V/H/S 2 (2013)

V/H/S 2 (Originally titled: S-V/H/S) is a horror anthology film from 2013, as a sequel to 2012's V/H/S. Just like the previous, the film was made under the sponsorship of BloodyDisgusting. Several of the directors of the previous film, returned for this one and were joined by a batch of new directors. Similar to the plot of the original film, a private detective and his girlfriend/colleague find a collection of VHS tapes, formatted on a pc of their latest target. While the private detective check out the apartment, she checks out the videos...

Tape 49/Main Frame
Directed by: Simon Barret

Larry and Ayesha are a duo of private detectives. After trying to nail an adulterer on camera, Larry is forced to flee and barely escapes with the footage as the man said chase. In the car, he explains to Ayesha that they have to visit another house that night, revealing they have another assignment. A mother has hired them to track her son who has suddenly disappeared. To start their investigation, they go to the dorm rented by the boy. Inside the house, they find it in a decrepit state but in an mostly empty room, they find a large stack of VHS tapes and a laptop, which is still recording. The first recording Ayesha sees, is Tape 56 from the previous film. The footage switches to Kyle, the boy they are looking for who starts explaining what the collection is about. While Larry investigates the rest of the dorm, he asked Ayesha to review some of the tapes, which she does by starting the first tape.

Phase I Clinical Trials
Directed by: Adam Wingard

The tape starts with a doctor explaining to his patient, Herman, that his new implant is rather unusual one as was the accident that made this necessary. It is revealed that his eye was damaged in a car accident and had to be replaced by an ocular implant. But seeing how the implant is still experimental, they are going to use it to record everything that he sees, so they can see how it performs. He does warn Herman however that there might be some "glitches" with the eye. Although he isn't pleased by the news that everything he sees, will be recorded nor by the idea that the thing can glitch, he agrees on wearing it. When he leaves the hostipal, he is stared at by a young red-haired woman, something that unsettles him slightly. Later that night, the glitches start to occur. When he invested a sound in the kitchen, he finds nothing but when he returns to his x-box, he is unable to find his controller. More strange occurances happen, when he starts seeing a strange figure in his bed, which disappears once the covers are removed. He also starts to see a little girl and a man, both in a certain state of decomposition. He flees to his bathroom, locks himself up and calls his doctor, demanding that they take back the implant. Out of fear of what he saw, he spent the night in the bathtub.

The next day, everything seems to be fine, until the red-headed woman from the hospital stands on his porch. Revealing her name, Clarissa and the fact that she knows of his visions, he lets her in. Clarissa reveals to him that she was born deaf but recently got ear implants from the same company. She explains to him that she can hear things that aren't there and warns him that you can't pay attention to these occurances as these spirits draw power from this and can start to affect them. When Herman suggest the notion of removing implants, she counters it by stating that it doesn't make them disappear, he would only stop noticing them. When another sighting appears that night, she reacts calmly, claiming it to be her creepy uncle and that he wasn't a nice man. Realizing that Herman can't ignore him and in fact is feeding him, she tries to avert his attention, by mounting him, remove her top and have sex with him. But the evil is already done as later that night the spirits drag Clarissa to the swimming pool. While Herman tries to save her, he is dragged in the water himself and she drowns, while he barely escapes. He is quickly followed by the ghosts, as he flees to the bathroom. In a desperate attempt to stop it all, he cuts out the ocular implant with a razor blade and drops it on a towel. This however proves ineffective as when he tries to leave the bathroom, the eye records how he is dragged out by the ghosts and later, the eye is picked up by one of his assailants. With the razor blade still cut into the implant, the ghosts forces Herman to the ground while another forced the implant down his throat, presumably killing him.

Tape 49/Main Frame
Wondering about the legitimacy of the tape, Ayesha called Larry. After a short discussion, she continues watching the tapes as by Larry's request. She returns to Kyle's video, where he explained that the tapes can affect people, but only when watched in the proper order, this before she start the next video.

