V/H/S 2 (2013): Review

     Finally got around to seeing the sequel to V/H/S after reading so much about it on line and in the +Google+  horror community, and I have to say I liked this one better.  The story set up was more believable in my opinion than the original one but still uses people watching the videos to set up this series of short films, and as stated before it's hard for me to not like anthology horror films.

The format...is still not dead.

Not that the set up of the first one was any less believable, people record themselves all the time doing stupid things and putting them on YouTube.  Tosh.0 makes his career off of stuff like that, but the investigative scenario and requiring it to be recorded just made it easier to swallow.  This story follows two private investigators, Larry and Ayesha, as they investigate the disappearance of a young male college student. Upon entering the student's home, they discover a large stack of TV sets and VHS tapes, and a laptop with a still-recording video on it. They stop the recording and go to the beginning, where they see the boy talking about how strange the VHS tapes are. Larry investigates the house and tells Ayesha to watch the tapes.  The stories go from there like in the first film, so each tape viewed represents a story and there are three of them, four if you include Larry and Ayesha's.  You can tell this film had more funding because it looks better, is shot better, and the effects are better.  I can't stand shaky cam/ found footage films but that is not to say it doesn't have a place in horror and can serve a purpose if it isn't over used.  For example, the second story uses a Go Pro camera pretty well and puts an interesting perspective on a zombie outbreak that's worth watching.  In my opinion, the last story you can skip, the shaky cam is so bad it's practically un-watchable and may have been filmed by the very children that star in it.

The DVD gives you the option of watching both a rated and un-rated version so if you can get that copy I would recommend doing so. Otherwise it's rated R, and not a bad film to add to your collection of horror for this Halloween.