V/H/S: Viral

Last updated

V/H/S: Viral
VHSVIRAL.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Written by
  • Marcel Sarmiento
  • T.J. Cimfel
  • David White
  • Gregg Bishop
  • Nacho Vigalondo
  • Justin Benson
  • Todd Lincoln [a]
Produced by
Production
companies
Distributed by Magnet Releasing
Release dates
  • October 23, 2014 (2014-10-23)(VOD)
  • November 21, 2014 (2014-11-21)(US)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish
Box office$82,409 [1]

V/H/S: Viral is a 2014 American found footage horror anthology film produced by Bloody Disgusting, The Collective, Haxan Films, and Divide/Conquer. The sequel to V/H/S/2 (2013), it is the third installment in the V/H/S franchise and features three found footage segments linked together by a fourth frame narrative written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead. [2] An additional segment was filmed, written and directed by Todd Lincoln, but was cut since it did not fit with the overall theme of the film. [3] [4]

Contents

The film was released on demand on October 23, 2014 and made a limited theatrical release in the United States on November 21, 2014. It grossed $82,409 in box office and $263,906 in home sales. [5] [6] A prequel, V/H/S/94 , was released on September 26, 2021.

Plot

The film is presented as an anthology of three short horror films, built into a frame narrative which acts as its own fourth short horror film. Each short film is linked together with the concept of found footage as each segment is from VHS tapes that went viral after being uploaded to social media from Kyle's laptop. [b]

"Vicious Circles" (frame narrative) — Prologue

The frame narrative focuses on Kevin, an amateur videographer who constantly shoots footage of his girlfriend Iris. She claims to enjoy it, but then grows annoyed with Kevin's obsession with filming her.

That night, an ice cream truck in a car chase arrives in their neighborhood and Kevin witnesses the live broadcast on television. He sees the opportunity to create a viral video but is too late to shoot footage as the truck speeds past his house. Iris receives a mysterious video call and wanders outside in a daze while the truck runs over a police officer that had asked Kevin to back away from the road.

Kevin notices Iris has suddenly disappeared; he chases after the truck when images of a panicking Iris broadcast to his cell phone. Meanwhile, people in the neighborhood begin to receive strange images on their phones that turn them violently insane.

"Dante the Great"

Untalented illusionist John McMullen discovers a cloak that was once owned by Harry Houdini. He learns that wearing the cloak grants him the powers to perform actual magic and takes the stage name "Dante the Great" to perform his newfound abilities in front of large audiences, becoming immensely famous.

John also learns that the cloak requires regular human sacrifices to work and hires female assistants to videotape the cloak devouring them. He uses his powers to summon and kill Clay Bowland, the abusive boyfriend of his latest assistant Scarlett Kay. She discovers John's tapes inside a secret compartment in his dressing room and alerts the police, though John uses his powers to escape custody. While Scarlett is interrogated, John summons her from the police station. A SWAT team bursts in to arrest John, but he manages to kill them all with magic. Scarlett duels John over the cloak but is overpowered.

Before John can kill her, Scarlett uses a trick he taught her to immobilize him and prompts the cloak to devour him instead. Scarlett burns the cloak, only to find it hanging on her closet door that night. As she investigates, a pair of giant, shadowed arms reach out from inside the cloak and grab her as the footage ends.

"Vicious Circles" — First interlude

Back in the frame narrative, Kevin and the police continue chasing the truck. Some teenagers attempt to film the chase from atop a nearby bridge; one of them stares at his phone in a trance while his nose bleeds. Another teenager slips and falls from the bridge when he gets too close to the edge. He lands on the road and is killed when a vehicle runs over him.

Kevin is halted by a group of cyclists, but they end up helping him pursue the truck when their leader is caught on it, has his feet shredded to the bone, and is ultimately killed.

"Parallel Monsters"

Spanish inventor Alfonso works late on his newest project—a prototype interdimensional portal. When he activates it, the portal reveals what appears to be his garage. Alfonso witnesses a copy of himself looking at him, revealing that the portal has successfully opened a gateway to a parallel universe.

The two Alfonsos greet each other, overcome by curiosity, and discover that they appear to be completely identical. Both agree to trade places and cross through the portal with their own cameras to explore and document each other's universes for fifteen minutes; the original Alfonso explores his parallel house and meets the parallel copy of his wife Martha, who introduces him to two men both named Oriol. In the living room, a pornographic snuff film plays on the television and a sack of organs is displayed in the center.

