V/H/S

(2012, Dir. by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence.)

The anthology horror film gets a hip new face with V/H/S, an unpolished collection of horror tales from some of the cool new kids in horror. Keeping with another cool new horror trend, V/H/S also plays out using the found footage technique, with characters controlling the action in each of the stories.

The wrap-around story follows a group of twenty something criminals who make money by tricking and/or forcing women into getting naked, until the day they get a big money assignment to break in to a country home and steal a VHS tape.  When they arrive, they find a creepy old dead man and a lot of tapes, each of which hold a different spooky surprise.

Each of the stories that break up the criminals' bumbling adventure is its own mini-found footage film, each of which is presented in a different manner.  One is a home movie of a romantic vacation, another is footage taken from some spy camera glasses, another seems to be a recording of a Skype conversation.  About the only things these stories have in common are a) violent surprises and b) men who try to get women to show their breasts.  I'm not saying this is the most misogynistic horror movie I've seen, but it does seem kind of like the male directors/writers created their scripts while drinking at a frat party.  (Meanwhile, it's probably best not to think about how there happens to be an old VHS tape of a Skype conversation or how video from a pair of glasses with a camera in them gets on tape either.)

Once you get past how juvenile the stories and characters can be, the five short films are often very effective.  The first segment is a bit of a chore to get through, thanks to some grating camera work and annoying characters, but it still offers a neat twist and some impressive special effects for a film on this budget.  The second segment - directed by FMWL favorite Ti West - is one of the highlights of the film, showcasing some creepy stalker imagery and shocking finale.  A slasher segment with a twist in the middle of the film is a little bit of a let down, but it's followed up by a the bizarre and inventive Skype-ish segment which stands out as the most unpredictable piece of the film

The final segment is probably the best example of the film's problems and successes as they come together.  I also think it's my favorite part of the film.  Directed by and starring members of a group who are credited as Radio Silence, it features more obnoxious young males drinking, swearing, and hoping to party - only to stumble into a haunting situation.  The sequence features a lot of "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" scares, and leads to the film's best Twilight Zone-style surprise.  It's a film that could have been put together a lot of ways, but I think it ends at the most perfect moment.

V/H/S is a highly flawed film, but its radical approach to horror is a breath of fresh air to me.  The handheld cinematography is often a drawback and some juvenile writing (including an impressive number of excuses to show female breasts) will leave a bad taste in the mouth of anyone who wants their horror to rise above the cliches that give the genre a bad name.  But when you get past those issues - which will be hard for some, since they are blatant and persistent throughout the film - the ideas behind these horror stories have a lot to offer.  It's kind of like a cheap all-you-can-eat buffet version of the horror anthology - there's a lot there, but you have to take the bad with the good. 

If nothing else, V/H/S stands as an interesting statement on how versatile the new breed of horror filmmakers can be. You can see that they're horror fans, and a large part of their appeal to horror fans is the fact that we can see a recognition of horror conventions in their films.  But these young guns have a lot of ideas that shake even the most experienced horror fans' expectations. V/H/S raises as many questions as it answers about these young filmmakers, but they did enough to keep me fascinated in where the film was going next, which led to a smooth and enjoyable two-hour horror experience.  It's not for everyone, but V/H/S works well enough for me.

The Mike's Top 50 Horror Movies Countdown: #31 - The House of the Devil

Previously on the Countdown: Number 50 - Happy Birthday to Me  Number 49 - Prince of Darkness  Number 48 - House on Haunted Hill  Number 47 - The Monster Squad  Number 46 - Hellraiser  Number 45 - The Fog  Number 44 - Creature From the Black Lagoon  Number 43 - Zombie  Number 42 - Tales from the Crypt  Number 41 - Bubba Ho-Tep  Number 40 - Phantom of the Paradise  Number 39 - Dog Soldiers Number 38 - Pontypool  Number 37 - Dark Water  Number 36 - Army of Darkness Number 35 - The Legend of Hell House  Number 34 - Poltergeist  Number 33 - The Abominable Dr. Phibes  Number 32 - The Phantom of the Opera

The House of the Devil

(2009, Dir. by Ti West.)

Why It's Here:

I'm not a guy who throws high praise on newer movies too often.  Well, I generally do praise the ones I truly dig, but it's very rarely that I will throw them ahead of lifelong favorites when I'm doing things like list-making.  So I'm still kind of telling myself to slow down and not go so fast when it comes to The House of the Devil.  But, the thing is, I've already seen this movie like six times in three years and every time I'm more convinced that it's the best thing to happen to horror in a long time.  Ti West's meticulous chiller is endlessly fascinating to me, primarily because of the fantastic restraint shown by the director and his cast.

