Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

V/H/S: Viral Blu-ray Movie Review

Like the Common Cold, It Has No Cure

Reviewed by Michael Reuben February 16, 2015

The "killer video anthology" conceived by Brad Miska, co-founder and editor-in-chief of BloodyDisgusting.com, has claimed plenty of victims, but it refuses to die itself. Following the initial (and overlong) installment, V/H/S, in 2012 and its sequel, V/H/S 2 in 2013, Miska and co-producer Gary Binkow scooped up another group of young and hungry directors to inflict 2014's V/H/S: Viral on horror fans. At 81 minutes, this third installment is by far the shortest to date, and for a simple reason: It is missing an entire segment. The short entitled "Gorgeous Vortex" by writer/director Todd Lincoln (The Apparition) was cut from V/H/S: Viral shortly before release. According to a phrase that recurs on multiple internet sites with no attribution, this was done to give the feature "a smoother running time".

Think about that wording for a second. What does it actually mean? How can a running time be more or less "smooth"? Now that "Gorgeous Vortex" is being included as an extra on the Blu-ray release of V/H/S: Viral (though in an unusual format), viewers can decide for themselves what lies behind that cryptic phrasing with its aroma of PR spin.

What remains in V/H/S: Viral is three individual horror shorts, connected by the least coherent wraparound tale of the franchise. Several of the individual shorts aren't bad at all; in a differently stuctured anthology, they might have made an interesting film. Situated within the irritating folds of V/H/S: Viral, however, they are only worth your time if you're willing to skip numerous intervening chapters.

V/H/S: Viral dives straight into its wraparound, which is entitled "Vicious Circles". Written and directed by Marcel Sarmiento (Deadgirl), the segment departs from the formula of the previous two installments, which stayed entirely in a single location where people watched video recordings containing the other segments. "Vicious Circles" doesn't bother with such logistical details. It simply alternates the film's additional tales with a frenetic and incoherent account of a stolen ice cream truck tearing through the streets of L.A. as the police give chase and news cameras cover the pursuit from the air. Along the route, various amateur videographers try to capture the next piece of graphic footage that will give them fifteen minutes of fame and millions of internet hits. One of them is Kev (Patrick Lawrie), who has a special interest in the pursuit. His girlfriend, Iris (Emily Zoryan), was snatched up by the van as it passed their apartment, after Iris followed Kev out into the street, staring into her phone and behaving like someone in a trance.

At least, I think that's what happened. "Vicious Circles" stretches the "found video" concept to such extremes, weaving together everything from traffic cams to cell phones to police car recordings, and it includes so much annoying breakup and distortion (all of it deliberate, of course), that you're never sure what's happening. Keeping the audience off-balance is a venerable device in the horror director's bag of tricks, but it has to be used for a purpose (as, for example, Hitchcock did with a certain Mrs. Bates in Psycho). In "Vicious Circles", Sarmiento uses chaos, confusion and fritzed video to conceal the fact that he hasn't bothered to think up a coherent narrative. What he's created is mostly an excuse to kill people along the route of the runaway truck, from a variety of causes, each more contrived than the last.

When Kev finally does find Iris, we're supposed to be horrified at his discovery of the deadly secret behind the mayhem. But aside from the lack of any explanation for how all this crazed action fits together, my guess is you'll be laughing out loud that evil forces powerful enough to generate all this death and destruction actually need Kev's assistance to complete their nefarious plot—or that the final stage relies on an antique piece of analog technology that looks like it was rescued from a dumpster at Radio Shack.

Intercut with "Vicious Circles" are the three independent tales. "Dante the Great" was written by Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead) and T.J. Cimfel (No Tell Motel) and directed by Bishop. It's presented as a faux documentary about a trailer-park kid (Justin Welborn) who became an overnight sensation as the greatest magician the world had ever known, until his latest assistant, Scarlet (Emmy Argo), one of a long string, reported him to the police. It seems that Dante's previous assistants didn't just up and leave him, as he claims. They were sacrificed to the secret of his powers, a cloak previously owned by the great Harry Houdini—and a genuine conduit of black magic. When a heavily armed SWAT team tries to arrest Dante, they find themselves dealing with a "perp" unlike any they've ever faced. "Dante the Great" has clever effects and an entertaining final showdown between Dante and the one person who has learned enough about his secret powers to prove a worthy adversary.