When the parallel Martha prompts the original Alfonso to perform a satanic ritual with the Orioles, he leaves the house and sees a large blimp with an inverted cross that blares demonic chanting; it is revealed that the two universes hold differing dominant religions and, when he attempts to record the blimp, the original Alfonso is confronted by the Orioles. Their eyes and mouths turn bright red, and one of them takes his pants off to reveal a fanged penis-like creature.

In the original universe, the parallel Alfonso discovers the original Martha asleep and takes photos of her before unveiling his own monstruous genitalia, scaring Martha awake. In the parallel universe, the original Alfonso stabs Oriol's penis with a screwdriver and flees back to the house. The parallel Martha takes off her robe to reveal that she has a similarly fanged vagina. The original Alfonso punches her and flees back to the portal, where the parallel Alfonso—covered in blood—stabs him and returns to his universe.

However, the parallel Martha, mistaking her parallel husband, knocks him down and lets her vagina to devour him for punching her before the original Alonso closes the portal. The original Martha appears and, also mistakenly believing that her original husband attacked her, furiously stabs him to death as the footage ends.

"Vicious Circles" — Second interlude

Kevin continues chasing the truck as it repeatedly circles the neighborhood and begs the police to help him save Iris. Meanwhile, a group of Hispanic gangbangers are holding a barbecue to celebrate one of their own being released from prison. The honor guest sees a police helicopter broadcasting the chase and assumes that his girlfriend has turned him in.

Suddenly, the music playing on the radio warps and turns operatic; the guests become insane and kill each other with forks. As Kevin and the truck pass, a gas tank ruptures in the chaos and explodes, setting the neighborhood on fire.

"Bonestorm"

Skateboarders Jason and Danny perform various stunts in hopes of making an epic skateboard video. Their videographer Taylor pushes them into increasingly dangerous circumstances to injure or kill themselves so he can film the aftermath and sell it as a snuff film. Taylor also suggests they continue filming in Tijuana, remembering that he heard about a prime skating location for them to finish their video. He calls out their friend Shaun, who joins them in their trip to Mexico by paying everything with his father's credit card.

After enjoying themselves and buying fireworks, the quartet subsequently become lost and run into a mysterious woman. Once they find an old flood control channel, Taylor encourages them to perform more stunts. When Danny injures himself and bleeds on a large pentagram drawn on the ground, his blood quickly boils and the woman they met earlier suddenly appears.

As Taylor introduces himself, the woman tears his arm off and a group of cloaked cultists—who were using the channel for demonic worship—attack the group. In the ensuing fight, Shaun is fatally stabbed and bleeds out while Taylor is set on fire by exposure to the cultists' blood, which spontaneously ignites. When a monstruous roar sounds, the dead cultists rise as reanimated skeletons and mount a second attack; Jason and Danny use the fireworks they bought earlier to destroy the skeletons.

Seeing an opportunity to escape, the duo proceed to skate back toward the border as the creature the cultists were summoning appears from a storm drain, picks up the wounded Taylor and mauls him to death along with his camera as the footage ends.

"Vicious Circles" — Third interlude

Citywide news broadcasting the chase warn that several fires have broken out across Los Angeles, with people killing each other after witnessing strange images on their phones. Kevin still continue chasing the truck and tries to get a taxi to stop, but the driver refuses because he is helping his friend—a porn director—to film a striptease with a young woman in the backseat.

Suddenly, the woman pulls a gun on him, revealing that the director had previously been sold her pornographic footage to her ex-boyfriend, and the exposure had ruined her life. She forces him to strip by threatening to shoot his crotch until the director fights back; all three are killed when a police car flips through the air and crushes the taxi.

"Gorgeous Vortex"

The short follows a sinister, shadowy organization that is tracking a serial killer. It was cut since it did not fit in with the film's overall theme—and mainly due to not being found footage. However, it is included as an extra in the film's Blu-ray and DVD release, which starts after the end credits. [7]

"Vicious Circles" — Epilogue

As dawn breaks, Kevin finally catches up the truck inside an empty drainage basin with body parts strewn on the ground around it. He examines the driver's seat only to find a pair of disembodied hands duct taped to the wheel. When Kevin examines its back, he finds several televisions stacked atop each other [c] and a laptop that is uploading VHS tapes to social media. [d]

Iris appears on one of the screens and demands that Kevin uploads his footage to broadcasters. He refuses and explains that the tapes are driving people insane all over the city, but when Iris begins to brutally mutilate herself, Kevin relents and pushes a button to upload the footage. With the deed done, Iris' image taunts him and he exits the truck to discover her corpse—Iris has actually been dead the entire time—slumped against the truck with a phone stuck in her mouth.

