a helmet cam. Really? Anyways, this poor chap runs into zombies. The whole thing felt a little amateur and offered little originality until the last few seconds. There's so many zombie movies/shows out there, that even though the last shot was completely brilliant, it couldn't save this one.
Grade: C-

Safe Haven - A film crew is trying to show an un-bias view on a cult in a foreign country. We know the leader is totally bat shit crazy (And the guy that played him was perfect) but it was still hard to predict where this was going at the beginning. This one was easily the shining star of this film. It was creepy and ultra-gory. There was a small zombie aspect to it, and that got repetitive, but overall this one was by far the best.
Grade: A

Slumber Party Alien Abduction - This one was so fucking awful I don't know where to start. A bunch of young boys play pranks on each other, on their older sister, and vise versa, all while the camera is attached to their dog. Then Aliens show up. I hated the fact that we had to hear this poor dog whine through out, then we had to watch it die. The alien costumes looked cheap and fake, and it sounded like they just used a bunch of stock footage from Jurassic Park. I can't believe they ended the film with this tape. They should've ended with Safe Haven.
Grade: F


Overall Grade: C

Recommended: Yes. The concept is still very interesting. Skip V/H/S and only watch this one, Safe Haven makes it worth it.

Memorable Quote: "People see us as a freak show." - Father (Epy Kusnadar)

Comments

  1. Dan O.November 19, 2013 at 3:19 PM

    Good review Brittani. Some segments were better than others, but overall, they were all worth watching and have me hyped for what they have next for V/H/S 3. Because trust me, there will be another one sooner than later.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 20, 2013 at 7:51 AM

      I was gonna say, I didn't know they were doing a 3rd! I could see it too. This has franchise written all over it.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more