Southbound (2015) Horror Anthology

Southbound (2015) - I love anthologies and this is one I was waiting to see since I read about it a ways back. Directors Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, Patrick Horvath and Radio Silence bring us intersecting stories where the participants touch each other only in the slightest way, a location or an emotion or a character but are intertwined.Then again some of the stories are connected with a vice grip. The wrap around story of two killers, Mitch (Chad Villella) and Jack (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin) trying to stay ahead of their demons cross with the paths of the women in the second story only in the women are staying at the motel they pass repeatedly in the freaky cycle of going nowhere fast. Harsh and edgy with a radio DJ (voice of Larry Fessenden) connecting the stories via the FM we get slightly on the nose vignettes leading us through the stories. Mitch's guilt at not protecting his daughter at a time of danger is his own little hell in the first piece that we will learn more about later.
  Guilt carries through to the second story about an all girl band that after a blowout on a desert road are hard pressed to get help. The driver Sadie (Fabianne Therese), with band mates Kim (Nathalie Love) and Ava (Hannah Marks) are soon offered a ride by a slightly off couple who live in the area. The couple Betty (Susan Burke) and Dale (Davey Johnson) are having friends Raymond (Dana Gould) and Bunny (Anessa Ramsey) with there silent twins (Max and Nick Folkman) over for a group dinner. As the night wears on Sadie is plagued with references to her behavior that may have caused another band mate, Alex's (Karina Fontes) death? That guilt is a driver in the conflict but as the real danger is revealed we see that all the locals are more than they appear to be. Sadie is soon in a fight for her life, one that brings her to an unexpected relationship with passerby Lucas (Mather Zickel). The guilt that he now has to deal with from their meeting drives the third segment of the film. The weird turn in this second story drives Sadie out into the desert and brings her face to face and involved with the next piece, a lone girl on a dark desert highway cool wind in her hair.
  Lucas needs to do all he can to deal with a medical emergency but can not seem to get any useful help. As he drives into an abandoned town he works desperately to find some help. When arriving at the hospital he roams the halls looking for help that is not there.  Playing on a television we see Carnival of Souls (1962) playing and that certainly fits the mood of the film. A film where the lead actress is drawn to a strange carnival and later we learn she has been dead the entire time. The creepy and airy fantasy that is that movie is also building in the one we are watching. Lucas is pushed hard to do everything to save the accident victim but it is obvious to the viewer that the information he is getting is just slightly wrong. Left emotionally wrought from his experience he stumbles about looking for a way back out of the hospital. The nightmare of his night is only broken by a call from his wife, but its not her. Instead he has the same people who have tormented him on the line. Telling him to help but ultimately killing the car accident victim. He gets to live with his guilt as he drives out of town with the guilt he thinks he has been absolved of. As he goes he passes a woman on the phone and we pick up the film from there.
  She is a local in the town and walks back into a bar, in that bar are a few locals who are disrupted by a shotgun wielding man, Danny (David Yow). He is demanding to see his sister a woman he is there to save. All of them are more than they first appear with long claws and scary eyes but he does not care. He is there for his sister Jesse (Tipper Newton), and these hick demons are not going to stop him. Things are not really working out for him even as he gets the bar tender to lead him to Jesse. As the Barkeep says to Danny before he is reunited with his Sister, "You're fucked Danny and you don't even know it." This is true for all the characters involved in this film, they are all fucked when we meet them and they don't even know it. Whether it is the desert valley that is cursed or the guilt of losing your sibling or, of causing a death, it is all like the in Carnival of Souls, people caught in a hell that is unrelenting and unforgiving. Circling around the film leaves Jesse and joins a family where the guilty father's secret seals the family's fate. They are to come into contact with the pair of desparados we started the film with. When all is said and done there is little redemption for the victims or perpetrators in Southbound. It is a tale about entering that in between realm somewhere outside the normal world but not fully in the depths of hell. A purgatory where all decisions have consequences and no crimes go unpunished. A very decent dark string of tales these are waiting for you on the road heading Southbound.
  I enjoyed this one and recommend it. I thought the stories flowed one into the next in a pretty fluid motion and they are well tied together with emotion. As I have done so far this year; I am doing as an experiment my Twitter account @Soresport is dedicated to following and being followed by people in and behind the scenes. Then I am also hoping some of them follow me back. I do fear that Twitter has become too much of a promotional tool for people in film to actually get those follow backs but hey its an experiment.