"Parallel Monsters" is by far the best of the three shorts, especially if you haven't seen the trailer for V/H/S: Viral, which gives too much of it away. Written by Nacho Vigalondo (Open Window) and David White and directed by Vigalondo, the story concerns a Spanish scientist, Alfonso (Gustavo Salmeron), obsessed with building a portal to a parallel dimension. For months, he has locked himself in his basement working on the project, ignoring his beautiful wife, Martha (Marian Alvarez). On this night, however, Alfonso finally succeeds, and as the dimensional field is energized, he finds himself staring at his double across the portal, who has just perfected an identical machine. They greet each other, congratulate each other, and agree to spend fifteen minutes exploring each other's world to confirm that everything is the same. What could possibly go wrong?

It turns out, though, that there are crucial differences between the two worlds, and they only begin to dawn on "our" Alfonso, when the other Martha introduces him to two young men, both of whom are named "Oriol" (Xavi Daura and Esteban Navarro). From there, things only get stranger. "Parallel Monsters" is something of a sick prank on both Alfonso and the audience, but it works because Salmeron and Alvarez are both so good at behaving with utter seriousness. (The segment is in Spanish with English subtitles.)

The third short, "Bonestorm", is by far the weakest. Written and directed by the team of Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson (Resolution), "Bonestorm" follows two skateboarding enthusiasts, Danny and Jason (Nick Blanco and Chase Newton), who are making a skateboard video shot by Taylor (Shane Brady), who keeps pushing them to perform ever more dangerous stunts. After being thrown out of numerous parks, they drive to Tijuana, where they hope to find a deserted space where they won't be disturbed, but they have the bad luck to choose a remote location where a cult is trying to raise their demon god from the earth. Soon enough, the skaters, their cameraman and a fourth character known only as "Gas Money Guy" are fighting for their lives against an assault of zombies and other demon-like figures. With much of the action recorded on Go-Pro cameras in their helmets, "Bonestorm" quickly becomes a first-person shooter game, as Danny and Jason battle their way through oncoming hordes, shooting, stabbing, hacking and bashing their way to freedom. As it turns out, however, this is only the beginning. Something bigger is coming.

After the final credits, the disc's producers have included the deleted segment, "Gorgeous Vortex", so that it plays continuously with the film. However, because it is mastered as a separate title and is not included in V/H/S: Viral's running time, I have listed it in the Features and Extras section below. Note, however, that, "Gorgeous Vortex" is not listed on the disc's "Special Features" menu. It can be accessed directly as Chapter 17 on the "Scene Selection" menu.

V/H/S: Viral Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like most anthology films, the cinematography of V/H/S: Viral varies wildly from segment to segment. Any video evaluation also has to make allowance for the fact that the film uses the "found video" format. Even "Dante the Great" relies on the magician's habit of videotaping his life, and "Parallel Monsters" has the scientist keeping a video record of his experiment and his visit to the alternate dimension. With "found footage" comes deliberate glitching and interference. In a sequence like the wraparound, "Vicious Circles", these effects are carried to such extremes that major mastering errors could be concealed in the breakup.

As is almost always the case with digitally originated material, Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray appears to be derived directly from a digital master, with no intervening analog conversions, which inspires confidence that what appears on the Blu-ray is identical to what was released to theaters. In individual sequences with good light and without artificially induced distortion, the image is generally detailed, sharp and colorful, albeit with varying densities and black levels, depending on the type of camera that was used. (For example, a GoPro, an iPhone and a Canon SLR will produce very different images, even after they've been color-corrected in post-production.)

Because the film is so short, Magnolia has managed to give it an average bitrate of 25.001 Mbps on a BD-25, even with the extras in HD. Despite the rapid motion and artificially introduced distortion, that's a good enough rate for digitally acquired material.

(Note: The video score is for the presumed accuracy of the presentation, not its aesthetic caliber.)

