Watch V/H/S: Viral For Free

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Crappy film

Absolutely the worst movie.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Let me start out by saying I remember seeing the first VHS. I fell in love with it. I've always found the found footage genre interesting, and VHS was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The first film's ability to keep suspense by hiding things behind impurities in the video print, combined with creative and well- executed stories, made it instantly a horror masterpiece. Then I heard there was a sequel. I looked it up on Netflix, and I was satisfied with what I got. It wasn't as shocking or gripping as the first, but the idea's were still creative, the writing and acting was all around well done, and by sequel's standards, it held up well. Then I heard they were making a third film. I got hyped, and watched it the day it came on Netflix. What. The. F*ck. I'm still not entirely sure VHS Viral is part of the VHS series. The ideas were still kind of interesting, but were done terribly. Dumb executions, half-assed acting, and the encompassing storyline is attempting to be melodrama, but just ends stupidly. My advice is to avoid this movie, put on VHS and VHS/2, and live in denial of the third one.

V/H/S: Viral is a departure from the previous entries. We don't get the usual goofs looking through old VHS tapes. However the story that frames the movie ("Vicious Circles") doesn't make much sense. It involves a young couple. The guy decides to film everything, mainly his pretty girlfriend. When one of those LA car chases takes place in his neighborhood he sees his chance to film it and upload it so it'll go viral. Off he goes on his bike with cameras attached to his helmet. The chase follows a creepy old ice cream van that runs over people. For some reason the guy's cell phone mysteriously shows videos of his girl. Suddenly she appears on the street and vanishes as the van drives by.Then we move to the first independent segment--"Dante the Great." One day Dante discovers a cape which has powers. It's like it is a portal to a different dimension. So he starts doing magic with it and becomes famous. But the cops are on his tail because his assistants keep disappearing. It turns out the cape demands blood. But his new assistant has plans of her own.We go back to "Vicious Circles" for some more bike riding after the van/girl. Someone in the back of the van grabs another biker who gets dragged to pieces."Parallel Monsters" is about a Spanish guy who invents some large machine. When he turns it on and opens the door, it looks like on the other side is his mirror image. Another guy who looks just like him, holding a camera, and amazed at the machine. But it's not a mirror image. It's a parallel but inverted universe. They decide to go through the portal for every guy to explore the other guy's life. Their homes are identical except for a photo on a wall. One guy has a picture of him and his wife, the other a picture of a pentagram and candles. The first guy meets the other guy's hot wife. Apparently they were about to do something. In the middle of the living room is some bloody bag and two guys in underwear show up. When they ask the guy to go ahead and be the first, he hesitates so the other guys leave. The wife insists puzzled, so he leaves and runs into the two guys outside who go after him and suddenly their heads turn to light and develop creepy voices. When they take off their underwear it isn't pretty. Meanwhile guy #2 goes to the bedroom to see the other guy's wife who's sleeping, he too has something in his pants. Eventually they cross the portals again, but the first guy's wife isn't happy.The next segment "Bonestorm" features a bunch of dumb dope-head skaters who decide to drive to Tijuana. They buy firecrackers and as they walk/skate trough some riverbed run into some strange girl, see a corpse, an altar, a pentagram. The skate all over that stuff. Then one guy falls and bleeds over the pentagram. Now guys in hoods and corpsepaint appear and chant and slowly attack the kids who defend themselves with a gun, their skateboards, and the firecrackers, but the hooded guys buy now have turned into skeletons and still go after them.In the end the kid on the bike catches up with the van that has stopped. He gets inside and there are countless old TV sets. Suddenly his girl appears on screen and asks him to upload his videos. He declines so she starts hurting herself until he agrees.I didn't get to see "Gorgeous Vortex" that is included on DVD. Unfortunately this movie is not coherent enough. "Vicious Circles" doesn't amount to anything. Which is surprising given that Sarmiento has done some great things in the past. "Dante the Great" is a great story. Very entertaining and unique."Parallel Monsters" had a lot of promise but something doesn't satisfy. I don't know why they had to film this in Spain. It's still a good segment though."Bonestorm" is hampered by some real nasty characters that you can't care for. And it's also poorly filmed with cameras attached to the kids' helmets--pointing at their faces for some reason and that makes up most of the footage.I don't know if Gorgeous Vortex would have improved things. As it is, the arrangement of the stories doesn't help. Had they started with Dante and ended with Parallel perhaps I would have a better perception of VHS: Viral. But the ending as it is doesn't leave you with a good impression. At least we get sharp images and only a bit of unnecessary greenvision. I don't see a need for a further entry to the series.