Kevin retrieves the phone and it goes into selfie mode; he watches the screen and his nose starts to bleed. As Beethoven's Ninth Symphony's sounds, the closing shot is a view of Los Angeles skyline with fires burning throughout the city, smoke billowing up, lights flickering on and off, and news helicopters circling overhead, thus fulfilling the grander threat introduced in the tapes.

Cast

"Vicious Circles"

"Dante the Great"

"Parallel Monsters"

"Bonestorm"

"Gorgeous Vortex"

Release

The film was released on demand on October 23, 2014, and was released in select theaters on November 21. [8] The home-release on Blu-ray and DVD was on February 17, 2015, through Magnet Releasing. [9] The film premiered on Netflix on March 20, 2015. [10]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 33% of 33 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.1/10.The website's consensus reads: "V/H/S: Viral is hardly a sensation as it cycles through the franchise's least frightening vignettes yet." [11] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 38 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. [12]

Peter Debruge of Variety described the film as "three playful yet thoroughly disposable experiments in short-form p.o.v. cinema". [13] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Lacking the originality of the first film and the superior entries of the second, V/H/S Viral spirals downwards towards the same sort of obsolescence as the home video format that provides its title." [14] A. A. Dowd of The A.V. Club rated it D+ and called it "slapdash and ineffectual". [15] Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian rated it 1/5 stars and wrote, "Besides one bright spot involving razor-sharp genitals, this horror compilation is bereft of thrills, scares or creativity." [16]

Shawn Macomber of Fangoria rated it 3/4 stars and wrote that the change in tone from previous entries in the film series will alienate some fans but is a "welcome breather". [17] Brad McHargue of Dread Central rated it 4/5 stars and wrote, "The shorts that comprise V/H/S Viral are inventive enough to make up for the blunder that is Sarmiento's wraparound, even if each one breaks the found footage 'rules' in egregious ways." [18] Luke Owen of Flickering Myth writes “Dante the Great has some amazing visuals, a wickedly fun fight scene and an amazing style. Both Vigalondo's Parallel Monsters and Bishop's Dante the Great deserve to be in a much better anthology horror movie.” [19]

Sequel

In June 2020, it was announced that a fourth installment of the V/H/S franchise was in development, titled V/H/S/94 and written by David Bruckner. V/H/S/94 had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 26, 2021, and opened to positive critical reviews, with the initial reactions being that it was a "return to form" for the series. [20]

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Gorgeous Vortex", written and directed by Todd Lincoln, was cut from the final film, but included on the extras in the home release.
  2. ↑ As depicted in V/H/S/2 (2013).
  3. ↑ The televisions were taken from the house to which Brad, Rox, Zak, and Gary entered in V/H/S (2012).
  4. ↑ The laptop belongs to Kyle from V/H/S/2 (2013).

Related Research Articles

<i>Backwoods</i> (film) 2008 television film

Backwoods is a 2008 American horror television film directed by Marty Weiss and starring Ryan Merriman & Haylie Duff. It premiered on June 8, 2008 on Spike TV.

<i>Basket Case 2</i> 1990 film by Frank Henenlotter

Basket Case 2 is a 1990 American comedy horror film written and directed by Frank Henenlotter, and the sequel to his 1982 film Basket Case. It stars Kevin Van Hentenryck reprising his role as Duane Bradley, who moves with his deformed, formerly conjoined twin brother Belial into a home for "unique individuals" run by their deceased aunt’s friend, eccentric philanthropist Granny Ruth.

<i>The Believers</i> 1987 film by John Schlesinger

The Believers is a 1987 Canadian-American neo-noir thriller horror-noir film directed by John Schlesinger, starring Martin Sheen, Robert Loggia and Helen Shaver. It is based on the 1982 novel The Religion by Nicholas Conde.

