V/H/S: Viral

 V/H/S: Viral Movie Review

This is the third film in the V/H/S series, and much like the first two, this one taps into the spirit of movies such as Creepshow to tell three tales with a wrap-around story. In this one, the wrap-around story (titled Vicious Circles) is of a group of people, but one youngster in particular, filming a police chase in hopes their video will be a viral sensation. The young man soon realizes the chase is going around in circles and something evil is happening as a result. This story is frankly boring, and the end is a disaster.

At least he's not using his cell.

The first of the three stories within the story is of a magician named Dante The Great (I kept hearing Jeff Anderson saying this in my heads the entire time this story played out) who uncovers real magic when he comes across a cape. However, aside from magic, the cape posses true evil, and must be fed humans to keep going--a comparison to The Blob is obvious here. This is by far the best of the three stories, and stand alone, I wouldn't give it a score above maybe a 6. It did have a lot of potential, and the acting and directing are decent, but it suffers from poor special effects, not enough time to develop the story, and somewhat poor dialogue.

Back! I'm not even supposed to be here today!

The second story, titled Parallel Monsters, is about a guy named Alfonso who creates a device that allows him to tap into a parallel universe and see himself there. The two Alfonsos agree to enter each others world for exactly 15 minutes. When they do, the original Alfonso discovers his other self is nothing like him. This one had a TON of potential but falls flat when the big reveal of what is going on in the parallel universe happens. Strangely, this segment is in Spanish, but was not subtitled in English (I watched this on Netflix, so it may just be an issue there and not on the DVD). Turning on the subtitles via Netflix helps, but it obviously is not translating everything being said.

The Alfonsos

The final of the shorts is Bonestorm. In this one a group of skateboarders travel to Mexico for drinks, weed, and fireworks, as well as to film themselves skateboarding more. This is a disaster of a short. It takes seemingly hours for anything to happen beyond foul-mouthed kids skateboarding and talking about absolutely nothing of substance. Eventually they skate on some sacred ground--or something--and are surrounded by, and attacked by--ghosts? Spirits? People dressed for Day of the Dead? Skeletons?--I really don't know, but by the time these things show up you will likely be so annoyed by the skaters you hope they are killed instantly. As if the characters weren't bad enough, much of this is shot via a helmet-mounted GoPro. This is the absolute worst of the segments in the entire V/H/S series, and that's really saying something.

One of our heroes.

If you have seen the first two V/H/S films, watch this one just to complete the trilogy and to appreciate the other two more. Otherwise, skip it.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 4

V/H/S: Viral Movie Trailer