The Summer of Massacre (2012) Horror Slasher

The Summer of Massacre (2012)  When starting this film the first impression was that it was a student film, some aspiring computer effects artist experimenting with After Effects and trying different ways to layer and record the carnage that is on screen. It is really a poor film and one has to wonder if this film was done on a home computer in Joe Castro's spare time. There is no story structure in the wrap around that can be seen in the opening. As the film progresses and the wrap around is filled out and a theme comes through about serial killers who have escaped and are killing together in an LA warehouse, but the first visit is bizarre torture images police and bullets. Flashes of horrors in a semi animated layering of imagery which evokes feeling but does not really get one into a story. Then as I watched the film which is four stories one wrap around and three other stand alone it occurred that maybe this was an artistic surrealist take on the slasher anthology. An artistic collage that is designed to evoke emotion and leave the viewer to fill in the details of meaning. Where the computer effects were so equally bad and distributed through the film it makes you question that it was designed to be bad. Countered with some very effective practical effects you can see that there is some skill on the film. So to see such amateur computer graphic made it hard to believe that those cartoonish parts were anything but for some artistic purpose.  To sully out what was going on meant a second viewing with the director commentary turned on. Unfortunately that experience confirmed that there was no greater artistic merit to this film. The writers Joe Castro and the single named Schroeder and executive producer Steven J. Escobar really just wanted blood and guts. Castro learning the after Effects tool just did the best he could.

The first chapter after the opening is entitled "Rampage"and is the most puzzling of the set. A young muscular man, Chris (Tim A. Cooley) is assaulted while out jogging. Beaten and mutilated something goes wrong in his brain from the trauma which makes him get up and start killing. No explanations not plot about who or why just this beating turned him into a killing machine and we are subjected to at least a dozen kills each highlighted by some unique and poorly executed digital effects. Castro says in the commentary that he has always wanted to do a story that was just killing. Although there needs to be a reason to start he just wanted everything in the frame to be carnage. It is an interesting experience watching this film with the commentary on. The makers of this film really love what they have done. They believe the digital work to be good and laugh and congratulate Castro on it sincerely. You feel the love and enthusiasm come through as they discuss each kill and how they make it happen. It is a real counterpoint to the viewing experience of ridiculous kills and horribly unrealistic cartoon effects. It  goes to show that there is a wide gap between an the ideas and the journey of film making and the experiencing of the final project from the outside. Viewing this film it is hard to believe that there is an audience for it, and from the six IMDB reviews one could say there may not be. Of course such a small sampling should not make or break this film. It's 2.4 of 10 rating probably does not even phase the makers of the film. So you have to ask yourself, if you were part of creating something, really loved the process and the final product, how would you deal with it if it was panned when you presented it to the world? 
  The second chapter "Lump" is a complete tale about a hermaphrodite cripple Lori (Nick Principe) whose place in the family is despised by most of the members. A mother, Mrs Williams (Brinke Stevens) so tired of the constant care of the dying child that she hatches a plan to rid herself of the burden. Even though there is a new steroid treatment in effect she asks her daughter Beverley Ann (Lisa M. Garcia) to take the wheelchair bound sibling and dispose of her. She and her brother and a couple friends take Lori to a nearby park. When pushing her off a cliff  does not kill her there is a shift in the film as the steroid treatment changes the handicapped pariah into a being capable of seeking revenge. This is a very complete story probably the most coherent of the four.
Chapter three "Son of the Boogyman" is the story of Jesse (Jerry Angelo) who is telling the story of his Father the infamous murderer rapist the Boogyman (Scott Barrows) to his fiancee (Kimmarie Johnson) only to  find out during the telling that the killer is free and looking for him and his Mother (Tchia Casselle). What fallows is a superhuman or supernatural encounter with the hulking killer that can only end in death and destruction.
Chapter four "Burn" is a campfire tale come to life as firefighter lovers die together fighting a forest fire in the park the campers are holding there retreat. Sent to die by other firefighters in a hate crime that is hard to imaging the two are fused together from the heat and the curse created by their deaths has them wandering the woods looking for descendents and connected people to the crime so they can exact their revenge. Lisa (Lauren Boehm), Vinnie (Felipe Winslett), and Carmen (Justin Marchert) are the unfortunate campers who get to live out the curse.
The wrap around "The Warehouse" we cut too throughout the film as interviews with serial killers from prison, talking about the wonders of the kill and how much they love it. By coming back to this, filling in the pieces of who they are it changes the tone of the film. They, Richard Khan (Joe Manetti), George Vic (Bahram Khosraviani) and Dax (Dan Lovell) are the carnage creators in the beginning of the film and their outcome finishes the movie. Its a shame because their story is the least interesting and throws a pall over what are some inventive anthology entries. They are the least interesting but are the most built up. Who really cares what a serial killer is thinking or that they are destructing for the sake of destruction. Its boring and predicable as is the ending to their story with the obligatory naked female and no matter how beautiful her body it can not save this kind of story.
 In the end I would say that the story Lump is the best of the set and although it speaks to the nature of bullying and how the lesser of humankind are often the most harmed. Still even though some of the stories are decent ideas the execution of the digital effects takes the viewer out every single time. Its a shame because there is so much of those effects you really do not go a minute or two without them interrupting the flow of the film. So there is no recommendation for this film but maybe I will look at another Joe Castro experience, one before he discovered the magic of after effects.