The Moment That Changes Everything:

Sometimes, the moments in horror that really work are the moments that don't have anything to do with the horror.  One such example comes near the middle of this film, where Jocelin Donahue's lead character provides a break to the unending unease by dancing around the old, ominous house to The Fixx's One Thing Leads To Another.  In a film that's packed with silence, this interlude actually adds to the tension by making us wonder what impact her carefree nature will have on her once the fearful stuff kicks back in.

It Makes an Excellent Double Feature With:

They really don't make 'em like this too often, which makes me feel like I should think back to past horrors when considering a partner for the film. Beautiful young woman meets slow and satanic terrors worked similarly well in 1977's The Sentinel, and - if nothing else - you can compare and contrast how city and country cults differ in methodology.

What It Means To Me:

I talk down to modern horror all the time, and really shouldn't.  There's a ton of good stuff out there, it's just hard to find it sometimes.  The House of the Devil doesn't help its contemporaries out, because it's such a fantastic reminder of how good a horror film can be if it focuses its energy on the right things.  I'll take extreme tension over extreme gore every day of the week, which is just one of the reasons I give The House of the Devil such a big edge over most recent horror films.

The Innkeepers

(2011, Dir. by Ti West.)

The Innkeepers is the fourth film by writer/director Ti West - who's quickly become a cult hero in the horror scene - and I feel like I must start any commentary on the film by stating that this is easily West's most fast-paced film.  That's not to say West's new tale of terror wants to be one of Michael Bay's blockbusters, it's more of a statement to denote that he's starting to move at a pace that most audiences will be comfortable with.  That probably makes The Innkeepers his most accessible film to the masses thus far, but it doesn't mean West's losing his eye for building fantastic tension.

In some ways, The Innkeepers signifies a step forward for West.  One of my favorite things about his last film - The House of the Devil, which I've lauded as my favorite horror film of the last decade - was the relationship he built between the lead character and her best friend during the first half of the film.  The Innkeepers is built around a similarly natural and realistic relationship between two hotel employees, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy), who are charged with observing the final days of business at The Yankee Pedlar, an old school hotel that's alleged to be haunted.  While West's first three films seemed to slip into long sequences without dialogue - a technique that generally served its purpose by drawing us in to the lead characters' fears - The Innkeepers manages to create similar tension while keeping the characters' relationship in the forefront of the film.  This focus on the characters and their interactions has several positive effects on the film.   The relationship between the leads - who share a drive for paranormal research - adds a surprising amount of humor to the film, and yet it also adds to the tension of the film when Claire is on her own and we already know just how frail she is emotionally and physically.

I mean no disrespect to Healy, who gives a very good performance in the film, but Paxton's performance as Claire is something of a revelation.  The 23 year-old actress turned the heads of horror fans when she co-starred in the remake of The Last House on the Left, but her turn in The Innkeepers will certainly go a long way toward establishing her as an actress who can carry a film.  I'm often most impressed when actors/actresses can play a "normal" character (it seems Hollywood sells "normal" in a sugar coated format far too often), and Paxton - who spent much of her early career in sugary teen films - really sells out in the name of the film.  The miniature actress seems to be a natural as the college drop out who struggles with asthma and low aspirations, and she brings the same kind of charm that House of the Devil lead Jocelin Donahue brought to that film.

And it's Paxton's charismatic performance that leads the film's biggest successes, which come when the film's terrors begin to prey on Claire's frailty.  Going into the details of the film's haunting certainly would be a lame move on my part, so I'll simply tell you that I liked the psychological aspect of the film's story more than the supernatural side of it all.  I had a brief argument with myself at the end of the film, because I think a case could be made for differing interpretations of the final scenes.  None of this mental rumination would have occurred if Paxton hadn't portrayed Claire as an impressionable and overzealous young woman, and in my mind the film capitalized on the performance perfectly.

Aside from the terrific lead performance, West's film has plenty of tense moments where the director shows off the same approach he brought to House of the Devil.  We see something, then we don't see something, and then we wait for something to happen, and then we repeat.  It sounds typical and cliche - and I do think of the film's scares will look pretty standard to most horror fans - but West's ability to build tension again powers his film to success. 

I wasn't as crazy about The Innkeepers as I hoped I'd be when the end credits first rolled, but it's stuck with me in the day since my viewing ended.  I might have expected too much from West as he followed up House of the Devil, but The Innkeepers deserves praise on its own.  It's a fun horror film with a surprising dose of comedy that compliments the tense scenes well.  West has a terrific feel for horror, and when you combine that with the fine performances, you've got a real winner.