A Ride in the Park
Directed by: Eduardo Sánchez and Greg Hale

Ready to make a video for his video channel, Mike, a mountainbiker, test his camera before being called by his girlfriend, Amy. After a short conversation, consisting out of small talk and an explanation of Mike, he starts his ride. But halfway the ride, he almost hit a woman who is hysterical and covered in blood. She begs him to help her boyfriend, while pointing at the woods. In the woods, he encounters a group of zombies, leading him to flee and return to the woman. He realizes way too late however that she was bitten by the zombies and carried the disease, which already turned her. She attacks him and bites him in the neck before he can kill her. While fleeing away, trying to stop the bleeding, he falls on the ground, coughing up blood and eventually collapsing. Moments later, he is found a pair of cyclists. While the woman tries to call 911, the man investigates Mike, trying to find a pulse, before concluding that the man is dead. When he starts moving again however, they consider it a miracle, which quickly turn into a curse as Mike kills the man and bites the woman.

While both Mike and the woman start devouring the deceased man, he too returns as a zombie. The trio are quickly attracted to noises nearby, which they go to investigate. The noise is shown to come from a young girl's birthday party, which quickly turns into a massacre as the zombies start to kill people and zombifying several of them, which in turn continue the onslaught. While he chases a man and his children to their car, he stops his attacks when he sees his reflection in the window of the car. This seems to snap him into semi-conscious, but this return to reality is short-lived as he is run over by the car. When he gets up, he sees a man with a shotgun mowing down zombie after zombie before falling victim to one of them, losing his gun. At that moment, he hears the voice of his girlfriend, as he accidentally have pocket dialed her when he was ran over earlier on. Her voice snaps her back into a state of semi-conscious, leading him to realize what he has become. With the little time he has left, before he slips back into his zombie state, he grabs the discarded shotgun and shoots himself into the head.

Tape 49/Main Frame
As the tape ended, Larry re-enters the room, only to find Ayesha staring at the screen in a hypnotized state. When he wakes her up and have commented on her bleeding nose, she states that it must be a migraine. In order to help her, Larry goes looking, if he can find any medicine for her. As he leaves, Ayesha, still entranced, decided to watch another tape, while from the shadows, a figure crawls out to watch her.

Safe Haven
Directed by: Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans

Safe Haven starts with an interview between a group of young documentary makers, namely Malik, his girlfriend Lena and their friends Adam and Joni, and a cult leader in Indonesia. Although at first reluctant, he eventually agrees to allow them to film his cult. At the cultist's temple, they meet one of the leader's wives and a child. It is heavily implied that the female members of the group have be coerced into having sex with the cult leader, and sex is used as rite of passage for the female cultists. They also notice that the walls of the cultist' temple is covered with bizarre symbols. While descending deeper into the compound, they see children playing and it is eventually revealed that the community has 20 children. While they are given a tour together with some information on what the leader of the cult, it is also revealed that he decided what can be filmed and what can't.

They go to the leader for his interview but while they start the interview, Lena is feeling unwell and eventually leaves the room. Adam proposes to go and see if she is fine, which is presented to the cult leader as that he is going to check on some technical difficulties. Meanwhile, Lena has stumpled into a classroom with children. Lena goes to one of the children to look at her drawing but is disturbed by the leader's wife, Madame. Although they do frighten her, she is joined by Malik and Lena decides to leave the room. During the interview with the cult leader, the man reveals how he sees himself and is seen by his cult as the way to Paradise, as the key keeper. The interview is disrupted when the battery of the camera is about to die and Malik goes to the car for a reserve battery. On a small screen in the car, he listens in on a conversation between Lena and Adam and discovers through this that Lena is pregnant of Adam! While she expresses her hatred towards Adam's courageous treatment of Malik, she reveals that she thinks of abortion.