<i>Race with the Devil</i> 1975 film by Jack Starrett

Race with the Devil is a 1975 American action horror film directed by Jack Starrett, written by Wes Bishop and Lee Frost, and starring Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, and Lara Parker. Its plot follows two couples on a road trip who are pursued by a Satanic cult after witnessing a human sacrifice while camping in rural Texas. This was the second of three films Fonda and Oates would star in together. Race with the Devil is a hybrid of the horror, action, and car chase genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nacho Vigalondo</span> Spanish filmmaker

Ignacio "Nacho" Vigalondo Palacios is a Spanish filmmaker.

<i>Im Dangerous Tonight</i> 1990 film by Tobe Hooper

I'm Dangerous Tonight is a 1990 American made-for-television supernatural horror film directed by Tobe Hooper and starring Mädchen Amick, Corey Parker, R. Lee Ermey and Anthony Perkins. It made its debut on USA Network on August 8, 1990. It was loosely inspired by the novella of the same name by Cornell Woolrich.

<i>Timecrimes</i> 2007 film by Nacho Vigalondo

Timecrimes is a 2007 Spanish science-fiction thriller film written by, directed by, and featuring Nacho Vigalondo. The film stars Karra Elejalde as Héctor, a man who unwittingly becomes part of a causal loop and must stop his other selves from continuing to exist.

Brad Miska is an American film producer and founder of Bloody Disgusting, a horror genre website known for covering horror films, video games, comics, and music. His films include the V/H/S franchise, Under the Bed, A Horrible Way to Die and Southbound.

<i>V/H/S</i> 2012 horror anthology film

V/H/S is a 2012 American found footage horror anthology film and the first installment in the V/H/S franchise created by Brad Miska and Bloody Disgusting, and produced by Miska and Roxanne Benjamin. It features a series of six found footage shorts written and directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, and the filmmaking collective Radio Silence.

<i>The Profane Exhibit</i> 2013 Anthology Horror Film

The Profane Exhibit is a 2013 internationally co-produced anthology horror film written and directed by ten renowned genre filmmakers from across the globe: Nacho Vigalondo, Anthony DiBlasi, Ryan Nicholson, Michael Todd Schneider, Sergio Stivaletti, Marian Dora, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Uwe Boll, Ruggero Deodato and Jeremy Kasten.

<i>V/H/S/2</i> 2013 horror anthology film

V/H/S/2 is a 2013 found footage horror anthology film produced by Bloody Disgusting and Roxanne Benjamin. The sequel to V/H/S (2012) and the second installment in the V/H/S franchise, it comprises four found footage segments linked together by a fifth frame narrative. The film features a largely different group of directors: Jason Eisener, Gareth Wuw Evans, Timo Tjahjanto, Eduardo Sánchez, and Gregg Hale, and franchise returnees Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard.

<i>Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead</i> 2011 American film

Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead is a 2011 American horror film directed by Douglas Schulze, written by Joshua Wagner and Schulze, and starring Allen Maldonado, Lauren Mae Shafer, Taylor Piedmonte, and David G.B. Brown.

<i>As Above, So Below</i> (film) 2014 American horror film by John Erick Dowdle

As Above, So Below is a 2014 American horror film written and directed by John Erick Dowdle and co-written by his brother Drew. The film stars Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, François Civil, Marion Lambert, and Ali Marhyar. The title refers to the popular paraphrase of the second verse of the Emerald Tablet. It is presented as found footage of a documentary crew's experience exploring the Catacombs of Paris and was loosely based on the nine circles of Hell from Dante Alighieri's epic 14th-century poem Divine Comedy. The film was produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Universal Pictures, making it the first film in Legendary's deal with Universal. The film was released on August 29, 2014, received negative reviews from critics and grossed $41.8 million worldwide against its $5 million budget.

<i>Faith: The Unholy Trinity</i> 2017 video game

Faith is a survival horror video game developed by Airdorf Games for Windows. The game consists of three chapters; the first two were self-published by Airdorf Games in October 2017 and February 2019 respectively, while the third was published by New Blood Interactive in October 2022 as part of Faith: The Unholy Trinity, a compilation of all three chapters with additional features. The game uses retro graphics similar to the graphics of an Apple II or Atari 2600.

