#26 - V/H/S: Viral (2014)
(dir. various)
The V/H/S films are the best modern horror anthology franchise, even if it is mostly because there isn't much competition (The ABCs of Death is garbage). The first two films in the series were genuinely great found footage anthologies, but I found this one to be a bit weak in comparison. It consists of three segments plus the wraparound story, which is fewer than the previous films, and I believe the film as a whole is a bit shorter too.
The wraparound story is actually pretty decent - in the two previous films, it was pretty much "someone finds tapes and watches them, bad things begin to happen", but here we get a more complex story. It's about a guy who films everything trying to make a "viral" video, and when a police chase comes near his apartment he runs outside to try to capture it. At the same time, people begin receiving bizarre videos on their phones that cause them to act in strange ways. It wasn't perfect, but it was an interesting way to link the segments.
The first story, "Dante the Great" was my favorite. Dante is a really awful unemployed magician who somehow acquires a magic cloak that gives him actual powers. He becomes famous for his amazing "illusions", but the power comes with a price... This was the first segment in the whole series that isn't 100% found footage, containing interviews with characters and several scenes that were shot traditionally, but I think it worked pretty well anyway. I may be biased though because I think evil magicians are awesome.
The other two didn't do as much for me. "Parallel Monsters" was about a guy who invents a portal to another universe, where he finds an alternate version of himself that has also invented the same portal. They decide to switch universes temporarily to explore, but he finds that they aren't quite as similar as he had thought. It's a neat idea, but it goes a bit over the top and ends up not making a ton of sense. The third is called "Bonestorm", and is shot from the point of view of a bunch of skater kids who go to Tijuana to shoot a video. They end up in the middle of some kind of cult ritual, and most of the segment is them beating creepy cult members over the head with skateboards. There are some neat moments and some good effects, but the story itself doesn't seem to have much of a point.
If you really like anthology films, this one isn't terrible, but I thought it was disappointing when compared to the first two entries in the series.
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