The V/H/S brand property franchise has been going for 14 years now. Its previous entries are V/H/S, V/H/S/2, V/H/S: VIRAL, V/H/S/94, V/H/S/99, V/H/S/85, V/H/S/BEYOND, V/H/S/HALLOWEEN, and also a “Snapchat-released miniseries” called V/H/S: VIDEO HORROR SHORTS. But until the new one V/H/S/MIXTAPE I had never seen any of them (unless you count Jason Eisener’s KIDS VS. ALIENS, spun off from a segment in V/H/S/2).
I’ve just been stubborn, I guess. There’s no real reason not to give them a shot. I’ve just been skeptical because I think the anthology format almost by definition creates a half-weight, insubstantial movie, almost guaranteed to be a mixed bag at best. And I am much less fond of found footage horror than of anthologies, so combining the two sounded like the worst of both worlds.
Still, I can understand why it’s been an enduring series, since the relative ease of making a V/H/S segment vs. making a real movie or even a short that anybody would ever see makes it appealing for up-and-coming directors as well as established ones looking for something fun to do. Some of the directors who have taken part who I have enjoyed movies from include Adam Wingard (THE GUEST), Ti West (PEARL), Chloe Okuno (WATCHER), Nacho Vigalondo (COLOSSAL), Johannes Roberts (THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT), Scott Derrickson (THE GORGE) and Casper Kelly (THE FIREPLACE).
And yes, of course, I know that Timo Tjahjanto (THE NIGHT COMES FOR US) & Gareth Evans (THE RAID) famously did one in part 2 that is the only thing every single person who has ever tried to justify V/H/S ever points to. The Daredevil-hallway-fight of V/H/S. Okay, I will at least watch that one. I’m sorry. The way they finally got me to watch one, though, is to say it’s music themed and it has segments by RZA and Flying Lotus and features GWAR. Sounded fun. (read the rest of this shit…)
Cindy Sherman is an artist known for her photographic self portraits. A bio on the Museum of Modern Art websight calls her “among the most significant artists of the Picture Generation, who came of age in the 1970s and responded to the mass media landscape surrounding them with both humor and criticism.” Madonna sponsored (whatever that means) MoMA’s 1997 exhibition of Sherman’s most famous series, Untitled Film Stills. It’s comprised of 69 black and white photos shot between 1977 and 1980, in which she’s posed playing various characters in fictional movies from the ‘50s and ’60s. That same year she also made her one actual movie, OFFICE KILLER.
“What the fuck was our daughter doing in a 3,000 year old sarcophagus!?”
Here we go with another October, and another struggle to continue the tradition of Slasher Search in some way. The shadowy corners of the shelves have been excavated, the bottoms of the barrels have been scraped squeaky clean, and I don’t know where else to look for vintage slasher movie gold that’s still obscure. If there’s any of the kind of stuff I was looking for left undiscovered, the boutique blu-ray labels are better at finding it than I am. So I’m not really searching for slashers as much as I’m searching for new approaches to Slasher Search.
I had maybe seen the title before, but didn’t know what it was, so I figured this is what I’ll do this year: all requests. If you suggest a movie that I haven’t heard of or at least seems obscure, and I can find it, I will try to review it. (Please try to make it slasher or slasher adjacent and preferably not well known enough to be released on blu-ray.) CJ Holden has already recommended a few more, and I invite you all to add any others in the comments.
The unanswerable question: is it called READY OR NOT: HERE I COME, or READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME? Depends if you ask the opening credits or the closing credits. I guess we get to pick.
M.F.A. has a series of murders in it, but it doesn’t have the atmosphere of a horror movie like I would usually review this time of year. I’d say it’s closer to a thriller. It came out in 2017, I’ve been meaning to see it for a while, and unfortunately I was reminded of it by current events. It’s a rape-revenge movie with more parallels to the recent Cornell University case than I expected, but of course it’s not coincidence – it’s a terrible reminder that this is based on things that happen all the time. I have to warn you that although I think this is a respectable movie and not sleazy like 
When BACKROOMS came out in May, I was annoyed by the hype. I kept seeing articles about the rise of “liminal horror” which, as far as I could tell, boiled down to people pretending to be afraid of hallways and empty malls. Like so many annoying things it was born on the internet in Youtube videos and “creepypasta,” which is a word not even good enough to use as a placeholder. I object to its common usage, I resent that I had to repeat it, and I assert my rights as an old person to not have to be totally sure I know its definition. Whatever it is I disagree with it, so I was skeptical of this BACKROOMS, to say the least.
Hey guys, just arrived at the OBSESSION discussion. Got held up by traffic. Is anybody still here? Hello?
FLY AWAY HOME is one of the great PG-rated movies of 1996, and a true family film as opposed to one for kids. It’s for all ages, because it’s about cute animals, but also a 13-year-old girl trying to find herself after life-shattering loss, but also an eccentric adult trying to get his shit together as a parent while staying true to his ideals, and how they do those things together by both caring about the goslings orphaned by developers intruding on their land.
THE SURFER is one of the movies from recent years that I’ve meant to get around to because it seemed like a promising Nicolas Cage role. It’s from the Irish director Lorcan Finnegan (VIVARIUM) and writer Thomas Martin, set and filmed in Australia, and Cage plays a guy who grew up there and has returned to try to buy a house his late father used to own.
