Plot: Dark twisted and the horrifying motives are revealed
when investigators uncover videos full of sex, demons and depravity while
searching for a missing student.
Starring: Adam Wingard, Gareth Evans
My Review and Thoughts:
I wasn't that big of a fan of the first one so going into
this I was skeptical not really looking forward to anything new other than a
found footage movie of many shaky camera videos.
The trailer made it awesome looking and made the buildup
thick. The trailer built anticipation of the second flow perfect for the
curious. The previews almost gave away too much, but that was the glory of
trying to pull people in.
Just like the first one they don't really shy away in
showing the nudity, especially tits and cock.
So you start off with a woman and man having sex in a motel.
They are being filmed by a man and woman investigators. There spotted and so
they run getting away and you the viewer realize the filming couple is out to
blackmail, wanting money or the VHS is going to be made public.
Soon the couple come across a house where they are supposed
to investigate a missing young man. The investigators break in and just like
the first one there is a room with TV sets. The house is covered with nothing
but VHS tapes. The woman decides to watch as the man adventures off.
First story Phase 1 Clinical Trails: a man gets a camera eye
which records. It's an experiment by a medical company. He starts seeing
strange things. Is it the eye or is real. This one is the weakest of the movie
and has no real originality to it.
Next tape, A Ride in the Park: an off-road biker in the
woods is taking his bike ride to enjoy the day. He comes across a woman screaming,
insert zombies, this is an interesting concept, a little original because he
has a head camera and so you get to see the perspective of a zombie in action
a.k.a. ZOMBIE CAM. For some odd reason I really enjoyed this one, if you know
me then you know I am zombi-ed out and can't really stand zombie movies anymore
because there's so many of them in the overdone and constantly they show up
with the same dam plot over and over.
I think this one added something original, something new, I
really enjoyed the whole concept of the reality-based handheld camera
zombie-filming.
Next tape Safe Haven: is a Chinese commune called Paradise
Gates a local crew of filmmakers want to showcase the community in a non-freak
Show way, everyone thinks the commune is weird or strange. At first the leader
refuses to allow the film crew to film until he realizes that they are to show
them in a different type of light. This is an extreme Gory, violent in your
face segment. There is more blood and gore in this one then any of them.
Shotguns to the head all the way to being blown up or blowing up from demons to
Satan whatever else you want to call it. This is an extreme example of one wild
bloody showdown induced psychosis. The true trip down the very strange horror
induced cult that reminds you and takes you back to the old grind house Italian
gore-fest of mayhem. My favorite segment out of any of them. Pure horror gore
insanity done oh so right.
Next one Slumber Party Alien Abduction: a bunch of kids with
a camera and there childlike antics along with their nutty ways. A fun summer
day until the game is no-longer fun, when the monsters come out to play. Alien
Invasion baby. I loved this one for some reason, it was a hoot and played out
perfect with the dog cam.
Directors:
Simon Barrett (Tape 49)
Adam Wingard (Clinical Trials)
Eduardo Sánchez (A Ride in the Park)
Gregg Hale (A Ride in the Park)
Gareth Huw Evans (Safe Haven)
Timo Tjahjanto (Safe Haven)
Jason Eisener (Alien Abduction Slumber Party)
VHS 2 did lose some of its originality from the first one,
but I feel this one worked better or at least was a lot more fun in the graphic
department. I loved the cult commune segment the best. I enjoyed the Alien
Abduction and I felt the zombie cam was awesome.
Overall it was another fun time in the hand held real time
horror flick. I thought the segments all worked some better than others.
This is one of those type film series that could go on and
on. If that does happen I do hope it stays with a fresh approach and also holds
onto its take on bringing together different writers and directors.
In the end I enjoyed this one a whole lot better than the
first one. I really only liked one segment in the original so this improved
where I ended up enjoying three segments.
I recommend this for the three segments. It was a fun
popcorn good time with blood and classic gore.