Back in 2012, a new horror anthology graced the big and small screens and gave us new horror filmmakers, great stories, and scared the living daylights out of us. That anthology was called 'V/H/S', named after the popular home video format from the 80s and early 90s and consisted of 4 different short films with a 5th overall wrap- around movie to tie everything together. Each segment is directed by someone different in the horror genre and every filmmaker's unique stamp is imprinted in their own portion.Since the first 'V/H/S' was so successful and became an instant cult hit, the following year, they made 'V/H/S 2', which followed the same formula and was even better than the first go around. Now in 2014, we have the third installment and possibly the final film called 'V/H/S 3: Viral'. This time around, there are only three segments with a wrap around storyline, and instead of the whole VHS angle, this is more about things being filmed with a mobile phone and being uploaded to the internet, hence the 'Viral' aspect.The wrap around story is quite cool and features a a young couple watching a live police chase happening in their neighborhood. Once they see it coming down their street, they boyfriend uses his mobile phone to record the police chase in hopes that it goes viral online. That brings us to our first segment called 'Dante The Great', directed by Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead), which tells the story of a famous magician and the mysterious murders and disappearances of his female assistants. Dante (Justin Welborn) comes across a cloak, which is said to belong to the great Harry Houdini. Once he has the cloak, he is able to pull off any illusion with great ease, but there is something sinister about the cloak that might be the key to all these murders. This segment had both the found footage aspect as well as a straight narrative, but the special effects were pretty amazing, and Welborn did a great job as a sadistic and mad magician.The second segment was by far my favorite and was directed by the legendary Nacho Vigalondo (Time Crimes). His segment is called 'Parallel Monsters' and was the right amount of screwed up and scary that he can make a feature length movie out of this. This short starts off with an inventor who builds a machine in his basement that connects him to a parallel universe. Once this is open, he sees the mirror image of himself and his house. The two dopplegangers are friendly and are equally excited about this invention. They both decide to take 15 minutes to cross over into each other's universe and explore the similarities and differences. But once they do, we see that there are more things that are different than the same as we see bags dripping with blood and guts hanging around the house, blood orgies, sirens, and a satanic cult presence everywhere. And just when you think you've seen it all, Nacho adds a level of horror and shock that would make the Japanese horror film genre beg for mercy. It's quite amazing.And the last segment is called 'Bonestorm' and is directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead(Spring). This piece is all sorts of fun and the premise is very simple. We meet a few jerk-off skateboarders who are trying to make their 'sponsor' video by pulling obnoxious pranks and skateboarding on city property. The four skateboarders head to Tijuana, Mexico to film their last scene in their video when a satanic and supernatural demon cult shows up and starts attacking them. Then this film turns into a video game like simulation as the skateboarders in first person mode use their skateboards, ninja swords, and anything else they can get their hands on to kill these demons from hell. It will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire battle.I really hope that this isn't the last film in the 'V/H/S' series, because if it is, I feel like it would have went out with a whimper rather than a bang. That being said, this third installment still has some fantastic moments that is guaranteed to thrill you, chill you, and fulfill you.

I've seen all of the movies in this series, and I've liked them all till now. The first movie was very unique and intriguing whereas second one had a handful of good moments.I was expecting something like that with this as well. Sadly my expectations were far from being met. As a fan of the series, I can say that this movie is a disaster.Not a segment works at its favour. The wrap around deals with a guy riding around his cycle looking for his kidnapped girlfriend. It interjects itself a lot twixt the other segments. I guess this was interesting enough to keep me watching the whole movie.The 1st segment had a lot of laugh-worthy moments. It just is so bad. The acting, the direction, the plot, everything works against it. It deals with an ambitious magician losing his mind.The 2nd segment was mediocre at best. It deals with a guy who creates a machine that connects his world with a parallel universe, and everything goes awry for him. Had a handful of laugh-worthy and gross moments (if you watch it you'll see what I mean). Again the plot and the acting is mediocre here as well.The 3rd segment should not have been there. It deals with a group of skateboarding youngster being target of crazy cultists. The synopsis might sound interesting right? But it's the worst thing about the movie. It's laugh-fest wholly, there wasn't a moment I didn't laugh when watching this one because the acting and the direction was so horrible.I guess this is what they mean when they say "so bad, it made me laugh", because this movie gave me that same feeling. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a horror, but it'd be an enjoyable movie if you want something to laugh at.