V/H/S/2
Netflix | Amazon | Google Play | iTunes | SEN | Vudu | Xbox | YouTube
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Simon Barrett, Jason Eisener, Gareth Huw Evans, Gregg Hale, Eduardo Sánchez, Timo Tjahjanto, Adam Wingard
Starring Fachry Albar, Oka Antara, Lawrence Michael Levine, Mindy Robinson, Jay Saunders, Adam Wingard
Bloody Disgusting
Originally Released: January 19, 2013

Just in time for Halloween, Netflix has updated its line of horror movies, and I was thrilled to see V/H/S/2 had been added to their selections. Having thoroughly enjoyed the first anthology collection of found-footage horror stories, I was surprised to find that not only is the sequel superior to the original in all senses, but far more skin-crawling and overtly chilling. This is the perfect movie for Halloween!

Like V/H/S, the sequel is a collection of short macabre stories, all depicted in the found-footage style, with an overarching story / frame narrative that takes place in between each story; and actually continues the frame narrative of the first film. In fact, I believe it to be a prequel to that – the original frame narrative is titled “TAPE 56,” while this one is “TAPE 49.”

V/H/S/2
Director: Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Eduardo Sanchez, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Huw Evans, Jason Eisener
Screenwriter(s): Simon Barrett, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Evans, Jamie Nash, Jason Eisener, John Davies
Cast: Adam Wingard, Lawrence Levine, L. C. Holt, Kelsy Abbott, Hannah Hughes
Magnet Releasing
Rated R | 96 Minutes
On Demand
Release Date: June 6, 2013

In 2012, Bloody Disgusting and Magnet Releasing collaborated on V/H/S, a horror anthology of found-footage short films directed by some of the genre’s up-and-coming filmmakers including Adam Wingard (You’re Next) and Ti West (House of the Devil).

The film’s central narrative involves a group of young criminals who take a job from an anonymous third party who is willing to pay them a large sum of money to burglarize a home and steal a single VHS videotape. After breaking into the house, the criminals find an old man dead in front of a bank of television sets and VCRs playing white noise. They dig through boxes and boxes of VHS tapes, playing each one, looking for the million-dollar tape.

V/H/S suffers from an overall inconsistency in quality between the found-footage shorts; two are pretty good, one is so-so, and two fail to impress. Despite a weak wrap-around and some not-so-great segments, V/H/S introduces a really interesting premise worth exploring: the power of the VHS tape.

V/H/S/2 (originally titled S-V/H/S) is an across-the-board improvement, with a framing narrative that follows two private detectives as they investigate the disappearance of a college student. Upon entering the kid’s house, they stumble upon a collection of VHS tapes and a makeshift shrine of TVs and VCRs. There are stacks of spiral notebooks; a laptop is nearby, recording video. The investigators discover a video diary from the missing college kid who appears to be a connoisseur of rare VHS tapes.

From the demented minds that brought you last year’s V/H/S comes V/H/S/2, an all-new anthology of horrific found-footage vignettes. This installment features segments from the makers of Hobo with a Shotgun, You’re Next, The Raid: Redemption, and The Blair With Project.

You can check out the brand-new red band trailer below!

Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into this abandoned house and find a collection of mysterious VHS tapes. In viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be terrifying, unspeakable motives behind the student’s disappearance.

Drinking Buddies
Director: Joe Swanberg
Screenwriter: Joe Swanberg
Cast: Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston, Jason Sudeikis, Ti West

Directed by Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs), Drinking Buddies follows the complicated friendship of Kate (Olivia Wilde) and Luke (Jake Johnson), who work together at a craft brewery. As friends, they’re way too close – it’s obvious there’s something more there, but Kate is dating Chris (Ron Livingston) and Luke is with all-around good girl Jill (Anna Kendrick).

The two couples go on a weekend getaway together and things get even more problematic when Jill and Chris go on a hike and find themselves romantically entangled. Meanwhile, Kate and Luke flirt while playing cards and get cozy on the beach. Without giving away the intricacies of the narrative, the four characters struggle to balance their romantic relationships and platonic friendships with the opposite sex – some with success, others with disastrous results.

Hobo With A Shotgun
Directed By: Jason Eisener
Written By: John Davies
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Gregory Smith, Molly Dunsworth, Brian Downey, Rob Wells
Release date: March 25, 2011 (Canada)

Once in a lifetime, you come across a movie that rips the scales from your eyes and forces you to see the world as it really is. A movie that reaches into your very soul; tapping into the existential yearning that is the yolk which connects us all to our basic humanity. It’s a movie that one single viewing of can change your life forever.

For me, that movie is Hobo With A Shotgun.

For those of you who don’t already know the story, Hobo With A Shotgun was the brainchild of Canadian filmmaker Jason Eisener. Winner of the SXSW Grindhouse Trailer contest, Jason Eisener’s fake trailer for Hobo With A Shotgun was attached to the blockbuster Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse double-bill of Planet Terror and Death Proof for its Canadian run. The trailer became such a hit that soon shooting of a feature-length film began in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.