This third addition to the V/H/S horror anthology franchise presents 4 more found-footage horror shorts that are tied together with the wrap-around story ‘Vicious Circles’, which follows a man on a desperate chase to find his abducted girlfriend.
It’s always difficult to review a horror anthology, because it is very rare to find one where each short film is as good as the last and each segment deserves to be judged separately. V/H/S: Viral is another case of a mixed bag anthology, where no segment is downright awful, but only a couple are really noteworthy. Although none are truly astounding, they are all worth a watch and with such a short runtime, you’re not going to be left begging for your time back at the end of it.
The main disappointment with Viral comes with its dire wrap-around story. It follows a fame-obsessed man who dreams of being “something more” and jumps at the chance to film a car chase that is heading for his location. Sadly for him, he misses it and instead, manages to capture the abduction of his girlfriend – what are the chances? He then hops on his bike and races after the abductor’s van and all the while is sent distressing footage of his girlfriend, making him even more determined to find her. There is very little here to be enjoyed as much of the time is filled with headache-inducing shaky cam and fuzzy images. It only starts to get interesting at the end where the themes from all the stories are tied up in to an almost-neat bow. It’s a bit of a silly story overall, but it’s supposed to be a bit of a metaphor, you see. The film’s ideas as a whole are made clear through this one story and if you think it has something to do with “going viral” and the internet, then you’re on the right lines. Sadly though, it’s a bit of a bore and doesn’t manage to do anything particularly interesting with its short run-time.
The second story is called Dante The Great and follows a magician who discovers a magical cloak which allows him to perform impossible feats. He can grab a rabbit from the other side of the room, fly and make people disappear. However, his skills and fame come with a price as he must ‘feed’ the cloak regularly with human sacrifices. The idea of a demonic cloak is more funny than scary, and the segment never manages to reach the heights of the horror it tries so desperately to reach. The story is a little far-fetched; why Dante would record himself feeding women to his cloak is beyond me and just asking for incrimination. Various conventions of found-footage are broken here, with impossible footage managing to be filmed. However, based on entertainment value, playfulness and inventiveness, it’s not too bad. The magical camera tricks are a bit of fun and the ending is top-notch. This is one segment that could work as a full-length feature, despite it never really matching Dante’s levels of greatness.
The next part is the strangest of the four and sees a man – let’s call him Man No.1 – swap places with himself – Man No.2 – in an alternate universe. Little does he know, the alternate universe is mighty weird and not like the one we live in at all. Unexpectedly, this is from Timecrimes’ Nacho Vigalondo and sees the director delving in to more questions about time and space. The segment has an effective build-up of tension as we see Man No.1 ushered in to a sinister ceremony with his wife and 2 other men, while a space ship with an upside-down cross hovers around outside. I told you it was strange. Meanwhile, Man No.2 is wandering around in the ‘normal’ universe and is surprised at the ‘strangeness’ of it all. This would be funny if the underlying suspense about what he’s going to do to his sleeping wife, wasn’t so damn terrifying. The story builds to a great little climax that involves monstrous genitalia and definitely warns me off messing around with alternate universes. The idea of identical worlds involving ourselves will always be an intriguing concept and Vigalondo gives us an unpredictable and scary snapshot of what could be waiting for us out there.
The final segment is the zaniest and most fun. A group of skateboarders are trying to make film of their tricks and stumble upon a great place covered in strange symbols. When one of them gets cut and bleeds on top of a pentagram – brilliant, right? – the blood catches fire and a host of hooded cultists begin to attack them. The boys put up one hell of a fight, but the dead rise and they have to battle an undead horde of hooded skeletons instead. Again, if we take this segment and rate it based on entertainment value alone, it’s damn good. The skeleton effects are great and the close-up POV shots put you right in the action. It plays out like an intense video game rather than a film, but in keeping with the themes of Viral, it mostly succeeds. This segment uses the found-footage aspect the best, and is brave enough to not use that awful fuzzy effect when things get interesting.
All in all, V/H/S: Viral is let down by it’s wrap-around story which tries to bring all the segments together and in doing so, marks itself out as the worst of the bunch. As with all anthology films, there are parts in there you’ll want to applaud and parts you’ll want to burn with fire. However, it’s a mostly enjoyable little flick and even though it’s almost devoid of any scares, there are far worse ways to spend 80 minutes.
Words: Jessy Williams
