Sundance Review: ‘S-VHS‘ Is An Uneven, Occasionally Thrilling Sequel To The Horror Anthology

Last year, the indie horror anthology “V/H/S” was released and promised to be chock full of truly in-your-face terror – these were fearless directors, given complete creative freedom, and squeezed together under a tight, blood-soaked package. Of course, the promise of “V/H/S” and the actual movie itself were quite different, and while there were certainly some gems (including entries by Ti West and Joe Swanberg that blurred the line between mumblecore and horror even further), most of them were overlong and uninvolving and (worse yet) reinforced some of the worst traits in the horror genre, including an undercurrent of ugly misogyny that was knotted through almost every section.Well, the conceit seemed too irresistible to leave alone and this year we have “S-VHS” making its grand debut at the Sundance Film Festival, which follows the original in structure and form. Thankfully, there are some segments that play around with the format and tease where this series could be headed. So, section-by-section, let’s take a look.
Read more about “S-VHS” movie here: Sundance Review: ‘S-VHS’ Is An Uneven, Occasionally Thrilling Sequel To The Horror Anthology | The Playlist.Overall: “S-VHS” is a whole lot of fun. We can imagine midnight audiences at Sundance (and wherever else it plays – SXSW seems likely) shrieking with delight at some of the sections, and “Safe Haven” is, by our estimation, a bold piece of original horror that will widely be revered, applauded and (like any good piece of balls-out horror) widely derided. We’d love to see the series, if it does in fact continue, continue to diversify the types of stories and the locations where those stories (and filmmakers) are based. But an anthology has to be graded on an average; it is, after all, only as good as the sum of its bloody body parts. [B]

—review by drew taylor images from blogs.indiewire.com