V/H/S/2

V/H/S/2
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Simon Barrett (Tape 49) Adam Wingard (Phase I Clinical Trials) Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale (A Ride in the Park) Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans (Safe Haven) Jason Eisener (Slumber Party Alien Abduction)
Produced by	Roxanne Benjamin Gary Binkow Kyle David Crosby Brad Miska Jamie Nash
Written by	Simon Barrett (Tape 49 and Phase I Clinical Trials) Jamie Nash (A Ride in the Park) Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans (Safe Haven) John Davies (Slumber Party Alien Abduction)
Starring	see below
Music by	James Guymon Steve Moore Aria Prayogi Fajar Yuskemal
Cinematography	Tarin Anderson Abdul Dermawan Habir Stephen Scott Seamus Tierney Jeff Wheaton
Edited by	Jason Eisener Gareth Huw Evans David Geis Bob Rose Eduardo Sánchez Adam Wingard
Production company	Bloody Disgusting The Collective Haxan Films
Distributed by	Magnet Releasing
Release dates	January 19, 2013 (2013-01-19) (Sundance) July 12, 2013 (2013-07-12) (United States)
Running time	92 minutes[1]
Country	United States Canada Indonesia
Language	English Indonesian
Box office	$795,661[2]

V/H/S/2 (originally titled S-VHS) is a 2013 American anthology horror film from Bloody Disgusting and Producer Brad Miska. It features a series of found-footage shorts. It is the sequel to the film V/H/S.^[3] The sequel involves a largely different group of directors: Jason Eisener, Gareth Evans, Timo Tjahjanto, Eduardo Sánchez, and Gregg Hale, and franchise returnees Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard.^[4]

Plot

The film is presented as an anthology of short horror films, built into a frame narrative which acts as its own short horror film. Each short film is linked together with the concept of found footage (each segment is from the VHS tapes found in the first film).

Tape 49/frame narrative

Directed by Simon Barrett

After Larry botches an investigation, a college student's mother requests that Larry and his girlfriend Ayesha, also a private investigator, look into the disappearance of her son Kyle. After breaking into Kyle's dorm, they discover a large stack of VHS tapes and a laptop that is still recording a video. On the laptop, Kyle discusses the VHS tapes, saying where he got one of the most recent ones, and Larry tells Ayesha to watch the tapes while he inspects the house. As Ayesha watches the first tape, a figure peers out and watches her.

Ayesha calls Larry into the room, and they discuss the tapes' legitimacy. Larry tells Ayesha to continue viewing the tapes, which Kyle's video explains must be watched in the proper order "to affect you".

Larry re-enters the room and finds Ayesha in a hypnotized state with her nose bleeding. After being woken, she says she has a migraine. Larry leaves to find medicine, and a seemingly entranced Ayesha watches another tape. From the shadows, the figure crawls out and watches her.

Upon Larry's return, he discovers Ayesha lying on the floor with her gun in hand and a bullet wound in her head, implying she has killed herself. A VHS tape with the word "WATCH" written on it in lipstick, lies beside her. Larry picks up the tape and anxiously watches it.

Confused, Larry watches the webcam footage and sees Kyle explain that he and his mother want to make their own tape; Kyle then attempts suicide on-camera by shooting himself through his jaw, but seemingly survives, even though his jaw is completely ripped off, and runs off moments before Larry and Ayesha enter the dorm. An undead Ayesha suddenly attacks Larry. When he breaks her neck, she chases after him on all fours. Larry hides in a closet and shoots Ayesha in the face when she finds him. Larry hears a gurgling sound and explores the closet only to find Kyle hiding in the back. Kyle strangles Larry and afterwards gives the camera a "thumbs up", his plan being a success, and the recording ends.

Phase I Clinical Trials

Directed by Adam Wingard

After a car accident, Herman receives an ocular implant with a camera to replace his damaged right eye. The doctor warns that he may experience "glitches" because the implant is still in an experimental stage, and Herman notices a young red-haired woman staring at him on the way out of the hospital. That night at his home, he is haunted by a man and young girl, both of whom appear dead. Herman calls the doctor to demand that he remove the implant, and spends the night locked in his bathroom.

The next day, the red-haired woman, Clarissa, appears at his door, asking him if he is starting to see dead people. She reveals that she was born deaf and had an implant installed in her ear, which allowed her to hear but also gave her the ability to hear dead people. Herman suggests that if he has the implant removed the ghosts will go away but Clarissa explains that removing the implant will just keep Herman from seeing the ghosts, not send them away. She then asks if Herman has ever hurt anyone but he doesn't answer. Suddenly the ghost of Clarissa's "creepy" uncle appears behind her. She seems unaffected by this saying that he wasn't a very nice guy. She then explains that the ghosts become stronger when one pays attention to them, so they have sex in an effort to ignore them. Later that night, the ghosts of the dead man and young girl appear and an unseen force drowns Clarissa in the outdoor pool. Running back through the house in an effort to escape the ghosts, Herman again locks himself in the bathroom and uses a straight razor to cut out his eye. Herman then opens the door to escape but unwittingly runs directly into the ghosts who throttle him and stuff the eye, still attached to the razor, down his throat, presumably killing him.

A Ride in the Park

Directed by Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale

A cyclist, Mike, with a camera affixed on his helmet, is riding through a state park, when he runs into a hysterical and bloody woman, asking for help with her boyfriend. Mike then sees several zombies approaching them, before he is suddenly attacked and bitten on the throat by the woman, whom he kills. Mike staggers through the park, heavily bleeding, before finally collapsing and apparently dying. A pair of bikers come across him and attempt to help, but he reanimates, attacks, and partially devours them. Hearing noise in the distance, the three zombies head off towards it.

