Viral (2014) Revisited – Horror Movie Review

The Black Sheep series looks back at the least popular film in the V/H/S anthology series, V/H/S: Viral

Has there been a more unlikely horror film series than this? V/H/S Franchise? Due to the nature of the subgenre, anthology films do not typically lend themselves to being a series, as even the segments within their own films are almost always unrelated to each other. Sure, TV found a way to make it work in things like… American horror story by Ryan Murphy or the criminally underrated Channel zero that ran for 4 seasons. Side note: If you have Shudder, please take a look Channel zero. There are of course exceptions The ABCs of Death or the Scary show series, but most of them are one and done. There are also unrelated films that use the same actors and directors as the wonderful films Amicus made alongside Hammer in the '60s and '70s, but again, they weren't sequels at all. V/H/S has defied all odds and with a new film just released, let's look at the one that almost killed the entire series 10 years ago. V/H/S: Viral. His Rotten Tomatoes are rotten and he regularly finds himself at the bottom of every ranking, but let's see why this black sheep should be rewound and shared.

V/H/S came out in 2012 and was a minor sensation. Sure, it was rough around the edges, but it was also a breath of fresh air and was loved by audiences while at least respected by critics. One of the segments was even turned into a standalone film, bridging the gap between the first three films and the current set. There were also big names behind the scenes like Radio Silence, Ti West, Joe Swanberg and David Bruckner. It made more money than expected and was followed V/H/S 2 which would follow the same formula and have some more recognizable creators. These include Adam Wingard and Eduardo Sanchez (the name may not ring a bell, but he is co-creator of The Blair Witch Project) and Gareth Edwards. This was bigger, had better production values, better effects and is considered one of the best in the series. There would be another section that would get its own feature film, and a sequel would come out the very next year.

V/H/S: Viral would not receive quick follow up. There wouldn't be a single segment that would turn into a spin-off film. Ultimately, it received the worst reviews from both critics and audiences, which remain the lowest to this day after three more films. Is it really that bad? Would I defend myself if that were the case? Okay, some of the others I defended need not be mentioned. That may not be the best barometer. In any case, I didn't like this movie the first time I saw it either, and after this re-watch I understand why. One of the biggest problems is its placement in the series. Part two followed, which is honestly just a cracker of a film with one of the best anthology installments ever put to celluloid. Even if the other stories don't come completely true, it creates a black hole where no one remembers or talks about them anymore, and unfortunately Viral has nothing really comparable. However, there are some really funny ones. The next current one V/H/S come out? The one with the highest ratings and the most critical reviews of the group, which didn't do him any favors either.

The two really funny stories I mentioned are more than worth watching, but unfortunately they come first and are followed by a lousy overall story and a mostly boring third section. An anthology's comprehensive story is synonymous with its success, even if that means staying largely out of the story. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is my favorite, with Peter Cushing's Tarot reading of the Death Dealer, who simply smiles as his fellow passengers on the train see their doom, until he is revealed to be Death itself. Great stuff. Simple thing. Unobtrusive stuff. No notes. Others that can be good are things like the great Clancy Brown, who is our Cryptkeeper host The corpse collection or John Carpenter turning on his Cryptkeeper Body bags. Come to think of it, Carpenter's transition to becoming a real Cryptkeeper is almost complete! The overall context here is a disjointed mess that doesn't even flow into or have anything to do with the other stories. It tries to say something when viral content is ruining our lives or when our devices are ruining our relationships, but it goes nowhere.

The look at the talent behind the scenes also falls flat, especially when compared to other contributions. Aside from Justin Benson and Aaron Morehead, there are no future horror star creators who would venture much further into science fiction with the likes of… Synchronous And The endless and probably got the job with their low-budget horror thriller resolution. The funny thing is that their segment is by far the worst. Most of the time their stories are full of complex characters who want to complete a sad or harrowing arc, but in Bonestormthe characters are complete idiots that I've never really cared about killing. It's about a group of skateboarders who travel to Mexico and come into conflict with a death cult that omits some creature. It's cheesy in all the wrong ways and feels like a bad Jess Franco movie in all the wrong ways, with cheap makeup, cheap effects and no sense of tension or urgency. This is exacerbated by the special effects in general, which, while requiring some hands-on training, are mostly digital and really show their budget.

