TheMovieDoctorful The first "V/H/S" was the DEFINITION of a mixed bag. Some of the acting was fantastic, but some of it was terrible. Some of the shorts were brilliant and terrifying, but others were insulting and laughable. The atmosphere was nightmarish, but the characters were obnoxiously unlikable. I really hope that those disappointed by the first "V/H/S" film can find it in their hearts to give "V/H/S 2" a shot cause, as it turns out, it's not only vastly superior to the original film, but one Hell of a horror movie on its own merits. As an anthology flick, I'll be analyzing each of the shorts on their own.Phase #1: Clinical Trials~The admitted weakest of all the shorts, but still not bad. This one suffers from some VERY blatant plot holes (If Herman's artificial eye only allows him to see ghosts in his house, why is there a "scary noise" whenever they show up on screen?), but the jump scares, fairly cheap as they are, DO work and director Adam Wingard proves himself to be a solid actor. This short also boasts some impressive gore effects and gives a genius reason for why the camera is always rolling. 6/10 A Ride In The Park~So good that it's a shame it's not feature length. The zombies themselves are terrifying in both speech and appearance, the premise is creative, the gore effects are outstanding and used effectively, and the short gets in a surprisingly heavy emotional punch near the end. And must say, never thought I'd see a zombie film where the zombie has character development. 9/10Safe Haven~Definitely the most creative (And the most violent) of the shorts. The story is surprisingly complex for its runtime, the acting is incredibly realistic, the characters are likable, the wickedly dark comedy hits hard (Especially the ending), and the film does an excellent job using its unpredictability to shock and horrify you. This one also boasts the best creature effects of all the shorts. 8/10Slumber Party Alien Abduction~Saving the best for last. Many found footage films have attempted tackling the "alien abduction" sub- genre to varying degrees of success, but "V/H/S 2" does in less than 15 minutes what none of them accomplished at feature length. The acting is fantastic, the characters are likable, the effects are outstanding, the pacing is perfect and above all, it's scary. REALLY scary. The film shifts from casual home movie to nightmarish escape from malevolent aliens seamlessly, using its more lighthearted, "fun" tone as a disguise for what becomes arguably the most suspenseful and intense of the shorts (Something helped by the fact it is preceded by the darkest short in the movie) There is not a single moment in the entire short that is not entertaining, and it's proof that the alien abduction found footage sub-genre can do SO much better. 10/10Frame Narrative~Words cannot express how grateful I am that the characters are actually LIKABLE in this installment, not to mention very well acted. True, Larry and Ayesha have the chaotic, "rules are made to be broken" attitude to them that the characters in the first movie had, but they're still essentially good people, and their love for breaking the rules and generally pissing off people they don't particularly like comes off here as more of a "rogueish charm" that just makes them even MORE likable. The reasoning behind the collector's possession of the tapes is much more fascinating this time around, and the frame narrative contains some very subtle but truly horrifying visual scares. The 2 ending plot twists are brilliant, even if the final scare is something of a disappointment. 9/10 "V/H/S 2" is the perfect found footage movie for any adrenaline junkie, gore hound tired of the genre's relatively bloodless entries. That said, there is still much to love for fans who like their horror more subtle and suspenseful. Simply put, it's very diverse in the different ways it scares its audience. Scary, funny, well acted and with surprisingly likable characters "V/H/S 2" makes its mark as the undisputed pinnacle of the trilogy and definitely one of the better found footage films.

Michael Radny There is really nothing to be excited about in V/H/S/2. I had heard mixed reviews on it, and whilst the found footage concept is clichéd at this point, I thought I'd give it a go and hopefully see a glimpse of hope. This was not to be. Besides being long and boring, this film just wasn't scary nor was it interesting. The initial videos seem to set the slow pace for the rest of the film, and whilst there are times where you think something fun will happen, it just fails to be executed.V/H/S/2 is nothing more then an expected disappointment. There is nothing fun, interesting, scary or enjoyable that comes out of this found footage montage, which is a shame. Truly a bad Hollywood cash grabber.