V/H/S : Viral (2014) Horror Anthology

V/H/S : Viral (2014) - Building on two somewhat successful films and expanding the nontraditional filming techniques that have become so popular in recent years, V/H/S : Viral may be a bit of a step back from its earlier entries by leaving behind the premise of the VHS tape. The first two films in the series were all about these VHS tapes and the collectors of them. Through that premise stories were about the seekers of the tapes as well as the stories the tapes told. Neither great films but certainly passable entertainment. In this new film it is all about POV, Go Pro and people recording each other not about found tapes. Attempting to make a statement about the desire of people to have the drivel they are recording go viral the wrap around story takes the title seriously. Director Marcel Sarmiento who directed Deadgirl (2008) which was not one of my favorites that year does an reasonable job trying to capture the idea. The breaks in the the recording, bars and static etc. were probably intended to give the VHS effect like the shots were found and reconstructed but it never is presented that way. Instead the effect just makes the viewing experience worse and not adding anything to the stories. Still Sarmiento's segment "Vicious Circles" is the most true to the concept telling the story of a young man Kev (Patrick Lawrie) who records everything. In fact he is on a quest of sorts wanting the popularity that comes with having something you record becoming a sensation. Set in Los Angeles it is about a police chase of a strange Ice Cream truck that passes by his house. Not wanting to miss an opportunity he runs out to see it and to record the passing. Residents see the chase as an event and there are groups of  "spectators" filming on their phones at every overpass on the chase route. The messaging about the spectacle and societies ability to record everything is front and center.
  A secondary video  connected to this hits the web and has a strange effect on those who view it. Suddenly the spectacle is bringing watchers into the web of the chase. We see the symptom as a bloody nose and a dazed look but the implication that the recording and viewing of those recordings, effects the viewer deepens the message of the piece.  Kev is one of those filming residents and when his girlfriend Iris (Emilia Zoryan) is swept up in the chase he is on a mission to rescue her. Some cool gore effects as well as some silly one add and detract to the short about societies craze with recording. It speaks to the idea of the spectacle and societies need for a selfie around them.Not completely coherent with imagery that seems out of place for the idea of VHS, sure the motions are made to show the viewer tracking displays and the such but the devices used are now far smaller and more effective that it seemed the need to connect to the original title V/H/S was a yoke around the films neck.

