V/H/S 2

Stars: Lawrence Michael Levine, Kelsy Abbott, Adam Wingard, Hannah Hughes, Simon Barrett, Mindy Robinson, Monica Sanchez Navarro, Jay Saunders, Bette Cassett, David Coyne, Fachry Albar, Hannah Al Rashid, Oka Antara, Epy Kusnadar, Riley Eisner and Zack Ford.
Writers: Brad Miska, Simon Barrett, John Davies, Jason Eisener, Gareth Evans, Jamie Nash and Timo Tjahjanto.
Directors: Simon Barrett, Jason Eisener, Gareth Evans, Gregg Hale, Eduardo Sanchez, Timo Tjahjanto and Adam Wingard.

Rating: 3.5/5

The anthology trip V/H/S 2 (formerly S-VHS) is a fully immersive assault on the senses that will fuel the fire of naysayers who hate the predominance of handheld ‘shaky cam’ projects. But for those who are keen to see some of world cinema's most visually arresting and narratively fearless new directors working through some pretty f***ed-up horror visions, your wishes are granted.

Essentially a Twilight Zone-like compendium for the found-footage/YouTube generation, this sequel to the 2012 cult DVD hit waivers in its overall fright factor but slam-dunks enough horror moments (most of them inventively bloody and grotesque) to ensure a franchise arc in years to come.

As with the first film, the bridging device is home intruders (here, smug PI’s Lawrence Michael Levine and Kelsy Abbott) who discover a wall of TV screens and piles of VHS tapes in an abandoned house. One by one, they work through the footage on the tapes; it is not fully explained how all the tapes come to be in this particular rundown dwelling, but V/H/S 2 is so full of tenuous links and off-the-wall logic it barely maters.

Director Adam Wingard takes lead acting duties in the first instalment, entitled Clinical Trials, which sees him agreeing to be guinea pig for new medical technology that replaces his damaged left eye with a bionic substitute. His vision is improved to the extent that he can see all the vengeful demons he shares the world with. It is a one-note premise to kickstart for film, though features some well-staged shocks and one particular icky scene that was probably the inspiration for the entire segment.

Eduardo Sanchez, co-directing with fellow Blair Witch Project alumni, producer Gregg Hale, offers up A Ride in the Park, a first-person take on the early stages of the zombie apocalypse. A recreational biker, recording his backwoods trail workout, is bitten by an undead; his descent into a zombie state is cleverly tracked by helmet-cams and video footage from a child’s birthday party, horribly interrupted by the swarming savages. Capturing the zom-poc from the pov of the infected proves a better premise than finished product, but it is gruesome and funny enough to satisfy.

The film kicks into high gear with the third instalment Safe Haven, co-directed by The Raid’s Gareth Huw Evans and Indonesian-born filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto. A TV-crew enters the compound of mysterious cult group Paradise Gates, only to find their presence is part of the Satan worshippers overall plan to introduce their master to our earthly plane. Evans and Tjahjanto go to places horrifically indescribable, playing on possession lore, child-birthing imagery and Jonestown-like blind faith in their relentlessly shocking tale (during a rare silent moment, one patron at the screening attended by SCREEN-SPACE pleaded loudly “Make it stop,” drawing a big, tension-relieving laugh from the audience).  

Rounding out the instalments is Hobo With a Shotgun director Jason Eisener’s Slumber Party Alien Abduction, which…well, you get the picture. The Canadian schlock maestro employs some of the film’s most inventive handheld technique, somehow getting his camera strapped to a small dog as the home-alone teens flee Slenderman-like extra-terrestrials.

So assaultive is the overall impact of the segments that come before, the fate of Levine and Abbott’s ‘host’ characters provides a meagre wrap-up. But those few minutes certainly allow audiences, most of which will be the ‘Midnight Slot’ festival crowd or teenage horror-DVD connoisseurs, to take a breath before venturing into the night. There’ll need it….