VHS 99

Shudder Original comes back to us from there previous successes with a film that is derived from a successful branded film series. A successful format that is popular and gets the ASDA crowd (not sniffing) to part with their pound notes. That series is the V/H/S anthology film series, which has popped up multiple derivations. They often have a set formula, which is usually something like ‘Have a named person produce, X number of parts, running at a specific timed number of films, with X number of troupes and delivered within a tight set budget and to have an ROI (return of investment 3 times.) Money in and Money out.

When you are a film maker coming into it however, following on from a set formula can be constrictive, you come into it with an expectation and often a producer with a lot of ideas and little money. V/H/S/99, I suspect is the sort of film that will deliver a happy producer and a happy return. There are 6 short films here. Produced by a wealth of famous people, Maggie Levin, Johannes Roberts, Flying Lotus, Zoe Cooper, Tyler Macintyre, Chris Lee Hill and Vanessa and Joseph Winters. The best three are a Punk band visiting a haunted fire consumed band place called Shredding. A student is buried alive in a sorority test which ends badly in ‘Suicide Bid’. A game show becomes deadly and then three more to add to. The most interesting piece for me was the clever homage to VHS and the intertitles nature soldier story, that plays with form and have some fun injected into a veneer of childlike effusiveness.

V/H/S/99 extras are a fragmented affair. The thrust of them is, we cut stuff to get the films to fit. This mainly reveals little Good, more sensible editor and producer choices over any rich creative obscurity. The location, test shoots and the music videos are floppy and have been added to pad it. Pad to make you spend but they don’t offer anything.

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SPECIAL FEATURES

• Deleted Scenes
• ‘’Shredding’’ Bitchcat Music Video
• ‘’The Gawkers’’ Camera Test
• ‘’To Hell and Back’’ Storyboards and Location Scouting
• Bloopers