I said I was defending this film, and I meant it. V/H/S: Viral has a lot to offer. I complained about the overarching story, but at least it tried. As creepy as the first one tries to be, with a nameless person watching the tapes he finds in an abandoned house, it's also a bit of a nothing burger. I'm okay with failure as long as it's an attempt and there are some decent parts. When a fellow cyclist is grabbed by the runaway ice cream truck that is the centerpiece of the tour, he loses his shoes and the road does its part to wear down his feet and legs. It's unexpected because you think something inside him might kill him, but the vehicle just drags him to his death. The ending is also interesting as the city lights flicker and if you look closely you can see a helicopter losing control as fires rage across the city. At least it ends on a nice note.

On that note, the final part of the story, as annoying as it may be, also has some nice moments. It kills off annoying characters, which is welcome, and the fact that the cultist's blood is flammable is cool. The skateboarders kill most of them and the bodies come back like a boss Dark souls Skinless and a little harder, which is nice too. Things like that get lost when the rest of the screen content is either annoying or just plain stupid. Apart from the summary and the third part, the first two stories I mentioned are quite entertaining.

First is Dante the Great what is told in a documentary, Blair Witch style, but also through a simply clever amount of camera equipment. They use police station surveillance cameras, phone cameras, street cameras and even laptop webcams to show everything. It tells the story of a failed magician who turned things around and became an almost taciturn Las Vegas mystery act. We learn this when we see him get a special cloak that allows for some pretty typical illusions, but also some very inexplicable things. Nice touches throughout, such as the audience members saying that they attended the show in New York and he whisked them away to Los Angeles and that they were impressed and rightly pissed off, give the story more character than you'd expect . The cloak is a creature in its own right, or at least houses a creature, and he ends up feeding it to a number of his assistants, presumably to keep him obeying his orders or at least keeping him docile.

He becomes more of a dark wizard than anything else and begins training and developing feelings for his newest assistant. She understands what is becoming of him and the police pursue him, but the SWAT team is no match for her. For the film's lower budget, this scene is masterfully realized, in which Dante kills the officers in various ways, including breaking off their limbs, throwing them onto a bed of magic spikes, and using one of them to kill a number of others, and probably me too shoot favorite part where he transports himself and an officer where the officer is shot and he kills the last one. There is a showdown between master and apprentice and the assistant can feed Dante up to the cape. She meets her demise in a pretty obvious jump scare, but everything before that is really impressive and I would compare it to some segments in later entries.

The second story comes from the creator of the soffit Time crimes and although I remembered it being a time travel story, it is actually a story with potentially different dimensions. It does a great job of showing us some really crazy stuff and explaining almost none of it. A scientist can open a window to other dimensions where he meets his doppelganger, who is a scientist like himself. They attempt to explore each other's dimensions for 15 minutes before meeting again. While anyone would suspect that one of them is on the evil side, what's going on in the alternate world is shocking and unpredictable. The best part is seeing both men walk up the stairs in an identical house with a video camera and find a different image than their own. The beauty of it is that it's not a subtle, barely noticeable difference, but rather a bizarre and frightening one. You won't guess what happens next, and you won't forget it either.

Watching this again, I only remembered a few things. 1. That I didn't like it and 2. The conclusion and the third story. V/H/S: Viral deserves much more than the hate and response it has received over the years and should be taken into account when watching the series. Although I highly doubt that the new film, with a segment written by Mike Flannigan and directed by his extremely talented wife and collaborator Kate Siegal, will take its place as the new worst, Viral is not bad. If you're looking to start a new horror series this October after clearing up the main culprits, don't miss this series V/H/S: Viral when you add these films.

A few of the previous episodes of The black sheep can be seen at the end of this article. To see more, check out the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!