The history of the horror anthology movie is almost as unusual as the beasts featured in those movies. The first prominent one was 1945's Dead of Night (which may have been the first movie to feature a scary ventriloquist dummy). They came to prominence in the early 70s when Amicus released movies like Tales from the Crypt and Asylum. The genre reached it peak in 1982 with the Stephen King/George Romero team-up Creepshow. (Which was quickly followed by the derivative Nightmares in 1983). 1989 saw After Midnight and Tales from the Hood pretty much killed the genre in 1995. But, like a zombie, the anthology refuses to die and now we have a new entry, V/H/S.

The wrap-around segment in V/H/S deals with four low-level thugs who like to commit petty crimes. Gary (Calvin Reeder) claims that he has a job for them. All that they have to do is break into a house and take a VHS tape. Once in the house, they discover several tapes, so they much watch them to find the right one. Each of these tapes contains a story.

I don't know if anyone else has found a common theme in "found footage" movies, but I've noticed that the majority of them have really annoying characters. Are there annoying people in real life? Of course, but these movies are frequently populated with a-holes and douchebags. These intermediate segments in V/H/S really raise the bar for this phenomenon and present us with four of the most unlikable characters in cinematic history. Combine this with the fact that their quest for a mystery VHS tape is the dumbest jumping off point ever and you've got an opening which doesn't exactly invite the viewer in. There's also the notion that this appears to be happening in the past, but the characters talk about videos being posted on-line, which doesn't gel.

"Amateur Night" -- Three guys, Shane (Mike Donlan), Patrick (Joe Sykes), and Clint (Drew Sawyer) equip a pair glasses with a tiny video camera and then go out on the town. They meet Lily (Hannah Fierman) and Lisa (Jas Sams) and take them back to a motel room. However, they soon learn that the big-eyed Lily, who keeps saying "I like you." over and over isn't just a girl who's ready to party.

Director David Bruckner tries to one-up the opening segment by presenting another group of degenerate guys who want to make amateur porn and aren't above date rape. There's no suspense here, because when a freaky girl with huge eyes keeps saying "I like you" in a weird voice, you know she's going to go a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs at some point. The finale offers some violence, but it's all pointless.

"Second Honeymoon" -- Sam (Joe Swanberg) and Stephanie (Sophia Takal) take a trip to the Grand Canyon. While getting ready for bed, a strange girl knocks on their door, but goes away. That night, we see someone snooping in their room.

"Tuesday the 17th" -- Four friends -- Wendy (Norma C. Quinones), Joey (Drew Moerlein), Samantha (Jeannine Yoder), and Spider (Jason Yachanin) -- travel to the woods to visit a lakeside area which has been a destination for Wendy's family for years. The others seem confused as to why they are on the trip, but they are glad to be there, as Joey has his sights set on Wendy and likewise with Spider and Samantha. As they wander the forest, Wendy mentions that some brutal murders occurred in the area years before.

As implied by the title, this is a nod to the "dead kids in the woods" genre of horror movies. Specifically, the story is a throwback to elements of Friday the 13th, Part 3 and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. The overall idea isn't bad for a short film, but the payoff is simply silly. It's not unusual for segments like this to be vague, but this one leaves us completely in the dark and a horror movie should leave the audience creeped out, not confused.

"The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" -- Emily (Helen Rogers) lives alone in an apartment and Skypes with her boyfriend, James (Daniel Kaufman), who is away. Emily states that she's been hearing and seeing things in the apartment, and that she has an odd bump on her arm. As she grows more concerned, she goes on-line with James for help. She wanders the apartment with her laptop until he spots something eerie in the background. Is Emily's apartment haunted or is something worse?

"10/31/98" -- Four friends (didn't we do this already?) -- Chad (Chad Villella), Matt (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin), Tyler (Tyler Gillett), and Paul (Paul Natonek) -- go out on Halloween night to a party. They arrive at the location, an old gothic house. However, instead of a party, they find a truly supernatural occurrence.

As with "Tuesday the 17th", a short like "10/31/98" can't inundate us with story and plot, but that doesn't mean that it can't add some meat to its bones. What we get here is very, very straightforward, so it's not confusing, but we still don't know exactly what is happening. This hurts the piece, as the finale contains some very strong visuals. The race through the house shows that someone in the filmmaking collective known as Radio Silence has some visual skill. This is the one part of V/H/S which I would have liked to have seen expanded.

If V/H/S is any indication, the horror anthology movie is deader than the characters it portrays. The classic anthologies take their brief stories and do all that they can with them, whether the concept be big or small. The makers of V/H/S don't seem to have the initiative to fulfill this task, as their small ideas never get off the ground. There are a few flashes of creepiness, but not enough to overcome the seriously repugnant first 20 minutes of the movie. And worst of all, the movie doesn't fulfill the implied promise of taking the viewer back to the 80s heyday of renting indie horror movies at the video store.

V/H/S needs to have the tracking adjusted on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Magnolia Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 18 Mbps. The simply way to describe the video transfer here is to say that this looks the way in which the directors intended. True to its title, the movie is mixture of low and high end look video, complete with distortion, static, and horizontal lines. Some segments look better than others, with the color level and brightness vacillates. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. As with the video, there is some intentional hisses and pops here, but otherwise we get some nice stereo and surround effects. The "10/31/98" segment provides some effective surround action which heightens the feel that danger is everywhere.

The V/H/S Blu-ray Disc contains several extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY which features Simon Barrett, Joe Swanberg, Helen Rogers, Adam Wingard, Brad Miska, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Justin Martinez, Tyler Gillett, Chad Villella, and David Bruckner. We get an ALTERNATE ENDING for the "10/31/98" segment (92 seconds), which doesn't work and makes no sense and additional footage from "Tuesday the 17th" (3 minutes), which adds a little more character development. "Amateur Night -- Balloon Night" (4 minutes) shows behind-the-scenes footage of the filmmakers making a flying camera rig. Writer Simon Barrett and Actress Helen Rogers participate in "Webcam Interviews" (14 minutes) where they discuss the film with Joe Swanberg via Skype. "Cast & Crew Interviews" (29 minutes) offers six segments in which those involved with the movie talk about their experiences. "AXS TV: A Look at V/H/S" (5 minutes) is a brief promo piece for the movie which contains brief interviews and many clips. We get a "Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery", as well as a "Conceptual Design Gallery" for "Amateur Night". The final extras are two TRAILERS for the film.