V/H/S: Viral (2014) (Movie Review)
Directed By: Various
Starring: Emmy Argo, Amanda Baker, Rim Basma
Available on VOD Now
A police chase after a deranged ice cream truck has captivated the attention of the greater Los Angeles area. Dozens of fame—obsessed teens flock to the streets with their video cameras and camera phones, hell—bent on capturing the next viral video. But there is something far more sinister occurring in the streets of L.A. than a simple police chase. A resounding effect is created onto all those obsessed with capturing salacious footage for no other purpose than to amuse or titillate. Soon the discovery becomes that they themselves are the stars of the next video, one where they face their own death.
Having seen V/H/S: Viral, I’m not sure what to even say about it. I can honestly say I believe it to be the worse of the three V/H/S films easily, but I also think it comes across as kind of a mess. We have a mess of a wrap around combined with three stories, there were meant to be four and nobody seems to have a clue where the 4th one went or what happened to it. I think this one could have used another “tape” due to the fact we don’t get enough with the three we do have. Starting out with the wrap around titled “Vicious Circles” we have a wrap that is different from the ones in the two film films and not in a good way. A man is obsessed with filming things, including his hot girlfriend. when a police chase happens he goes to film it, his woman ends up in the ice cream truck they are chasing, and a mess follows. Yes, a MESS is what I said. It gets confusing, it doesn’t give us a payoff, and while this series has a mixed history with the bookends of the movies, this one is by far the worst and feels like stuff is just being tossed against the wall in hopes that it will stick.
Now, let us get into our three shorts that are the core of V/H/S Viral. We kick things off with the story of a magician with and evil cape. “Dante the Great” as it is called is full of silly. The format jumps around from half documentary to half shot on video and I’m pretty sure there are times we somewhat skip the found footage nature all together. Or at least if we don’t it is never explained why or how. If you are going to be in an anthology called V/H/S at least you could stick to the format. Next up we have “Parallel Monsters”. This one isn’t bad, as it deals with parallel universes and one man crossing over with the version of himself from another universe. Things manage to get creepy and weird here before it ends and it has just enough Cronenberg flavor to it that I believe it might end up being remembered as the overall favorite of the three. We wrap things up on the tape side with “Bonestorm”. This one is a mixed bag of bones, but not terrible. It is fast paced and feels more like what we’ve gotten from the V/H/S franchise as a whole. I feel the only downside to it is it just doesn’t have any payoff and while fun it just kind of ends. When it comes to V/H/S Viral we get a mixed film and leans more towards the disappointing side of things. I think this tape certainly has mold on it.