  The second story, "Dante The Great" is about a nobody magician wanna be Dante (Justin Welborn) who comes into possession of a cape that allows him to do real magic. Suddenly he is thrust from obscurity into the hottest show on the planet. The problem of course is the price one has to pay for magic and in this case the appetite of the magic cape is for life. Shot is a strange mix of faux-documentary with found footage, police interview, and swat team helmet cam footage as well as hand held video it is a real confusion of styles. Certainly an interesting story but like with many of these films the gimmick of how they came to be get in the way of giving viewers a well shot coherent looking piece of art. Instead we get this paint splattered mess that has a decent theme but shitty execution. We see the story almost like a made for TV documentary if they had access to every possible camera in Dante's life. Scarlett (Emmy Argo) his magicians assistant is the primary teller of the story, interviewed by police after the fact and then cut in of footage Dante filmed himself used to visually show what she is telling. We get a complete story of Dante getting the cape, to figuring out it has magic, then the frustration of it not working. When he discovers it must be fed, people, we see his need for fame out weigh his morals. Well to be honest he was never shown as anything but a loser hoping for fame so the depths of his fall are muted.
  Someone who is going to do bad things should never obsessively film them but Dante seems to ignore this and it is his downfall. The tapes he collect and hide in a secret compartment are the very evidence and footage the police and the film need. Showing the man as he sets the cape on people so it can eat and his fame can continue to grow. The not completely surprising climax where Scarlett confronts Dante a decent finish to the story. Writer/Director Gregg Bishop should get credit for writing a decent story. Known for directing the entertaining, if a bit cliche Dance of the Dead (2008) he is showing his ability more as a writer in this instead of a director. That last comment might not be too fair. I think the biggest problem for most of the stories here is the artificial formatting of alternate source footage. If they had just made a traditionally filmed movie of these stories it would probably be a better anthology than it is in this format.
  The third story written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo called Parallel Monsters was my favorite and probably because it included the science fiction genre. Short comparatively it is a story about a man who has built a doorway to another universe to find a version of himself staring back having done the exact same thing. Each with a handheld video recorder the film cuts between the two men when they switch places for fifteen minutes. The story gets dark very quickly and the viewer discovers with the lead characters Alfonso (Gustavo Salmerón) that each world is quite different from the one they are from. Sure each has a wife named Marta (Marian Álvarez) but we quickly learn the sexual appetites of one universe are quite different from the other. The consequences of crossing over are far harsher than the characters could have expected. Some cool effects that reminded me of "The World End", a shocking display of male sexual anatomy and a nasty ending made this a surprising watch.  Vigalondo who made the wonderful Time Crimes (2007) a time traveling mystery that should have made him and even bigger name than he is. This writer is looking forward to his upcoming technological thriller Open Windows (2014) starring Frodo Baggins um, I mean Elijah Woods.

  The final story Bonestorm is about a group of Skateboard riding twenty-somethings who are trying to film enough material to finish their skating video. Deciding the current location is not good enough the take a trip to Tijuana Mexico to find a rumored "good" place to finish the video. When they arrive in the drainage ditch they fail to notice the large pentagram marking a ceremonial site. Skating is going well until one kid falls and cuts himself. The blood on this sacred ground calls a pack of skeletal acolytes out of thin air. Then it is a fight for survival but unfortunately for the young men the more blood they spill the more skeletons appear. Shot with a lot of Go Pro cameras there is a sense of chaos in the story. Even though at the end we get this we also get a variety of different sources none being the more traditional form of filming but at the same time stretching the believability of alternative source filming. Still the effects seem a bit lower budget are well hidden in the jarring cuts between cameras. A drawback to this story is that the young people are unlikable. This could be my age showing but boy these are listless unfocus people. The actors sell it though so I suppose there is a positive there. Written and directed by Aaron Moorhead noted for his recent film Resolution (2012) manages the story well enough.

