STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED
Unmissable
Excellent
Good
Poor
Tragic

FILM DETAILS

Certificate 18

Cast Calvin Reeder Lane Hughes Adam Wingard.

Directors Ti West Radio Silence Joe Swanberg Glenn McQuaid David Bruckner Adam Wingard.

Screenwriters

Running Time 113 minutes

LATEST FILM REVIEWS Seasoning House, The Renoir Stories We Tell East, The Shun Li And The Poet 5 STAR REVIEWS Stories We Tell My Neighbour Totoro Gatekeepers , The Stoker In The House

V/H/S
Potent found footage horror

Tweet

Plot
A posse of misfits is recruited by a shadowy third party to rob a house for a prized VHS cassette. But what they discover there isn't the easy job they'd imagined.

Review
Six indie directors of the mumblecore persuasion contribute to this unpredictable lo-fi found-footage anthology, and the biggest twist is its consistently high quality. A framing story sets up a house full of video tapes documenting strange and alarming phenomena. The rest of the stories make up the contents of those cassettes: each skewering a particular horror genre in as amusingly creative a manner as possible. Vampires, slashers, road-trippers and exorcists all get the off-kilter treatment. Anything goes, and all of it works.

Verdict
Like last year's Chronicle, here's another reminder that in the right hands found footage still has plenty of capacity to surprise.


Reviewed by Owen Williams

Write Your Review
To write your review please login or register.

Your Reviews

Average user rating for V/H/S

RE: THIS IS NO CHRONICLE......

L: Cloud Cuckoo L: UTB L: ROTGUT Why is everyone in the film walking around with a digital camera perched on their shoulder filming everything? To be fair this is practically every single found footage film ever made. ot really - they generally have a reason for filming, e.g. in The Blair Witch Project they are making an investigatory report, or in Paranormal Activity they are using a camcorder as surveillance to try and record paranormal events. I enjoy foun... More

Posted by UTB at 12:33, 01 March 2013 | Report This Post

RE: THIS IS NO CHRONICLE......

L: UTB L: ROTGUT Why is everyone in the film walking around with a digital camera perched on their shoulder filming everything? To be fair this is practically every single found footage film ever made. ot really - they generally have a reason for filming, e.g. in The Blair Witch Project they are making an investigatory report, or in Paranormal Activity they are using a camcorder as surveillance to try and record paranormal events. I enjoy found-footage films when they... More

Posted by Cloud Cuckoo at 11:49, 01 March 2013 | Report This Post

RE: THIS IS NO CHRONICLE......

L: ROTGUT Why is everyone in the film walking around with a digital camera perched on their shoulder filming everything? To be fair this is practically every single found footage film ever made. ... More

Posted by UTB at 17:56, 26 February 2013 | Report This Post

THIS IS NO CHRONICLE......

Hands up if you’re fed up of the “found footage” genre? This film is competently produced and it seems to be the fashion now to show lots of real life, shaky hand held camera work which can be an advantage or a hindrance perhaps depending on what the subject matter is. Trouble is, I simply couldn’t have cared less about any of the characters – faceless, inter-changeable, young white American twentysomethings who are all irritatingly portrayed as (a) moronic (b) gull... More

Posted by ROTGUT at 16:32, 26 February 2013 | Report This Post

NOT A FOUR....

THREE STARS FOR ME.... SOME GENUINE SCARES, BUT IT DRAGS IN PLACES, AND IS OVERLONG. WAS ONE STORY TOO MANY.... ALSO DOESNT MAKE MUCH SENSE WHY MODERN TALES WOULD BE RECORDED ON VHS IN THE FIRST PLACE! AND ALSO.....WHY DOES ONE MAN HAVE ALL THE TAPES?! ... More

Posted by chrisdagnall at 15:08, 10 February 2013 | Report This Post

Successful found footage anthology

V/H/S dares to be over the top, and succeeds in doing it good as well. This is one thrill ride that will shake you (maybe break you) and leave you shivering. ... More

Posted by boardedroom at 23:54, 20 January 2013 | Report This Post

Great, great film

I was a big fan of this film, and thought it showcased the best of American genre filmmaking at the moment, I'm not a huge fan of found footage filmmaking but this did it well and whilst some stories are weaker than others, when it is at its best it is fantastic. ... More

Posted by thearchitect at 12:21, 20 January 2013 | Report This Post

RE: Disappointed

I dont think this warrents 4 stars AT ALL. There is a couple of intersting ideas in the film, but the quality of the actors is so bad it just doesnt pay off. I thought they would make a lot more of the "house with 1000's of videos".......but they kind of ignored that whole premise really and just used it as a vehicle to show these shorts. Not great at all. ... More

Posted by ongbakdan at 13:06, 16 January 2013 | Report This Post

RE: Disappointed

I was a collection of mostly utter crap found footage stories (not a coherent story), where for some reason these people all manage to keep hold of the camera and carry on regardless of the demonic harpies eating their penis!!. I like the Harpies! the rest was total crap that I fast forwarded through, got the idea and didn't waste as much time as I might of!. It would of been more sensible to take the best stories and weave an entire movie from it instead Shit 1/5 ... More

Posted by Dannybohy at 15:42, 14 January 2013 | Report This Post

Disappointed

This generated some great early buzz, but this ended up being a bit of a let down. It's in the top tier of horror anthology movies, but horror anthology flicks tend to suck. A few pretty solid stories. The Radio Silence portion was probably the best. Ti West's effort was simply "ok". The one with the campers was awful. ... More

Posted by Turd Ferguson at 14:19, 14 January 2013 | Report This Post

RE: Awful, just awful, In the cinema people either laughed out loud or walked out

The trailer looks interesting but when someone has slated it as passionately as Jamie_M, I guess i'll wait to see what a few others have got to say. ... More

Posted by guysalisbury at 13:12, 14 January 2013 | Report This Post

Awful, just awful, In the cinema people either laughed out loud or walked out

4 stars,, You're kidding right??? This was the surprise film at a horror movie festival I was at and honestly, I swear to god, half the audience either walked out during it (trust me, not because they were scared) while the other half were laughing out loud during it, it was seriously that bad (especially the acting). Truly one the worst films I've ever seen in my life (and I'm a fan of horror and found footage). 6 separate short horror stories about idiots basically. They range from just plain ... More

Posted by Jamie_M at 05:31, 14 January 2013 | Report This Post

CURRENT HIGHLIGHTS
		The Beginner's Guide To Monsters University's Newcomers Let director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae be your guides
		Exclusive: Will Yun Lee On The Wolverine He'll admit to playing Kenuichio Harada - but does his character have another name?
		David S. Goyer And Zack Snyder On Man Of Steel Secrets Spoiler warning: The writer and director spill some super-sized beans...
		The Empire Podcast: Joss Whedon Special Much ado about Avengers 2...
		Full Q&A: Steven Spielberg And George Lucas On Hollywood's Future 'We're in a mess but of the chaos will come some amazing things'
		Man Of Steel Interviews: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Zack Snyder, Michael Shannon & Antje Traue The cast and director of the Superman reboot spill the beans...
		Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa Trailer Breakdown What happens when the chat hits the fan?

Get the Empire iPad edition today Subscribe and save up to 44% on annual digital subscription Print & digital packages Buy single issues Subscribe to Empire magazine today Get six issues of Empire for £15 and save up to 37% All subscription offers

Follow @empiremagazine