With the cult leader, Joni tries to continue the interview but when bell tolls, the interview is stopped as the cult leader calls his subjects and tells them it is time. Through several clips, it is revealed that they plan to commit ritual suicide. Adam, having strawled off, finds the covered and bloody corpse of a young female cultist who appears to have died during childbirth, only to reveal herself to be quite alive, despite a failed caesarian. He flees the room while in the interview room, the cult leader calls his subjects to kill the crew and he himself starts with attacking and killing Joni by stabbing and slicing his throat. The cult leader starts hum, before calling his subjects once again to commit suicide. Lena tries to interfere but is apprehended by Madame and several other women. Adam who barely have escaped the room, finds the first victims, while Malik witnesses a massive suicide and murder. When one of the cultists, who killed a man with a shotgun, he kills the man in self-defense, only to be apprehended shortly after.

As Adam arrives in the hall, he is forced to watch how Malik is about to be executed as the final victim of the executioner, before he himself commits suicide. His despair is soon overshadowed however by the screams of Lena, who is dragged away by the women, led by the cult leader who is singing all the way to surgery room. Adam takes the time to arm himself with a iron bar before continuing his journey. But before he arrives at his destination, the doors are blown out their hinches and something escapes the room. He is confronted by the cult leader, who tells him it is all over, before exploding. Adam rushes in the room where he bludgeoned Madame to death, before killing the other women who have turned into zombies and hold Lena down. As he tries to help her, she screams in agony, before a horrifying creature frees itself from her womb and burst through her belly.

Fleeing from the creature, he runs outside only to be attacked by zombified version of Joni. He encounters a class of zombies as well, but has to flee when the creature approaching him. He quickly learns that everyone killed the ritual has become a zombie and that in order to survive he will have fight his way out. As he finally managed to get outside and get into the car, he rides off, only to be rammed by the creature. As he crawls wreckage of the car, the creature is looking down on him, before calling it, "Papa"... The revelation that this creature is in fact his child, drives him insane.

Tape 49/Main Frame
Larry has returned with some aspirin, only to find Ayesha laying on the ground. After being unable to find a heart rate, he starts to despair. Next to her body, he finds a tape with the words: Watch. He decides to follow this order and starts the tape.

Slumber Party Alien Abduction
Directed by: Jason Eisener

The tape started with a dog wearing the camera running towards its owners, two boys, Randy and Gary, dressed as robots. While they goofed around with the dog, their parents told them to stop fooling around with the dog before giving them a list of chores. The video cuts to a few scenes, until a scene where a group of teenagers arrived at the house to visit the sister of the boys, Jen. Together with their own friends, they made a plan to annoy her and her friends, starting with using water guns at the lake as the group was sunbathing. This led to confrontation, where one of the brothers is put it in a dog cage, resulting in teasing by his friends.

In revenge for the humiliation, the brother came up with another prank, where they would disturb his sister later that night while she was having sex with her boyfriend, Zack. During the deed, they run in the room, making loud noises and shining bright lights. This enraged her boyfriend but they were disturbed by a small earthquake. When they ran outside, they are quickly stopped by Zack who took their camera, before handing it over to Jen, who promised to destroy the camera if she can't erase the content. Later that same night, Zack decided to take revenge and got the perfect opportunity when they discovered that one of the brothers is masturbating during a sleepover. Sending the dog, mounted with the camera, they filmed him as payback. When he realized what they had done, it was already too late and yet another fight broke out between the siblings. The discussion is short-lived however, when another quake shakes the house. As a strange light appears outside, they see figures standing before the window. While Jen called 911, Zack warned those who were messing with them that he would find them and hurt them. He quickly is dealt with it when a strange shadow grabs him.

Seconds later, they are all grabbed by grey aliens and moments later, one of the brothers found himself in the lake with the dog. While Randy and Jen are able to get him out of the lake, they are attacked by the aliens once again, when they tried to resuscitate Gary. They fled again, while being chased by aliens and just when they think they will be saved when they see the cops, all signs of the police disappear as well as Randy. Jen and Gary fled to the barn when the aliens attacked once again, and take Jen. Gary, having to the upper floor, was left a short moment of rest, before the roof of the barn was ripped off and he was abducted as well. During the abduction, he loses the grip on the dog which drops down. The last shot is of the dog dying on impact.

