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Jan 15, 201380Like last year's "Chronicle," here's another reminder that in the right hands found footage still has plenty of capacity to surprise.
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60The problem with V/H/S, a compilation of sometimes scary horror shorts loosely bound by an overarching plot, is that, no matter how savage, evil or sadistic the killer, the victims almost always come off as bigger jerks.
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50V/H/S comes across as a production that wants to be more than it is but, as they say, The Emperor has no clothes.
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63The film also plays to the strengths of the found-footage format, proving that sometimes the scariest things are the ones you can barely see. For horror hounds, this is required viewing.
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75Scrappy and unsettling, V/H/S puts the majority of today's mainstream "scary" movies to shame.
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40Had V/H/S been a nasty jolt of three, it might have been memorable, but at nearly two hours, the gimmick punctures a hole in itself, causing ambience bleed-out. Recommended cure: a tripod
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40A low-budget horror anthology with segments both ghastly and moronic.
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60Anthologies are risky. For every high point, there's often a misstep to match. But this indie compilation has enough inventive chills to interest any horror fan.
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Oct 4, 201250Viewed en masse, V/H/S can't generate the necessary suspense, and buy-in, to truly get under your skin.
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63No one should be expected to endure 115 minutes of this nonsense.
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100Most segments have a fair share of cheap scares, but they also delve into the art of the build-up, as if delivering a series of grim jokes with bloody punchlines. Consider it a 21st-century take on "Tales from the Crypt."
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50I'm not sure V/H/S is brilliant cinema or anything – indeed, I'm not sure it's appropriate to call it cinema at all – but it sure is an ingenious hybrid: part Godardian art film, part abstract video experiment, part sleazy shocker, and all self-castigating interrogation of what film-theory types call the "male gaze."
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75It also, in its best moments, makes horror out of the 21st-century obsession with self-documentation.
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25V/H/S is an example of the genre at its least compelling.
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Oct 2, 201250In too many of the shorts, bad acting quickly undermines the "authenticity" the aesthetics labor to achieve.
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40It's too bad V/H/S starts off on such a high note. Mainly, the omnibus film feels undercooked, even on the grounds of its forced technological setup.
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63An anthology of found-footage horror shorts that exudes, sometimes extraordinarily, a neophyte's sense of courage and cluelessness.
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Sep 29, 201270Refreshingly, V/H/S promises no more than it delivers, always a plus with genre fare.
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80Sure it's fun - and painful - but it's not thin.
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83V/H/S delivers the thrills and chills craftily and with a better batting average than usual.
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50The segments vary in quality and the whole overstays its welcome at nearly two hours.