  Overall I think that I was not particularly impressed by this set of stories but appreciate that anthologies are hot again. Like in literature the short story format can be very effective when done well. Although I did not connect with all the stories in this set it is pretty competently done. More the drawback is that I'm tired of this alternative source gimmick. Just make the same story traditionally without all the shaky cam and pretend interruptions to the film. The premise is a stretch to begin with but then the filmmakers add the excellent editing and fake errors to it just to fit the gimmick is annoying. If the stories are good enough to be told just make the film look and sound good. This film is very borderline for a recommendation. It gets it but really you could go either way on that decision. Since I like the directors involved I give it a luke warm recommendation.
 

Dead of Night (1945) Horror Anthology

Dead of Night (1945) - Long before V/H/S there was Trilogy of Terror and long before that was this collection Dead of Night. It is a wonderfully paced, supernatural thriller perfect family entertainment that holds up after more than 60 years. Like many anthologies of today its structure is that of a wrap around story that gives the characters in it the opportunity to share their own scary tales. In this case the story of a group of people brought together for an evening party, one of whom is Mr. Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) who is having a fierce case of deja vu.  He arrives at the party hosted by Eliot Foley (Roland Culver) Craig has the horrible realization that the events of the evening are the same as his repetitive nightmare that has been plaguing him. When he shares this with the others in the room it is the basis for not only a lively conversation about proof versus belief, but also an instigating event for others to share their stories. When one of the party guests says "We are nothing but characters in Mr Craig's dream." and that is quite apt and as the wrap around story plays out it more correct than known at the time.
  The stories are a mix of ghost and strange happenings all culminating with the Craig story to finish the film out. First up is Hugh Grainger (Anthony Baird) a race car driver who tells the story of two near death experiences as well as how he met his wife Joyce (Judy Kelly). After an accident on the racetrack she is the nurse for his recovery, with a high fever and hallucinations his condition is difficult for the doctors to explain. One night after Joyce leaves for the night Hugh opens the window to find it is daylight. A horse drawn hearse sits outside and the driver says to him there is only room for one more. Suddenly the spell broken Hugh sees it is night again.This sticks with the man as he recovers, falls in love with Joyce and attempts to get on with his new life with her. Psychiatry does some good in helping him deal with that strange fever dream but one day while traveling on public transit, he finds the dream revisiting him. The bus driver seems to be the same man as the hearse driver, Hugh panic and avoids the bus altogether only to see it crash off a bridge moments later.
  A second story by Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes) who attends a Christmas party and while playing hide and seek finds herself comforting the ghost of a small boy. Some of this story is a bit annoying but that could just be the child actors. I did find that the version of hide and seek was interesting. In the game one person hides and everyone else counts, when someone finds the hider they stay with them quietly and so on until the last seeker finds the group.

 Joan Cortland (Googie Withers) tells a tale of buying her fiance a mirror only for it to nearly break up their engagement.  Her fiance Peter starts seeing another room in the reflection in the mirror, It takes hold of him eventually to be revealed that the spirit in the mirror has possessed Peter. This section was a bit long and drawn out but still it was an interesting little story.
  Mr Foley tells a story of George and Larry, golfing buddies competing for the love of a woman. When they decide to play a round for her George wins and Larry depressed by his loss commits suicide in the lake at the golf course. The unexpected hi-jinx that ensues when Larry returns as a ghost to haunt his former friend is amusing. Knowing that George cheated in the match, knowledge obtained in the after life Larry decides on the haunt but even after forgiving his friend he somehow forgets how to disappear. Amusing with a surprising ending it is a strange interlude in the film.
  The final story about a ventriloquist who is controlled by his dummy is a second slightly long and drawn out story but still interesting enough for what it was. A tortured soul on the verge of a breakdown it is a sad tale of split personality.
All surrounded by the story of Mr Craig the film is a fine example of the anthology. I don't know if there are many examples of this format prior to 1945 but this one certainly holds up. Watched on VHS and I am pretty sure this is not released on DVD although there are probably some privately ripped versions out there. This film definitely gets a recommendation with the knowledge that this is G rated fun and you should not expect to be frightened hardly at all.
 

