In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Tuesday 22 October 2024

V/H/S/85 (2023)


I never end up liking these as much as other people. As always, the segments vary in quality, though this was probably the most consistently entertaining entry thus far. I really liked how they integrated the wraparound story within an actual VHS tape which has clearly been recorded over many times. That part at least feels very authentic to the time period. However, it suffers from the same issue of every found footage film, which is that nagging question of "Why would they keep filming this?" Especially considering how unwieldly camcorders were back in the '80s. I also thought this installment was way too bloated and some of the pacing dragged on far too long. 
My favorite segments were "No Wake"/"Ambrosia" (I was hoping for a third part to conclude that story) and "Dreamkill," even though that was probably the worst acted. I'm not really sure why they changed the aspect ratio for that one, since it very much looked like it was shot on digital video. 
Aesthetically, this entry was also kind of painful to watch. I know it's supposed to look like crappy videocassette quality, but they may have succeeded a bit too well.

2½ VR headsets out of 5

3 comments:

Dr Faustus said...

The poster art makes me think of Tron crossed with Flight of the Navigator.

budarc said...

Does a great job of capturing those early VHS slipcovers which were always better than the movie itself.

Dr Faustus said...

Completely. I really like it. If the V/H/S logo was cut off the bottom, it would look great framed.