The trio invades a young girl's birthday party, killing several people, some of whom reanimate to attack others. While trying to attack a man in his car, he notices his bloodied reflection, which seems to subdue his aggressive behavior. When he accidentally pocket dials his girlfriend, he is shocked back to a semi-conscious state upon hearing her voice and kills himself with a discarded shotgun.

Safe Haven

Directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans

A news crew composed of 4 members (Malik the interviewer, his girlfriend Lena, and Adam and Joni the cameramen) infiltrate an Indonesian cult in the hope of shooting a documentary about their mysterious activities. Inside the building, they find the walls adorned in bizarre symbols, schoolchildren in classrooms, and women dressed in white garments. Malik overhears that his fiancée, Lena, is pregnant with Adam's child.

In the basement, Adam finds a bloody woman strapped to a chair who begins convulsing, causing him to run away. While the cult leader is being interviewed, a bell chimes, and he suddenly announces the "time of reckoning" over the intercom. The cultists begin a mass suicide via poison and gunshots, while Joni has his throat cut by the cult leader after repeatedly interrupting the announcement. Lena is abducted by several women in surgical apparel, and Malik is shot dead by one of the cult members. As Adam attempts to rescue Lena, an explosion knocks him down, and the cult leader then proceeds to explode in front of him. Adam finds Lena placed on an altar but is unable to save her as a horned demon tears its way out of her body. As Adam attempts to flee, he is attacked by the previously deceased cultists and schoolchildren, including Joni and Malik who have all turned into zombie-like ghouls. He eventually makes it to his car and attempts to drive away, but the demon chases him down and overturns the vehicle. As he attempts to crawl out, the demon calls him "papa", causing him to begin laughing hysterically, realizing that the demon is actually his child. Shortly thereafter, the camera malfunctions.

Slumber Party Alien Abduction

Directed by Jason Eisener

Young brothers Gary and Randy attach a camera to their Yorkshire Terrier dog, Tank, to create videos at their lake-side house. After their parents leave, Gary and Randy invite over their friends, Shawn and Danny, and the group harass the older sister, Jen, and her boyfriend, Zack. While the group is swimming at a nearby lake, they fail to notice a grey alien hiding beneath the water.

Later that night, the aliens begin frightening the kids with bright lights and deafening noises. Realizing the aliens are in the house and have cut the power, Zack attempts to scare off the intruders with a shotgun, only to be quickly grabbed by one of the aliens. The aliens attack the rest of the teenagers in the house, dragging them in their sleeping bags, and attempting to drown them in the lake.

Only Gary, Randy, Jen and Tank escape, running into the woods to hide. After Tank inadvertently alerts the aliens to their location by barking, the group run toward what they believe to be police lights and sirens, but it turns out to be a trap set by the aliens who abduct Randy. Jen and Gary flee to a nearby barn, where the aliens drag Jen away as Gary and Tank escape up a ladder. As the aliens close in on Gary, he is suddenly pulled into the air by the alien ship's tractor beam, dropping the dog in the process. Tank is fatally injured by the fall and lies whimpering on the ground as both he and the camera slowly die.

Cast

Production and release

The film was rushed into production in late 2012,^[5] and premiered January 19, 2013 at Park City's Library Center Theatre as part of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, much like its predecessor.^[6]

The film was released via VOD on June 6, and theatrically on July 12.^[7] Dance punk band The Death Set recorded a song, "6 Different Ways To Die", for the film's credits.

Reception

According to Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of critics have given the film positive reviews, based on 61 reviews. The consensus is: "It's as scattershot as its predecessor, but V/H/S/2 rounds up enough horror filmmaking talent to deliver a satisfyingly nasty – albeit uneven – dose of gore."^[8] Metacritic rated it 49/100.^[9] Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "The scares are as hit-or-miss as the filmmaking".^[3] Dennis Harvey of Variety called it "rip-roaring good time for genre fans".^[10]

On July 10, 2013, Rex Reed was the subject of controversy due to a scathing review of the film in which he admitted having walked out at the end of the first segment.^[11] His review does complain about parts of the film that happened after he left the film, but his references are rather imprecise, e.g. describing segment Slumber Party Alien Abduction as "a sleepover invaded by psycho kidnappers [as opposed to aliens] told from the perspective of a GoPro camera attached to the back of a dog" or summarizing segment A Ride in the Park as the tale of "a mountain biker pursued by flesh-eating zombies [rather than turned into one himself early on]".^[12]

Sequel

A third film in the series, titled V/H/S: Viral, was released on November 25, 2014. It centers around “fame-obsessed teens who unwittingly become stars of the next internet sensation.” Like the two previous V/H/S films, V/H/S Viral consists of several short segments, which are directed by Todd Lincoln ("The Apparition"), Nacho Vigalondo ("Timecrimes"), Marcel Sarmiento ("Deadgirl"), Gregg Bishop ("Dance of the Dead"), Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (co-directors of "Resolution").

See also

• List of films featuring extraterrestrials

References

External links

• Official website
• V/H/S/2 at the Internet Movie Database
• V/H/S/2 at AllMovie
• V/H/S/2 at Box Office Mojo
• V/H/S/2 at Rotten Tomatoes
• V/H/S/2 at Metacritic