Never take collectors lightly, because they know how to get what they want.
That is especially true of old school VHS collectors. Indeed, the framing
device truly puts the “cult” in cult film fanatics when the V/H/S franchise
returns with V/H/S/94, which premieres today on Shudder.
In
Jennifer Reeder’s wrap-arounds, “Holy Hell,” a SWAT team thinks they are
executing a search warrant on a drug den, but the industrial warehouse actually
houses what appears to be the video-head equivalent of the Heaven’s Gate cult.
There are lots of dead bodies seated in front of video monitors, where naturally,
we will watch the constituent stories unfold.
Chloe
Okuno’s “Storm Drain” consists of the footage shot by Holly Marciano, a local
Ohio TV reporter, and her cameraman, when they ventured down into the titular
sewer in search of a weird rat creature. It is pretty straightforward, but
nicely executed and it ends on an amusing kicker. Also, Anna Hopkins probably
delivers the film’s most memorable performance as the shallow, soon-to-be
freaked out Marciano.
Arguably,
Simon Barrett’s “The Empty Wake” is the most effective and economical installment,
in which, per a grieving family’s odd request, a mortuary worker must record an
overnight wake, even though nobody comes to mourn—almost no one. It really is
creepy, because it is so grounded in the lonely, late-night setting.
If
you have the opportunity to see V/H/S/94 on a big-screen with audience, “The
Subject” (directed by Timo Tjahjanto, one half of the Mo Brothers), might turn
out to be the highlight instead, because it is so deliriously gory and unhinged.
In this case an Indonesian SWAT (this is not a great film to elite squad cop
in) raid a mad scientist’s lair in search of a kidnapped woman. What they find
is a bit disturbing. Tjahjanto does his thing, but it plays better in a group. On
your own, you might notice the thinness of the story, but the over-the-top
splatter effects do their best to compensate.
The problem with surviving a horror
movie is it’s never really over. This is the second demonic rodeo for all the
characters we are about to meet, so that necessarily means some will not be so
lucky this time around. In the previous film, Alfie Wijaya and her little step-sister
Nara literally survived an encounter with the Devil, but she is still haunted by
the experience. Nevertheless, a group of terrified Indonesian orphans abducts
her in the belief she can help them defeat their old demonic tormentor, who has
recently reasserted himself. Wijaya suspects her presence will be like fighting
a grease fire with a can of gasoline, but nobody asks her opinion in Timo
Tjahjanto’s May the Devil Take You Too, which premieres tomorrow on
Shudder.
Budi, Jenar, Martha, Gadis, Leo, Kristi, and
Dewi are sort of like the grown-kids from It, except they were horribly
abused orphans—and Dewi will be killed in the prologue. They grew up in a provincial
orphanage, where they became accustomed to the cruelty of wealthy founder Pak
Ayub. However, they were forced to kill him when they discovered Ayub intended
to sacrifice them to the demon Molloch. They thought that was the end of it
until his demonic spirit started attacking Gadis, the weakest of their circle.
Martha, the bookish one, studied the old demon-worshiper’s
Black Bible and identified Wijaya as a demonic survivor with enough mojo to
deliver the necessary incantations. She did not go easily and she remains
skeptical. However, when the irredeemable Ayub starts possessing and killing
his former victims, Wijaya is forced to go along with the plan, in order to
protect Nara.
Although the concept is not exactly
unprecedented, there is still a good deal of utter and complete lunacy in Take
You Too. Arguably, it is also a bit restrained compared to some of
Tjahjanto’s previous work (especially as part of the Mo Brothers), but there
are still a fair number of over-the-top gross-out scenes. It certainly should
not diminish Tjahjanto’s fan following. To the contrary, the way the eerie
sense of foreboding gets under viewers’ skin and leads to rapidly escalating anxiety
should only burnish his rep.
