V/H/S/99

V/H/S was something of an innovation back in 2012 that has gradually spun downwards with smaller budgets and generally weaker stories.

Starting with ‘Shredding’ a pop punk band decide to break into an abandoned venue that was the scene of four pieces trampled to death. Needless to say, this doesn’t turn out well for them in a predicably nasty way. Good ending though.

Next up is ‘Suicide Bid’ in which a new university student Lilly (Ally Ionnides) eager to get accepted into a sorority if forced to take an initiation that involves being buried alive in a coffin. There’s a legend attached to this in that a previous girl disappeared and taken to hell. Again there’s not much originality or twist but its nicely done with some good tense claustrophobic scenes.

‘Ozzy’s Dungeon’ open with one of those child-based game shows that forces the participants to do stupid things. This one goes too far and Donna (Amelia Ann) is badly hurt to the extent that her mother (Sonya Eddy) kidnaps the idiot host (Steven Ogg) to then put him through a trial of terror. This is a nasty brutal episode that will have some churning their guts with its wilful nastiness.

Teenage boys’ wet dreams and stalking are the themes of ‘The Gawkers’ when three friends interrupt their Jackass/Candid Camera antic when they spy a new neighbour (Emily Sweet) cleaning her pool and car. Fixating on her attributes they decide to tamper with her laptop, adding spyware for the purposes of seeing her strip. Naturally they’ve picked on the wrong person and she deals with them in the most classical of ways. Grimy, grubby and voyeuristic this actually isn’t that bad with some pretty good performances.

Demon raising and possession in ‘To Hell and Back’ in which two filmmakers (Archelaus Crisanto and Joseph Winter) find themselves taken to hell. With the Mabel (Melanie Stone) as their guide they have to try and find their way out. The grotesque monsters and make-up can’t disguise the average hellscape visuals and it does go on a bit too long.

Set in 1999 that could be a closure to the last century, or a greeting to the new – likely the latter, this collection as a whole is limp but as is the nature of these things it’s not all bad. There aren’t any real stinkers just a steady stream of mediocrity with ‘Suicide Bid’ and ‘The Gawkers’ standing out as the most enjoyable.

V/H/S/99 is available on Shudder now.