V/H/S/2 (2013) - Horror Shorts

V/H/S/2 (2013) - The editor who chose the order of the pieces in this collection was sure to pull in the men in the audience with the chosen first story. A married man brings a young woman to a motel room for a night of cheating. Little does he know he is being followed and video taped. The man doing the video is a blackmailing douche who is looking to extort money from his victims? Okay his recording everything he does is no longer the most original thing to do. His female assistant is really not liking his next adventure as they break into a house looking for a missing teen.  
 What they find instead is VHS tapes, a bunch of lit up monitors and a bit of what looks like a spot of blood. While the guy takes one camera and explores the house the girl working with him reviews the computer in the room. There is video of the kid talking about a tape he got, talking to his webcam. Through following these two characters we learn the kid is researching these video tapes. She places one in the player and we are apparently transported into the next story. This is the basic principle of the VHS films, they are these fucked up and often supernatural events caught on tape.
  This particular wrap around story tries to explain that the missing teen is a collector of these kind of tapes. There may also be the implication that these tapes change the viewer. As we see in the wrap around they at least seem to have a physical effect on the viewer as Ayesha (Kelsy Abbott) learns. She is stressed watching the films and flashes of people behind her are scary, still isn't this the basic premise of the first VHS film? When the final part of this wrap around story takes a life of its own we are pretty sure there is not a clear explanation to why.  Larry finds Ayesha apparently dead and then watches the last tape 49. On it he sees as he and his friend show up. WTF so his dead girl friend awakes from the dead and attacks him I guess these tapes are powerful. He breaks her neck but she keeps coming. A dark ending  after the four separate stories are told.
The first story Ayesha watches features Director Adam Wingard acting as well as working behind the camera. We see a POV shot of the main character Herman (Wingard), a man with an electronic eye. He is happy to be able to have it but there is also a tension with the company who is doing this experimental work. They insist on recording through the eye leaving Herman a bit off put, but also giving the contrivance that created the tape being watched in the wrap around story. All is a bit mundane but then Herman thinks he sees something strange. Is someone fucking with the dude or are his strange visions real? The story asks questions about the line between this world and the world of ghosts. What if the reason we don't see ghosts is because our visual cortex is not equipped to see it?  What if mechanically this barrier was removed?