BA_Harrison V/H/S/2 is one of those rare sequels that is miles better than the original movie, which squandered its intriguing found-footage anthology format on several rather weak and poorly executed stories. This time around, the result is far more successful as a whole, with three out of the four main stories being absolute stonkers.After introducing matters with the obligatory wraparound tale—an investigator and his assistant searching for a missing college student break into a house where they find a stack of mysterious video cassettes—the film begins proper with the slotting of tape number one into the video player...Phase I Clinical Trials, directed by Adam Wingard (You're Next), sees an accident victim having one of his eyes surgically replaced with an experimental eye-camera, after which he begins to see horrific visions of dead people. A young woman warns him that he mustn't try to interact with these frightening apparitions (she even tries to distract him by having sex with him!), but she is too late: the ghosts have already been acknowledged and now have the power to kill. This tale benefits from solid performances and decent special effects, and most importantly, skillful direction from Wingard (a film-maker I had virtually written off after You're Next and The ABCs of Death). Wingard really delivers the scares here, making this one to watch with the light on.Things get even better with the next story, A Ride In The Park, co-directed by Gregg Hale and Eduardo Sánchez, who take a well worn sub-genre and give it a refreshing new lease of life (or is that 'death'?). Jay Saunders plays a cyclist who is attacked and killed by the the living dead while out on his bike; now a zombie himself, the man's undead antics are recorded by his GoPro camera, which is attached to his cycle helmet. Excitement, gore and a bittersweet payoff make this my favourite of all the stories.Up next is Safe Haven, co-directed by Gareth Evans, the man who gave us the awesome action flicks The Raid and The Raid 2, and Timo Tjahjanto. This one starts of pretty slow, with a film crew making a documentary about a strange religious cult, but it gets seriously bonkers once the cult's members begin to commit suicide in order to bring about the birth of a giant, horned, winged demon. Evans' trademark kinetic direction and loads of extreme gore go to make Safe Haven a whole lot of splattery fun once it kicks into gear, with such grisly sights as someone having their face blown off by a shotgun, a full body explosion, and the massive demon tearing its way out of a woman's stomach.This leads us to the last and rather disappointing tale, Slumber Party Alien Abduction, by director Jason Eisener (Hobo With A Shotgun), which is even worse than the title suggests. The plot sees group of teenagers having a sleepover which is crashed by malevolent extraterrestrials who try to abduct them. This not-very-scary sci-fi story doesn't sit very well with the previous episodes, and matters are made much worse with Eisener's dreadful direction and lousy editing which makes following the action virtually impossible. Once the aliens attack, the camera shakes all over the place and bright lights are shone directly into the lens while the characters scream a lot. It all proves extremely irritating.Thankfully V/H/S/2 has a few more effective scares up its sleeve before the end credits roll, the wraparound tale closing with the investigator being hunted by his assistant, who has somehow been transformed into a zombie by the videocassettes.One bad tale out of four (five if you include the intro and outro) isn't at all bad, though; I only hope that V/H/S: Viral, the third in the series, continues the trend (although a quick look at current reviews casts serious doubt over that!).

TdSmth5 An investigator and his partner are hired to find a college kid. They break into house at night and find a room with bunch of TV, VCRs and lots of tapes. The girl stays to look at the tapes. He looks around the house. But there's someone else there.The first tape the girl watches is about a guy who lost his eye in an accident. He gets an implant and can see again through his bionic eye. When he gets home he starts seeing ghosts appear and vanish. Next morning a girl who saw him at the clinic knocks on his door. She tells him that she has an ear implant and now she hears ghosts. And she says she knows how to make them go away. But the ghosts have a plan of their own. That forces the guy to make a tough decision.Tape 2 is of a guy biking somewhere in the woods. A woman screaming for help crosses his path. She starts vomiting, turns into a zombie and attacks him. He still has a camera on his helmet as he turns into a zombie and attacks a couple. There are bunch of zombies there and they all crash a girl's birthday party. But some of the guys there start defending themselves. When he gets a call from his girlfriend, whatever he has left of his humanity surfaces.In tape 3 some journalists interview some guy who talks about knowing the path to immortality and that he's almost there. The crew of 4 then visit his compound. There are children there and a girl hints at being abused. When the actual interview with the cult leader begins, the 4 end up separating but for good reasons. At some point the guy says that it has begun and attacks the camera guy. Alarms start sounding. All the kids start drinking something. In another room, men shoot themselves in the head. The female reporter is taken by the cultists. When her guy finds he she gives birth. Things get crazier from there.The final story involves some kids who get to spend some time by themselves at what looks like a vacation home by the lake when the parents leave. There is a group of teens and a group of pre-teens. They pull pranks on each other and have a good time. Right away at night the house starts shaking, there are lights, sounds. This happens a couple of times until finally aliens show up.At the end we find out what happens with the couple of investigators and the college guy they were looking for.V/H/S/2 is an improvement on part 1. It has better image and better stories and is much gorier. It's good to see though that The ABCs of Death had enough of an impact to make a name for some of directors there. The first story is nothing special unfortunately, it is watchable mainly thanks to the lovely Hannah Hughes. Things improve greatly with the second story, the success of which borrows from Unearthed from The ABCs of Death by showing us what happens from the perspective of the villain. Things get even better in the third story by Timo Tjahjanto. His story isn't just happy to give us the creepy Jim Jones-type cult leader but goes way beyond. It's wild and crazy, just as his short on ABCs was. This guy is currently the future of horror. Unfortunately, after this high point things go significantly downhill with the aliens segment. It doesn't set up the story right, we can't distinguish any important character, what could have been a surprise is given away way too early, and it doesn't offer anything interesting. Odd and unfortunate, since Eisener's short on ABCs was pretty good. If they manage to make a sequel excluding weak shorts, they might have something here.