VHS 2 (2013)

  I finally got around to watching the sequel and it's about on par with the original VHS in that it's very much a grab bag.

A pair of private investigators (Lawrence Michael Levine and Kelsy Abbott) are looking for a missing college student (L.C. Holt).  In his house, they find a bunch of VHS tapes and decide to watch them for clues as to what happened to the kid.  They see a guy (Adam Wingard) undergoing one of the worst clinical trial runs for a cybernetic eye implant ("Phase 1 Clinical Trials"), a guy (Jay Saunders) having a terrible bike riding experience ("A Ride in the Park"), a documentary team uncovering the truth behind a Thai cult ("Safe Haven"), and the worst slumber party ever ("Slumber Party Alien Abduction").

In the first installment, the frame story was horrible and the short films were worth watching.  In this, the frame is handled pretty decently (if predictably) and the mini-movies left me a little cold.  "Phase 1 Clinical Trials" had some great imagery but the central conceit has been done to death, I think.  "A Ride in the Park" was probably the best out of the four and it was still pretty anemic.  It did have a zombie with a GoPro, though, so that's worth something.  "Safe Haven" had some lousy CGI and was a little overwrought for my tastes.  Like, real cults are horrifying enough on their own.  Do you really even need to add in a supernatural element?  And "Slumber Party Alien Abduction" was just really annoying.  They used that BWAAAAAMMM sound effect every time they showed the aliens for a cheap jump scare that didn't even work and rapidly became obnoxious.  Plus, they killed a dog for no narrative purpose.  That's just lazy screenwriting.

There's a third installment to this series but I'm seriously debating whether or not I want to put myself through that.

Christy suggested that I do 31 days of horror for October where I watch a different horror movie that I've never seen before every day for the whole month.  Obviously, this year it's probably not going to happen because of school but next year I will have graduated and there's nothing to stop me.  I know a lot of different sites do something similar so if you readers are tired of that sort of thing, let me know in the comments.  Otherwise, I will assume that silence equals your unreserved enthusiasm and proceed accordingly.