<i>V/H/S/94</i> 2021 horror anthology film

V/H/S/94 is a 2021 American found footage horror anthology film written by David Bruckner, and Brad Miska. The sequel to V/H/S: Viral (2014), it is the fourth installment in the V/H/S franchise. Set in 1994, the film acts both as a soft reboot and a prequel to the first three installments and comprises four found footage segments linked together by a fifth frame narrative directed by franchise returnees Simon Barrett and Timo Tjahjanto, in addition to newcomers Jennifer Reeder, Ryan Prows and Chloe Okuno. It is the first film in the franchise not to be distributed by Magnolia Pictures' Magnet Releasing label.

V/H/S is an American horror anthology franchise that includes seven found footage films, two spin-off films, and one miniseries. Created from an original story idea by Brad Miska, the plot centers around a number of disturbing VHS tapes that are discovered by innocent viewers and the possessive influence of the videos over those who see them. Realized by a collaboration of various filmmakers and different casts, the installments are mostly standalone in nature, though recurring elements indicate the same fictional villain as the source for all of its videos.

<i>V/H/S/99</i> 2022 horror anthology film

V/H/S/99 is a 2022 American found footage horror anthology film produced by Studio71 and Bloody Disgusting. The sequel to V/H/S/94 (2021), it is the fifth installment in the V/H/S franchise. Set in 1999, the film features five found footage segments written and directed by Maggie Levin, Johannes Roberts, Flying Lotus, Tyler MacIntyre, and Vanessa and Joseph Winter.

<i>V/H/S/85</i> 2023 horror anthology film

V/H/S/85 is a 2023 found footage horror anthology film produced by Studio71 and Bloody Disgusting. The sequel to V/H/S/99 (2022), it is the sixth installment in the V/H/S franchise. Set in 1985, the film comprises five found footage segments linked together by a sixth frame narrative directed by Mike P. Nelson, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Natasha Kermani, Scott Derrickson, and David Bruckner.

<i>Elevator Game</i> 2023 American film

Elevator Game is a 2023 American horror film directed by Rebekah McKendry and starring Gino Anania, Megan Best, Alec Carlos, Nazariy Demkowicz, Samantha Halas, Madison MacIsaac, Verity Marks and Liam Stewart-Kanigan. Shudder released the film 15 September 2023. Based on the online phenomenon of the same name, the film concentrates on a story about a mysterious ritual that may lead the performer into another, dark dimension.

<i>V/H/S/Beyond</i> 2024 horror anthology film

V/H/S/Beyond is a 2024 found footage horror anthology film produced by Bloody Disgusting. The sequel to V/H/S/85 (2023), it is the seventh installment in the V/H/S franchise and features five found footage segments linked together by a sixth frame narrative written and directed by Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Virat Pal, Justin Martinez, Christian and Justin Long, and Kate Siegel.

References

  1. ↑ "V/H/S Viral". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  2. ↑ Magnet, Epic Catch Horror Anthology Threequel ‘V/H/S: Viral’
  3. ↑ Secret ‘V/H/S: Viral’ Segment Revealed!
  4. ↑ Horror Anthology ‘V/H/S: Viral’ Picked Up by Magnet Releasing
  5. ↑ "V/H/S Viral". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  6. ↑ "V/H/S: Viral (2014) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  7. ↑ Bloody Disgusting
  8. ↑ 'V/H/S Viral' Unspools This October! -
  9. ↑ Exclusive Tease of Bonus V/H/S: VIRAL Segment GORGEOUS VORTEX
  10. ↑ ‘V/H/S Viral’ Is Now Available On Netflix Instant
  11. ↑ "V/H/S: Viral". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved September 30, 2023. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  12. ↑ "V/H/S: Viral". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  13. ↑ Debruge, Peter (October 17, 2014). "Film Review: 'V/H/S Viral'". Variety . Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  14. ↑ Scheck, Frank (November 21, 2014). "'V/H/S Viral': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  15. ↑ Dowd, A. A. (November 20, 2014). "The V/H/S franchise goes Viral—and down the tubes". The A.V. Club . Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  16. ↑ Hoffman, Jordan (November 21, 2014). "V/H/S Viral review – aggravating and essentially plot-free, but that won't scare off horror fans". The Guardian . Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  17. ↑ ""V/H/S VIRAL" (Movie Review) | FANGORIA®". February 19, 2015. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  18. ↑ McHargue, Brad (September 20, 2014). "V/H/S Viral (2014)". Dread Central . Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  19. ↑ Owen, Luke (August 26, 2014). "V/H/S Viral (2014)". Flickering Myth. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  20. ↑ V/H/S/94 , retrieved September 28, 2021

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.