V/H/S (2012)
Directed by David Bruckner
When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire one rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they had bargained for.
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What critics compared V/H/S to
The “Paranormal Activity” series has reminded us how much can be done with “live” effects — sleight of hand rather than CGI — and “V/H/S” takes it even further in a variety of clever ways (although it uses some computers, too).
The "Paranormal Activity" series has reminded us how much can be done with "live" effects -- sleight of hand rather than CGI -- and "V/H/S" takes it even further in a variety of clever ways (and uses some computers, too).
The so-called Found Footage film has now become its own genre following the smash successes enjoyed by “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) and “Paranormal Activity” (2007).
After six shorts full of shaky cam and thin plot lines (enough to power all of the even-thinner Paranormal Activity series), you might be ready to let them put it to rest.
Eight years later, Paranormal Activity proved it could be a billion-dollar gold mine.
At a juncture where Hollywood has already parodied horror to death (“Scream,’’ “Scary Movie’’) and taken its conventions to their most bloody (“Saw’’) or lo-fi (“Paranormal Activity’’) extremes, what space is left for the indie sensibility to make its mark on the genre?
Thanks to the popularity of 2012s V/H/S , a collection of inventive horror shorts that built off the late-2000s found footage craze, it’s impossible to scroll through the horror section of any streaming service without drowning in new spooky anthologies.
The first time, to my incomplete knowledge, that the gimmick of showing a horror movie entirely through the form of what happens on a computer screen was in the 2012 found footage anthology V/H/S , in the segment "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger", and it has been a few times since: 2013's The Den, 2014's Unfriended and its 2018 in-name-only sequel .
Joe Swanberg’s segment of portmanteau horror V/H/S took place across various Skype chats between a couple while nifty little ghost story Unfriended expanded Swanberg’s idea to a feature-length online conversation between six people, one of whom is not of this world.
Cut to 2022 and three sequels later, the franchise (on life support after diminishing box office returns and two crummy MTV spinoffs) has been revived with a serrated edge by Radio Silence duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (of Ready or Not and V/H/S fame) two Scream superfans who, with the assistance of series creator Kevin Williamson (he’s got an executive producing credit) and writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, have crafted a loving homage to the series’ enduring legacy while balancing an appropriate amount of fan service with meta commentary on elevated horror.
The film was directed by the team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who got their start making a segment of the 2012 cult anthology horror film “V/H/S.”
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett ("Ready or Not," "V/H/S") stage several daring sequences, gleefully toying with audience expectations of jump scares while ramping up the horror violence and lessening the humorous tone of the previous movies.
Going in, you expect a young, expendable group of future corpses, and co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (part of the scrappy horror collective Radio Silence behind Ready or Not and V/H/S ) have sharp casting instincts, throwing off our urge to pick the killer ahead of time.
This time around directing duties go to Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, two of the filmmakers behind the Radio Silence filmmaking collective ( V/H/S , Ready or Not ), with a script written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.
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Nacho Vigalondo’s unfortunately overcomplicated Open Windows and the 2012 omnibus joint V/H/S both use Skype chats to variable effect; if we want to duck genre, then it’s worth pointing out that Modern Family presented an entire episode using FaceTime as the stage earlier this year.
And here's where we must be very specific about what we mean: it's not the footage being shown on Skype, a gimmick that dates at least back to the segment "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" from 2012's V/H/S , and it's not the Skype window with instant messages popping up in front of it, as in The Den.
Si bien el uso de una interfaz como elemento narrativo no es exactamente novedoso, se aplicó anteriormente en Persecución virtual (Open Windows, 2014) y en uno de los cortometrajes de la primera V/H/S (2012), The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger.
Unlike the evasiveness of the consistency of the whole sum of V/H/S (2012-14), Southbound (2015), Holidays (2016) and XX (2017), Wild Tales (2014) and now The Ballad of Buster Scruggs have mastered that which seemingly eludes so many filmmakers.
This tart satirical horror from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, two thirds of the film-making collective Radio Silence who masterminded 2012’s cult horror anthology V/H/S , borrows its title from the children’s game hide and seek (or else the 1996 Fugees track of the same name).
The directors of “V/H/S,” Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, have upped their game with the intense horror-thriller “Ready or Not” starring Samara Weaving, Andy MacDowell, Mark O’Brien, and Adam Brody.
The directing duo’s previously worked on segments from the underwhelming anthologies V/H/S and Southbound.
Directed with ingenuity and energy by Radio Silence filmmaking collective members Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Devil’s Due, Southbound, V/H/S) and snappily penned by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, Ready or Not isn’t pretending to be something it’s not, but rather the best version of what it could hope to be.
It’s evident Busick, Murphy and co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (V/H/S) and Tyler Gillett (Southbound) have a kernel of an idea ruminating in their heads about classism and the power of the elite, but they simply can’t find a way to develop it into a worthwhile narrative.
The latest from Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, two-thirds of the filmmaking group Radio Silence best known for the first-person horror segment of V/H/S , mashes up Clue and The Most Dangerous Game and infuses it with dark, nutty energy, gore (the loopy rather than repulsive kind), smart laughs and sharp satire at the expense of America’s well-to-do.
His well-received V/H/S is a cult classic and his 2016 horror Southbound dealing with similar themes.
Following his previous genre efforts Southbound and V/H/S, David Bruckner’s witty horror The Ritual treads a fine line between scares and laughs, but this examination of late-thirties masculinity in crisis by way of forest-bound terror is right on target.
Making his feature debut after directing segments for the horror anthology films V/H/S and Southbound , David Bruckner proves that he is clearly familiar with the mechanics of his genre, but The Ritual misses the mark: working in a longer format, he comes up with a confused and unsustainable tangle of typical horror tropes.
It’s directed by David Bruckner ( The Signal , 2007, and the “Amateur Night” segment in V/H/S , 2012) and co-written by Joe Barton and Adam Nevill.
The Ritual, a taut new film from director David Bruckner (The Signal, V/H/S), is recognisably related to such weird, wondrous classics of the form as The Wicker Man and The Blair Witch Project.
Director David Bruckner ( V/H/S , The Signal ) brings us this deeply allegorical tale of friendships.
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The trick was previously done in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, but it still works here and at least gives you something to hold your attention.
Director Adam Wingard (“V/H/S”) stages killer battles between Godzilla and King Kong, knocking over the neon towers of Hong Kong like action figures demolishing Lego towers with a fun homage to the 1933 original.