V/H/S: Viral (2014)

Movie Info

I summon the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!

A high-speed chase leads to horror as a man hoping for YouTube fame finds himself chasing the driver when he discovers he has his girlfriend.  An illusionist finds true magic when he discovers the cloak owned by Houdini.  A scientist uncovers a parallel world where life is slightly different.    Teen travel to Mexico to skate and end up in an epic battle against a death cult.

Directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Justin Benson, and Aaron Scott Moorhead, V/H/S:  Viral is the third film in the found footage V/H/S series and sometimes referred to as V/H/S 3.  Following V/H/S2 in 2013, V/H/S:  Viral drops the continued theme from V/H/S and V/H/S2 but keeps the anthology theme.  The movie was meant to have another segment, but “Gorgeous Vortex” by Todd Lincoln was dropped for flow.

You think our faces are funny, you should see our schlongs

I don’t really care for the wrap around plot which is directed by Marcel Sarmiento and called “Vicious Circles”.  This is a trend for all of the V/H/S movies.  I generally like the “host” style of anthology films, but V/H/S has never gotten it right.  Here the wrap around feels more independent than very tied in.

The best of the film is the first entry “Dante the Great” directed by Gregg Bishop.  The movie isn’t really a horror film but more of a dark fantasy…like Harry Potter dark.  The movie has some great special effects and I’d felt that this entry could have been a standalone film if it was expanded.  The look and style was great and I would like to see what Bishop could do with a bigger budget (something like Marvel’s Doctor Strange would be good).

A reminder…don’t go skateboarding in Mexico

The second full entry is “Parallel Monsters” directed by Nacho Vigalondo.  The entry is in Spanish and there is a lot of interpretation of what is going on in the story.  I like that the makers of the film didn’t pander to American audiences and just select all English entries…like many anthology pieces, most of the fun of this entry comes from the end irony.

“Bonestorm” is the third entry and directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead.  It goes for the “group of kids raising hell” video and instead of turning into a kids cowering in fear from their zombie cult attackers, these skaters fight back.  It is fast and fierce, but not quite as clever as I’d like it to be.

V/H/S:  Viral might actually be the most even of the V/H/S films.  None of the entries are very bad (except the wrap-around), and I think some are kind of clever.  V/H/S like The ABCs of Death is a kind of innovative series in horror because it gives a lot of opportunity to lesser known directors so I do hope the series continues.

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Related Links:

V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S2 (2013)