V/H/S/2
Synopsis
Inside a darkened house looms a column of TVs littered with VHS tapes, a pagan shrine to forgotten analog gods. The screens crackle and pop endlessly with monochrome vistas of static white noise permeating the brain and fogging concentration. But you must fight the urge to relax: this is no mere movie night. Those obsolete spools contain more than just magnetic tape. They are imprinted with the very soul of evil.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Lawrence Michael LevineLarry (segment "Tape 49")
- Kelsy AbbottAyesha (segment "Tape 49")
- L.C. HoltKyle (segment "Tape 49")
- Simon BarrettSteve (segment "Tape 49")
- Mindy RobinsonTabitha (segment "Tape 49")
- Adam WingardHerman (segment "Phase I Clinical Trials")
- Hannah HughesClarissa (segment "Phase I Clinical Trials")
- John T. WoodsDr. Fleischer (segment "Phase I Clinical Trials")
- Hannah Al RashidLena (segment "Safe Haven")
- Fachry AlbarAdam (segment "Safe Haven")
Recommendations
- 83
IndieWire
V/H/S 2 smartly contextualizes its nightmarish cavalcade of violence by acknowledging the luxury of enjoying it from a distance. - 80
Variety
This one is shorter and has fewer segments, but also earns a much higher batting average. In fact, there’s nary a dud among the four main tales (not including the titled bookends), which each whip elements of terror, macabre humor and the fantastical into a giddy frenzy. - 75
Slant Magazine
A welcome contrast to the first film's snuff-y atmosphere and general mean-spiritedness, featuring more humor, fewer hateful characters, and occasional twinges of relatable human emotion. - 75
Film.com
S-VHS isn’t as pants-pooping scary as the first, but it is funnier, tighter and slicker. - 75
The Playlist
V/H/S/2 is a whole lot of fun. - 63
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
The best of them you could certainly see as full length features, chilling little tastes of a complete vision — story, characters, horrific situations and visual aesthetic. The worst? Simply generic. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
The scares are as hit-or-miss as the filmmaking in the second installment of the “VHS” found-footage horror anthology series. - 40
Time Out
None of the chapters use the unifying formal conceit to any real advantage; only one, directed by Timo Tjahjanto and The Raid: Redemption’s Gareth Huw Evans, is worth a rental.
