V/H/S/94

As long as i can remember, i have always been a fan of anthology horror movies. They may not have been the first horror movies i watched ( that was A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy´s Revenge ), but i certainly remember some of the titles on VHS. Back in the 80´s in Sweden, we would only see a couple of anthology horror films released on VHS in stores. At least in the city i used to live in, where there had 3 rental VHS stores. One of the very first anthology horror films that i did watch, was the 1982 horror film Creepshow. At that time, i did not know this film was inspired by horror comics of the 1950´s. I still remember watching the VHS rental cover of this film, it was the coolest tape i had seen at that time. Directed by legendary director George A. Romero, this film tell 5 different short horror stories that all have something important to say. There are so many great actors in this anthology horror film such as Leslie Nielsen, Ted Danson, Tom Atkins, Ed Harris, Stephen King ( yes, he is actually acting in this film ), Hal Holbrook and many more. What i especially enjoy about Creepshow, is that each story actually feels like it´s coming straight out of a horror comic book. To be able to do that and make it work is very difficult, but director George A. Romero knew exactly what he was doing. I suggest you get Creepshow on the Double DVD from the UK, and you get the Creepshow documentary as well, that includes a lot of interesting details about this film. Let´s move forward many years ahead to 2012. This was the year when the anthology horror film V/H/S was released. A very clever idea, where different stories were told through different VHS tapes found in a room. V/H/S looked like a found footage film, but especially worked as a anthology horror film with very divided short stories to tell from talented directors. Each story had something important to say, with a certain message to humanity. The sequel V/H/S/2 turned out to be really good, and especially the story Safe Haven from directors Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Evans, turned out to be bloody brilliant. When the third film called V/H/S: Viral was released in 2014, it turned out to be a big disappointment. I was actually upset how bad it was, and lost all hope in this franchise. But early this year i heard that V/H/S/94 was on the way. A fourth film in the V/H/S/ franchise, could this be the best one yet, or is V/H/S/94 even worse than i expected?

6 Stories from 6 different director´s, that are all connected somehow. V/H/S/94 continues the legacy of the V/H/S franchise, with completely different stories than before.

Wow!

This is how you make a sequel. V/H/S/94 does not only deliver more than both first V/H/S film, it also crushes V/H/S: Viral completely. This is the kind of anthology horror film that knows what the audience wants. We want lots of blood, body parts flying, and we also want some great characters as well. There are so many good things i have to say about this film, but let us discuss some details that i feel are important to say. First of all, this is such a brutal films. The kills in this film does not only look beautiful, they look so effective as well. If you are going to make a violent film, you should do it like they do it in V/H/S/94, where there are no limits. Heads fly off, body parts get ripped apart, bodies get filled with so many bullets that their heads explode. Another important detail about this film, is that each story actually works really good. Some are better than others, but there is not one single bad story, and that surprised me a lot. Even the first V/H/S film had at least one story that did not feel interesting, while V/H/S: Viral only had one good story, and the rest of them was pretty bad. Seeing that they really worked hard to make each story fit into the film, warms my heart. It is hard to choose my favourite story in this film, because i enjoy several of them, for several different reasons. But if i had to choose one, i would have to choose i would go for the segment called The Subject from director Timo Tjahjanto ( who also directed the brilliant segment Safe Haven in V/H/S/2 ). The Subject almost feels like a modernized version of the classic tale of Frankenstein, what if you could build your own life and make it work? How far would you go, no matter what the consequences are? This segment is not only really well made, it is really brutal as well, and all of the actors does a brilliant job. Director Jennifer Reeder´s structural narrative of V/H/S/94 called Holy Hell, is the thread throughout this film, putting all the pieces together. I think she did a really good job combining a disturbed religious cult with the SWAT team footage, a very effective combination. There are other really good segments in here, so i would like to say that everyone did a great job on this film, including most of the actors. V/H/S/94 is exactly what this franchise needed, a sequel that delivers eveything i have hoped for, and even surprised me. I beg you all, watch this film on Shudder, and i promise that you will be pleased. One of the better found footage / anthology horror film in many years, V/H/S/94 proves that there is still hope for really good quality horror films.

Rating: DDDD