Tape 49/Main Frame
Larry was horrified by the imagery but still decided to watch the final part of Kyle's tape. Claiming that he was supported by his mother and "ready to do this", he revealed a handgun, before using it to shoot himself in the head. The bullet shattered his lower jaw and knocked him back but didn't kill him and quickly crawl away. It is then that Larry realized that they arrived just after it happened as the footage showed and that the boy was still in the building. Ayesha re-awakens at that moment and when he was about to ask her how she felt, she attacked him. In self-defense, he broke her neck but this couldn't deter her, as she quickly crawled back up. He fled into a closet and when discovered, he shot her. In the closet, he found himself at the mercy of Steve who quickly killed him, before aiming his camera on himself and raising his thumb, revealing the plan his mother and he came up with, worked.

Tape 56

 * Lawrence Michael Levine as Larry
 * Kelsy Abbott as Ayesha
 * L.C. Holt as Kyle
 * Simon Barrett as Steve
 * Mindy Robinson as Tabitha

Phase I Clinical Trials

 * Adam Wingard as Herman
 * Hannah Hughes as Clarissa
 * John T. Woods as Dr. Fleischer
 * Corrie Lynn Fitzpatrick as Young Girl
 * Brian Udovich as Bloody Man
 * John Karyus as Uncle
 * Casey Adams as Justin

A Ride in the Park

 * Jay Saunders as Mike
 * Bette Cassatt as Screaming Girl
 * Dave Coyne as Good Samaritan Guy
 * Wendy Donigian as Good Samaritan Girl
 * Devon Brookshire as Amy

Safe Haven

 * Fachry Albar as Adam
 * Hannah Al Rashid as Lena
 * Oka Antara as Malik
 * Andrew Suleiman as Joni
 * Epy Kusnandar as Father
 * R R Pinurti as Ibu Sri

Slumber Party Alien Abduction

 * Rylan Logan as Gary
 * Samantha Gracie as Jen
 * Cohen King as Randy
 * Zach Ford as Shawn
 * Josh Ingraham as Danny
 * Jeremie Saunders as Zack

List of Deaths
List of deaths in the film V/H/S 2

Release
Shortly after the success of V/H/S, in the late 2012's, production of a sequel was rushed and on January 19, 2013, almost a year after the premiere of the first film on Sundance Film Festival, it premiered on the same festival. On June 6, 2013, it was released on Video-on-Demand, 6 days before its theatrical release.

Reception
70% of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave positive reviews to V/H/S 2, this based on 61 reviews. The consensus given: "It's as scattershot as its predecessor, but V/H/S/2 rounds up enough horror filmmaking talent to deliver a satisfyingly nasty – albeit uneven – dose of gore." Variety 's Dennis Harvey could also be counted amongst fans calling it "rip-roaring good time for genre fans".

Metacritic was less positive, giving it a 49/100. Hollywood Reporter 's Borys Kit wrote it as following: "The scares are as hit-or-miss as the filmmaking".

Controversy
One reviewer found himself in the middle of a controversy when it was learned that he wrote a scathing review, while admitting to have walked out at the film after the first segment. Rex Reed complains in his review about segments, taking place after his departure, leading to vague descriptions and grave inaccuraties as he describes the Slumber Party Alien Abduction as "a sleepover invaded by psycho kidnappers [as opposed to aliens] told from the perspective of a GoPro camera attached to the back of a dog" and summarizing segment A Ride in the Park as the tale of "a mountain biker pursued by flesh-eating zombies [rather than turned into one himself early on]".

Sequel
A third installment was made, under the name, V/H/S: Viral. Released on November 25, 2014, V/H/S: Viral follows young couple, who get caught in a worldwide broadcast of the tapes. The direction seat was given this time to Todd Lincoln (The Apparition), Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes), Marcel Sarmiento (Deadgirl), Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead), Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (co-directors of Resolution).