Though not widely acknowledged at the time, the arrival of V/H/S in 2012 was a game changer. It showed the potential of marrying two genres that have found success while working with low-budgets: the found footage genre and the horror anthology. It also arrived on the scene at a time the industry was bursting with raw young talent choosing horror to make their mark. 

Of course, the inevitable result of shifting the horror anthology in the found footage direction was that the entries became instantly scarier, generally more innovative and less reliant on camp or horror comic nostalgia. Its premise was simple. These were essentially snuff tapes of strange encounters people had with the supernatural or the extraterrestrial that ended badly, whether the people on the tapes deserve it or not. It was all wonderfully nihilistic. 

Unsurprisingly, the first V/H/S film found instant cult success, which was enough for the people at Bloody Disgusting to quickly green-light an immediate follow-up for release the following year. 

Normally, a rushed sequel would be a terrible idea and in the case of the third installment, V/H/S Viral it certainly was. But in the year between came V/H/S/2, a film that brought together directors who knew how to create quality low-budget shorts on a tight schedule, and the end result was pure magic. Not only is V/H/S/2 able to get relatively the same amount of scares in four entries as the original did in five, but it ups the overall horror spectacle considerably.

Plus, this is the film that includes “Safe Haven”. That alone makes V/H/S/2 a must-see for horror fans.

So lets get into the segments, starting with Simon Barratt’s “Tape 49”. Barrett also wrote V/H/S‘s wraparound “Tape 56”, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that this follow-up frame narrative shares continuity with the first film. (Unfortunately, future installments will heavily distort the ongoing hypnotic-snuff-tapes-being-shared-by-an-underground-cult storyline before the idea gets completely abandoned in V/H/S/99.)

This time, we follow Larry, an opportunistic private investigator that accepts a job from a concerned mother to find her missing son. To track the boy’s whereabouts, Larry and his girlfriend break into his college dorm. There they find a laptop that’s recording, scattered V/H/S tapes and a stack of televisions playing only static. Larry then asks his girlfriend to copy the files from his laptop while he looks through the house for more clues. She is also tasked with seeing what’s on the scattered tapes while waiting. I hope this wasn’t the couple’s idea of a date night because obviously things are not going to turn out roses.

Truthfully, not much time is spent on the middle segments of the frame narrative, though shots of someone else moving around the house and Larry’s girlfriend’s declining physical condition help to establish a creepy tension-building atmosphere. It all pays off in a terrifying, but familiar, end to the movie. 

Honestly, all I want out of any wrap-around is a good scare, and this one delivered, making it my favourite frame narrative of the entire series, and that includes V/H/S/94, V/H/S/99. and V/H/S/85. (85‘s frame narrative is my second favourite.)

Next up, is Andrew Wingard’s “Phase I Clinical Trials”. 

If there is one constant with the V/H/S series, it is that it always likes to start with a scary segment and this time up is “Phase I Clinical Trials”. The story is about Herman, a man who gets an experimental digital eye implant after a car accident. Since the technology is still in the testing phase, Herman is forced to sign a waiver that allows the eye’s designers, the KGP Company, to record everything he sees to gain data about potential glitches. It is actually a pretty clever way to explain the existence of this recorded footage.

After being released from the hospital things go well for Herman for the rest of the day, but when night comes, odd things begin happening around the house involving tea pots, bed sheets and one angry, bloody man in his bedroom. More concerning to Herman is that he’s pretty sure these things aren’t glitches.

Admittedly “Phase I Clinical Trials” is widely considered one of V/H/S/2’s weaker entries, but that actually speaks volumes about what is to come. Wingard’s concept borrows heavily from The Eye and it isn’t giving us anything new in the scare department, but the story moves at a fast-pace and those willing to dig into what’s implied will appreciate that the dead are not there at random.

Now, we have reached the twenty-five minute mark. At the twenty-five minute mark of the original V/H/S Lily of “Amateur Night” is still kicking ass, so yeah…the original V/H/S starts off much better. But that’s one of the major differences in the two films. For better or worse, V/H/S bookends the best entries. In contrast, V/H/S/2 puts its best segments in the middle. Case and point: “Ride in the Park”.

Honestly, “Ride in the Park” does not get enough love, but some of that has to do with it being yet another zombie story. Can anybody do anything new with zombies? Well…yeah. Eduardo Sánchez and Greg Hale, best known for their work on The Blair Witch Project, give us a tale about a mountain biker wearing a helmet cam that gets bit by a zombie. Shortly after, we get to see zombie shenanigans from the point of view of the undead. It’s an innovative idea and clocking in at only 13-minutes, it is hard to argue that it wears out its welcome. And, like the best zombie films, “Ride in the Park” ends with a brief glimmer of humanity. Wait…did a V/H/S segment actually try to tug at my heartstrings? This is a fun offering from two found footage legends and up there with some of the best entries of the whole franchise. 