  In the story Clarissa (Hannah Hughes) comes to the rescue with the information we the audience needs. She has had a artificial earpiece implanted and hears what he sees. Then the message gets a bit muddled, she says the more you notice them the more they can interact with you. To avoid them you have to be distracted and if having sex with a young hottie is how you do it so be it. This expository dialog is quickly followed by Clarissa taking her shirt off and thus distracting us from asking Why? Why would ghost suddenly be able to physically interact with us if we see, hear or pay attention to them? Such things though are short lived at least for Clarissa because she is confronted with the physical part of the beings shortly after sex. Good thing Herman has a lockable bathroom well at least for a while. Still the idea is interesting if unexplained more than the simplest of ways.
   Story number two we have guy (Jay Saunders) filming his bike ride and talking to his girl Amy on the phone. He has two cameras one on his helmet and one on the handlebars looking back at the rider. Its just another "Go Pro" day for this mountain biker. Then a girl runs in front of him, "My boyfriend, you have to help my boyfriend, help Dan." The young man does his best brave face as he heads the way she points, but there are noises out there not natural noises, he gets scared and returns to the girl. She has been vomiting and now attacks him apparently turned into a zombie. He pounds her head in with a rock and looks up to see zombies shambling towards him. Bitten himself we see from his helmet cam him running away but slowing down weaker and weaker until he starts vomiting just like the girl. He struggles on to death and we get his awakening as a zombie with a helmet cam just as a couple of riders come across him. The couple call the police and report it,but this appears to be a first hand "Go Pro" video of a zombie outbreak.  Then he attacks the couple killing the man and wounding the women. We get to watch him eat the man ripping the stomach open and pulling out the intestines. When the woman of the couple comes back and joins the man wakes a zombie also and they all wander off together, until they hear a kids birthday party. Zombies attack the party awesome...The plague is spreading, trying to connect feelings to the zombies by having them pick up objects is stupid, having the idea to kill himself is worse. The main problem with this piece is after you get use to the neat idea for the filming the film is something we have seen way too much at this point in zombie movie history. So at the point where the zombies roll into a birthday party of little kids we are pretty sure how this one will end. Its really nothing exceptional by some of the gore is entertaining.
  Story three has a film crew doing some investigative journalism, they are filming a man, Father (Epy Kusnandar) talk about heaven or the spiritual world, how human kind is getting closer and closer to the gates of that other existence. They are trying to get him to agree to let them come and film at his commune. They are making a story of this commune leader a man who says he can bring a new world to everyone in his group. Next we see images on security cams of the commune and then the film crew arriving. The cutting between all kinds of camera sources, security cameras, hidden cameras on people, actual interview camera are all used to piece together the goings on in this commune. It is a fanatical group who will protect Father no matter what.  They are an outcast group who thinks the end of the world is near. There is some dynamics between the crew that are foils to separate them but when shit starts going down this short gets freaky wierd and may be the best segment in the film.
  The interview is a bit contentious with tough questions. and more contrivances to separate the players. When looking around the place one of the crew see the hanging plastic of a construction site.What is that on the plastic? Looks like blood...hmm.. maybe we should go look. Looks like a dead body of a woman who was in childbirth.  Uncover the face,  She is still alive and shit split wide open he runs away. Shit starts hitting the proverbial fan as it is time for the apocalypse.
 Cult leader attacks and kills the sound guy with a wonderful slicing of the throat on camera.
Now Lena (the director?) (Hannah Al Rashid) is in peril as four women grab her and drag her off. They all have these white cloudy eyes like they are as blind as Master Po in Kung Fu. All the cultist are killing themselves as the final hour is at hand. We see the crew fight for their lives as they are attacked. Adam witnesses lead guys execution and then hears Lena scream. Excited girls scream with joy as they carry her to their leader. Adam (Fachry Albar) seems a bit of a coward but with pipe in hand heads down the hall to help. Then weirdness as something blows the doors out and a person crawls across the ceiling past he over head. The cult leader comes out to tell him he does not need the weapon, covered in bloody runes he explodes before Adam's eyes.  He attacks the white eyed crazy cult woman holding Lena and lifting her shirt sees as the demon rises out of her belly. He runs as any smart person should do, but is attacked by apparent dead as he leaves white eyes and all he struggles to get out. This is really apocalyptic end times kind of stuff and it is all he can do to stay alive. He hears the roar of the devil as he races to the cars. Why he is still running the camera is a mystery. He drives out of there but does not make it as something crashes into the car. Waking a bloody mess in an overturned car something is still outside moving the vehicle. Silly goat headed devil above him as he crawls out of the car. Nice frantic pace to this one as the crew meet their demise one by one.
The final story beside the absolute silliness of the dog wearing the camera is good in using light and noise to create a chaotic atmosphere. The basic story is that of a slumber party where the parents are away and the kids are going to play. Since there are no adults around the  swearing by the kids is exaggerated and the antics, practical jokes, and fear is nicely portayed. The older sister, Jen (Samatha Gracie) is watching the younger siblings. Then there is doggie cam and I don't know what to think of this. Something big and noisy outside scares everyone, not as scary as when the aliens come in and try steal everyone. They all for some reason end up in the lake and the disorientation continues as more attempts are made to capture them. Chased by Aliens they run into the woods but still are worried about the dog, which makes noise but is the only way we see the story. Gary (Rylan Logan) the younger brother with his friends are tricksters but the real trick is on them. Periodically the aliens make another attempt at getting them. Since the doggie cam is the view we have to put up with this annoying setup in what is otherwise a fine job at creating a convincing atmosphere.
 Overall V/H/S/2 is a fairly satisfying horror collection. I know the implications of framing the stories as home made means that we have to watch the awkward pov and grainy security cameras. It really is the worst part of this film. Ideas are a mixed bag and I was clear in the paragraphs above which I liked. So with that said I have to say I would recommend this one. It is available on Netflix streaming. Check it out!