V/H/S: Viral Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As the directors' acknowledge in their commentary, "found footage" long ago abandoned any attempt to make its soundtracks adhere to the pretense that they were "found" as is. V/H/S: Viral's 5.1 track, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA, is filled with engineered sound effects that could only happen in the movies. The video breakups in "Vicious Circles" are so loud and so widely dispersed through the surround array that they are literally painful to the ears, as if some demon were assaulting your senses. The flames and other effects during the magic act in "Dante the Great" have depth and presence far beyond what a camcorder would capture, and the intensity of the SWAT team's weapons' fire would be right at home in an action film. Certain sounds of the parallel universe that alert the scientist to something being "off"—I can't be more specific without spoilers—have intensity and bass extension that should overload the microphone on the video camera he's carrying (one such sound comes from outside and resembles a foghorn on steroids). The closest the soundtrack comes to realism is in "Bonestorm", where many of the effects do sound like a video game heard from the first-person shooter's point of view.

V/H/S: Viral Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Gorgeous Vortex (1080p; 1.78:1; 16:33): Listed as chapter 17 of the main feature, but not included in its running time, this short was originally intended for inclusion in V/H/S: Viral, but was ultimately removed. Whatever excuses may be offered for the deletion, the real reason will be obvious as soon as one views "Gorgeous Vortex". Written and directed by Todd Lincoln, the short has no dialogue or story. It is a series of scenes concerning a statuesque model (played by Jayden Robinson and listed in the credits simply as "The Woman") alternately posing, cowering and being tested and tormented by figures in faceless masks and a large gargoyle-like predator. No doubt there is a message here about dehumanization and objectification of women, but nothing about the imagery or its presentation inspires one to look for it. Including the short would have brought V/H/S: Viral crashing to a standstill. Bonus points to any viewer who can last through the whole thing. (It took me several attempts.)



• Commentary with Directors Marcel Sarmiento, Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Nacho Vigalondo, Gregg Bishop & Actor Shane Brady (misspelled on the disc menu as "Bradey"): Like many group commentaries, this one often succumbs to the temptation to joke and quip, but there are interesting comments along the way, e.g. Vigalondo's description of the challenge of shooting the mirror opposite rooms of his two scientists and discussion of how the "found footage" format has evolved over the years.



• Bonestorm
• Behind the Scenes Featurette (1080p; 1.78:1; 5:36): A little of everything, from stunt rehearsal footage to prosthetics work.
• FX Storyboards (1080p).
• Artwork/FX Photo Gallery (1080p).
• Behind the Scenes Camera Stills (1080p).



• Dante the Great
• Smoke and Mirrors: Behind the Magic of Dante the Great (1080p; 1.78:1; 8:32): In a fine example of how to make a first-rate extra, writer-/director Gregg Bishop narrates this featurette as if he were doing a disc commentary. He explains his inspiration for the story; discusses the pluses and minuses of "found footage"; and breaks down some of the segment's most impressive effects, including the scene in which Dante levitates a group of randomly selected audience members from their seats.
• Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery (1080p).
• Production Stills Photo Gallery (1080p).
• Greenscreen Poster Screen Photo Gallery (1080p).



• Interviews (1080i; 1.78:1; 15:55): A "play all" function is included.
• Marc Sarmiento, Writer/Director, Vicious Circles
• Noelle Ann Mabry, "Lulu", Vicious Circles
• Patrick Lawrie, "Kev", Vicious Circles
• Gregg Bishop, Writer/Director, Dante the Great
• Justin Welborn, "Dante", Dante the Great
• Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, Writers/Directors, Bonestorm



• AXS TV: A Look at V/H/S: Viral (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:22): This typical AXS TV promo has been created by combining excerpts from some of the interviews, with the film's theatrical trailer.



• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes a trailer for The ABCs of Death 2, as well as a promo for AXS TV. These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.



• BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live gave the message "Check back later for updates".

V/H/S: Viral Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Given the reliable ROI ("return on investment") of cheap horror films, it's probably too much to hope that the V/H/S series has come to an end. There are too many aspiring horror film directors who will spend night after sleepless night trying to stretch a minuscule budget into something memorable, too many starving actors seeking exposure and too many aspiring crew members looking to burnish their credentials. After V/H/S: Viral, however, producers Miska and Binkow would be well advised to abandon wraparound stories and simply try to produce the best anthology of shorts possible. "Found footage" is the common theme for the V/H/S series, just as death and the alphabet link the chapters of the ABCs series. Anything more elaborate quickly becomes a distraction. Since only about half of V/H/S: Viral is worth your time, the choice is up to you.