This was a pretty good entry into the V/H/S series. Without one inparticular story, it’s acutally a great entry. But let’s go one at a time.
SHREDDING
Written and directed by Maggie Levin, Shredding follows a punk band called RACK (it is an acronym of their names: Rachel, Ankur, Chris and Kaleb). They’re actually more of a skateboarding crew than a band, as they don’t do that much playing instruments or singing. Their major love is really just filming themselves playing pranks on each other. They do a ton of stupid shit actually, which is how they decide to break into an old music venue that is, not only closed, but all burnt up. The band that was onstage at the time was even trampled to death by their own fans. It’s said that their ghosts haunt the place now.
Ankur believes in ghosts, but that makes him the dumbest one. He does not prank as much as the others do. He also doesn’t really want to go with them into the Colony Underground, but he does. It’s a ridiculous venture and they get what they deserve. Turns out, “ghosts” is a small word for what really occupies the Underground. The end is delightfully disturbing and reminded us of Freaks (1932), which is a big compliment. Also worth a mention is the crazy good motive and the rules it all follows. The cast is cool, too, because we really believed they were the shitheads they were pretending to be.
SUICIDE BID
Written and directed by Johannes Roberts, this story is about Lily, a college freshman trying to get into a coveted sorority. She only applies to the one, which is known as a Suicide Bid. See, this is why I wasn’t into the Greek system during college. LOL
The mean girls in control of the sorority pledging tell Lily all about Giltine, who was hazed inside a coffin. Dared to spend time in the coffin 20 years ago as her initiation, Giltine was apparently forgotten about and died inside said coffin. And as Giltine did before her, Lily crawls into the coffin for the night. Granted, these girls don’t forget all about her, but it still doesn’t go well. It’s not really original and absolutely no one is a good or honorable person. The motive and acting take care of that though. We did not enjoy it as much as Shredding, but it had a satisfying end.
OZZY’S DUNGEON
A DJ named Flying Lotus helped write this story and directed it on his own. I tell you this because maybe DJ’s shouldn’t make horror shorts. Ha. Anywho, I can tell you how the story started and I can tell you where it went, but I can’t really say why. At all. I’m sure this sort of thing caters to someone, but it is categorically NOT US. It begins with a young girl, Donna, who lives in a run down neighborhood in Detroit. She is now a contestant in a game show called, you guessed it, Ozzy’s Dungeon. It’s a children’s game show, but very twisted. Think Double Dare, only you can really get hurt, you can even die, and they won’t stop the game. For anything.
Donna is participating in the obviously corrupt game, when she breaks her leg. And when I say “break”, I really mean that when you see her in a wheelchair later on, you’re not surprised. Later on though, she’s in the chair, in the basement of her house, her family surrounding her. Her mother, Debra (played by Sonya Eddy, who deserved a lot better), is insane with anger at the host of the show and she now has him in chains and is doing nasty, disgusting, disgraceful things to him. She’s even created a course of her own for him to run, but she makes it pretty clear that he’ll die regardless of his finishing it or not. Now, I’ll ruin the end for you, at least of this story, because it’s a darn shame it was even included with the rest of these stories.
Instead of being killed, the host agrees to take Donna, Debra and the rest of her family to meet Ozzy in his dungeon. It’s what the winner of the show is promised. They win and they get to meet Ozzy and he will grant them their wish. Now, it seems that Debra may have forced Donna to take part in the show to get their family out of Detroit. It seems that Donna may not have made the choice of her own accord. So, it’s not a huge shock when her wish is different than Debra expects. The problem comes in when Flying Lotus decides to crank up the crazy and the uber disgusting. You see, Ozzy is in an actual dungeon. He’s not a man though. We don’t think he’s human. He does look like a huge, naked, pregnant woman though. About to give birth, Ozzy calls Donna over to hear her wish.
Honestly, I’ve spent too much time on this story, and it’s all because we hated it so much. At the end of this story, after Ozzy hears the wish, a giant monster springs forth (with tons of blood), from the pregnant thing’s stomach. Then, answering Donna’s real wish, it only looks at her family and all their faces melt off. With them dead, the camera pans over to Donna and she is smiling. Like, WTF? I’d feel for Donna more, but I just don’t feel I should with the ending being what it was. I certainly didn’t like any of the rest of them. It really drags the movie down as a whole.
THE GAWKERS
Directed by Tyler MacIntyre and written by himself and Chris Lee Hill, this story is really easy to describe. So easy that if I say too much, it’ll give the entire thing away and since we didn’t hate this one, I don’t want to do that. The plot boils down to this: some teenage boys help their new neighbor install her webcam. While in there, they also add in some spyware so they can get some glimpses of naked flesh. However, it all goes very, very poorly. At least for them. Because the girl’s got a secret and it’s a literal classic.
It’s sad, but the world can be a pervy place. Strong casting, good special effects and followed rules make it a worthy addition to the V/H/S fold. We were so thankful after that last mess. Good job Tyler and Chris!
TO HELL AND BACK
Written by Joseph and Vanessa Winter, this was our favorite story. On New Year’s Eve, 1999, a coven of witches gather to perform a ritual on a woman that has agreed to be a vessel for a demon. For some reason, two young men, Nate and Troy, agreed to film the ritual. They are told that the ritual will last a while, however Ukabon, the demon, won’t appear until midnight when the veil between Earth and Hell is the thinnest. This all goes wrong when a pesky, lesser demon tries to emerge long before midnight and as the coven tries to stop him from coming into Earth’s realm, he grabs hold of Nate and Troy and pulls them into Hell with them.
It’s actually really funny in parts. Nate and Troy are hilarious in their realistic reactions to realizing they are in Hell and then trying to find their way out. While in Hell, they do meet a young woman, Mabel, who agrees to help them. We’re not sure if she’s a real witch or simply a damned soul, but she does tell Nate and Troy to write her name in the witches book so she can come back to Earth, so take that as you will. We love her, by the way. Mabel is the best character in the story. The best character of all the stories. She’s simply one of the best characters we’ve ever seen in a horror movie. And we’ve seen a lot of horror movies.
The ending of this story makes the story our clear favorite. All Hail Mabel! Clearly, her character made us happy, but the acting from everyone was so good it made a story about Hell really realistic. The dialogue was realistic, as well. The demon/devil effects were crazy good. I could have done without the worms, but it was an original story and just so well done.
There isn’t really a frame around all the stories connecting them as there has been in previous entries in the series. Instead, there are several stop motion videos of those little, green, toy soldiers almost every kid plays with at one time or another. They’re cool, too. Really fun and interesting and innovative. And now, I will do something I do not think I have ever done. With all stories taken into account, DJ and I give the movie a much lower score than if we take away Ozzy’s Dungeon. By like, 12 points. So, I’ll give you both scores now and suggest that you watch this movie, it is a real joy. Just skip over the Dungeon one. It isn’t worth anyone’s time.
Our whole score: 65. Our score when we exclude Ozzy’s Dungeon (as you all should): 77. Yup.
BLOOD RED REVIEWS 