But now, our main event: the found footage horror masterpiece, “Safe Haven”.

What makes the V/H/S series special is its potential to reach beyond good and actually find greatness, something not common in an anthology series. But V/H/S has done it twice, once with V/H/S’s “Amateur Night”, and a second time in V/H/S/2 with Timo Tjahjanto’s and Gareth Evans’ “Safe Haven”.

The set-up is simple, a four-person documentary crew gains access to film a reclusive Indonesian cult known as the Paradise Gates by promising their leader, “The Father”, that they’ll remain unbiased in their portrayal. Once in the compound, the crew goes about filming as much as they can before their scheduled interview with “The Father”. But as the crew’s own internal troubles threaten to derail the documentary, “The Father” announces that it is the “time of reckoning”. Everything that comes next is just beautiful bloody insanity. 

As the longest segment in V/H/S/2, Tjahjanto and Evans make full use of the thirty minute run time. Like “10/31/98” in V/H/S, “Safe Haven” is a wonderful horror spectacle, but it does its spectacle so much better…and I absolutely love “10/31/98”. Tjahjanto and Evans throw everything they can into this one. There is mass suicide, an exploding man, people crawling on ceilings, undead children, undead adults, car crashes and of course a demon birth. The final fifteen minutes delivers more insane fun than most feature-length found footage films would know what to do with.

Prior to “Safe Haven”, Evans was known for his involvement in the cult-action The Raid series and Tjahjanto was a veteran at low-budget horror, so it is not a complete surprise that this collaboration delivered a masterclass in horror-short filmmaking. The pacing of this segment is remarkable. It’s a slow-burn- in as much as a short can deliver one- ending in a prolonged- in as much as a short can deliver one- eruption of chaos. The first fifteen-minutes introduces us to the characters both in the documentary crew and within the compound, and the private tour the crew gets gives viewers a sense of the compound’s size and space. So, when everything goes haywire, we can follow the action and see how the rooms in the compound have been transformed from places of order to places of horror. On second viewing, I even started to make comparisons to when Wendy escaped the Overlook Hotel. To be clear: the ending of “Safe Haven” actually made me start comparing it to the climax of The Shining. It really is that special.

So it is a bit of a let down that V/H/S/2 has only “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” to follow “Safe Haven” up. Jason Eisener’s alien invansion short is actually one of the most divisive of any entry in the V/H/S series, another reminder of the subjectivity of horror. Most people think this is either the film’s second best segment (after “Safe Haven” of course) or its worst. I lean towards the latter. Twice I’ve seen this short and both times I found myself zoning out while the aliens were doing their abducting. Never a good sign.

“Slumber Party Alien Abduction” follows a family of children and their friends as they spend the night at a lake house while their parents are away. The teens and preteens get into a prank battle that starts to get a little out of control before aliens show up and ruin the night. 

Though it is my least favourite entry in this film, “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” does have a few things going for it. The end segment places the camera on the head of the family dog, which is rather original. Also, the alien designs are pretty cool. It also offers more horror-action spectacle than “Phase I Clinical Trials” and “Ride in the Park”, which is not a bad thing if you are following “Safe Haven”. But after a while the aliens’ appearances and the booming sound effects start to feel a little bit repetitive and the shaky on-the-run camera makes the action hard to follow. 

Fortunately the wrap around is there to give us one good last scare.

Regardless of its faults, V/H/S/2 is the best of the series. In fact, it is probably one of the best horror anthologies ever made…period. (There are good reasons why Barrett and Tjahjanto got called back for the soft reboot, V/H/S/94.) Even though it owes a lot of its success to “Safe Haven”, the other segments are all competently made and innovative in the ways the found footage camera is used. And it contains a good overall balance between scares and spectacle that is hard to match. 

V/H/S/2 demonstrates the importance of the V/H/S franchise within the horror community. In general, horror anthologies are important because they can offer a platform for talented directors working within the industry. The V/H/S series is of particular importance because it can operate on a low-budget and with quick timelines. I am willing to forget the occasional V/H/S Viral if it leads to another V/H/S/2. (By the way, V/H/S/94 is also really good.) Studios need to learn from the example V/H/S/2 sets.

Put simply, we need more muti-directed horror anthologies. And we need more V/H/S.