i have been a massive horror fan all my life, and found footage is one of my absolute favorite genres, despite this... i have never actually watched the VHS films, a series of horror anthologies where every short is in the found footage format. and shortly before cohost shut down, i set out to do that. The following is a copy paste from the cohost post i made about the first movie in the franchise, i will be keeping this as unedited as possible, but i will be noting changes in opinion ive had since, it should be noted these were written as i was watching the segments, and before i watched the next one.
amateur night: a very strong start imo. there is uh. a lot of sexual harassment in this one. but the acts are depicted as bad and the assholes get what's coming to them. the horror is fantastic despite how uncomfortable it is. effects are amazing and the actor for lily is phenomenal.
second honeymoon: HOLY SHIT LESBIANS oh yeah also the atmosphere and tension is phenomenal. still a lot of sexual harassment which sucks but LESBIANS
tuesday the 17th: absolutely phenomenal classic slasher tribute. when i initally posted this i said it was the best one, but ive changed my mind on this since writing that post. i still think its phenomenal however. the idea of a killer that only appears as a glitch on camera is fantastic.
that sick thing that happened to emily when she was younger: this one's alright. Acting is good and the novelty of it being recorded with an actual skype call is neat. But it's still just... fine.
10/31/98: a VERY strong finish. probably the best one IMO. a very good take on the idea of a haunted house. keeps things vague enough to where it let's you theorize about what was really going on, which for me is always a plus. the filmmaking group that directed this one, radio silence, would go on to direct ready or not, screams 5 and 6 and abigail, all movies i adore.
tape 56 (wraparound): something i didnt do when i initially reviewed these was talk about the wraparound segments that take place before and after each segment. i really dont care for this one, when its not being actively unbearable, its boring and uninteresting, wraparounds generally arent the highlight of a VHS film, but especially so here.
the original VHS is very flawed, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit in spite of that. if you can look past the frankly, needless, numerous sexual harassment scenes, you have a masterfully made horror film.