Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, David Bruckner
Writers: Brad Miska, Simon Barrett
Stars: Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes, Adam Wingar
Run Time: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes
Link: https://amzn.to/2C3kjK2
Synopsis
We watch a grainy videotape of a kidnapping from a parking garage. Then we see people with baseball bats destroying an empty house. Then we see an amateur porn.
We soon see that this group of guys are planning to break into a specific house and steal one particular videotape. The know there’s an old man in the house, but they go in anyway. They find the old man in the living room watching a bunch of TVs all turned on simultaneously. The old man is already dead. They pop a VHS tape into the machine and press “play.”
The first film is a group of young people out on the town, having a good time at various locations around the city. They go to a club and get really drunk, and there’s a strange, quiet girl there with big eyes. She gets in the car with them when they leave and goes home with them; she’s quiet and animalistic. The three guys expect to have a fun night of drugs and sex, and they get something else…
The second story is a couple on a road trip going through the desert. They stay in a scuzzy motel and have their fortunes told by a vending machine. There’s a strange knocking at the door. It’s a girl who wants them to give her a ride tomorrow, and the guy says she was really creepy. Late that night, while they sleep, someone comes into their room with a camcorder. She takes their money and swishes their toothbrushes in the toilet bowl. The next morning, they go rock climbing or exploring in the desert. That night, there’s someone in their room again, and they don’t leave quietly this time…
As the guy watching the tapes moves on to the third story, we notice the dead man sitting behind him is not there anymore.
The third story is about two couples going camping at the lake. From time to time, the camera shows us glimpses of dead bodies scattered around the landscape. One of the girls tells the others that “You’re all going to die up here.” Later, she adds “I don’t even remember what you look like,” and it gives a hint that maybe the other three are already dead. Then we find out what she meant…
The fourth story is a Skype call between Emily and her long-distance boyfriend. She talks about hearing footsteps inside the apartment. She calls him back that night while there’s something at her door. Suddenly, a small child runs through the room and slams the door. They see it again the following night. During the day, she starts cutting herself. That night, we find out what’s really going on, and it’s not what you might expect.
We then return to the house of videotapes, and we find out that maybe the dead man in the chair wasn’t the only one home.
The fifth segment is on Halloween night, and a group of guy heads off to a party. There’s no one at the party house, so they left themselves in. The lights are blinking on and off, but they don’t seem to notice. Is the house haunted or is this all just a prank by the owners of the house? No, the cult really is doing a sacrifice in the attic. Wait– could this be the wrong house?
Commentary
Apparently, not one building used in this movie had electric lights. Or maybe they did, but there weren’t any switches. Either way, the directors had some big aversion to turning on the lights, which would have cleared up several of these stories. There’s a lot of gore in the stories, but generally not much in the way of special effects until the third and fifth segments. It seems well done, but it’s so hard to follow the visuals that it may not hold up on a second watch.
If you like shaky-cam and think Blair Witch was the most watchable film ever, you’ll love this. It genuinely looks like someone filmed the whole thing on a low-quality camera. The only one that isn’t seriously shaky is the fourth film with Skype calls.
For the most part, the individual stories are pretty good, and definitely not predictable, but the shaky cam and blurry video is just too much. How anyone thinks this stuff is enjoyable enough to sit through two hours of it is really the scariest thing about the film/