V/H/S Viral (2014) User Reviews

What happened with this series?

[thisseatofmars · 5/10 · 26 September 2015]

VHS2 is one of the best horror films I've seen in recent memory. It tightened the overlong editing of the first movie and added genuinely creepy moments. I was looking forward to watching VHS: Viral after seeing VHS2, because I thought they'd gotten a solid pattern down. But no.

No, instead you get skateboarding teens looking "totally rad" while fighting a group of cultists (seriously.) And then, after fending off the angry mob, the 15-year-old boys skate home.

VHS: Viral offers four stories: the magician story, the multi-universe story, the aforementioned skateboarding brats yarn, and a wraparound that ties all these vignettes together. These stories all stink except for "Parallel Monsters," which is good enough to warrant its own film.

If you can, watch "Parallel Monsters" without wasting your time with the rest of this sequel.

REALLY??? The firecrackers are CGI???? (contains minor spoilers)

[murant · 3/10 · 24 October 2014]

As mentioned by other reviewers before: the first and the second segments are fine, although some parts are quite bizarre (like the flying Antichrist zeppelin and the genitals from hell)- and some parts even do look good (e.g. the parallel Universe machine).

But the third story, which seems to take place at the same set as the end of the wrap-around-story, is some of the worst written, badly filmed and uninspired piece of horror i have ever seen.

Additionally the wrap-around-story does not make much sense with its squeezed-in, going off-topic scenes and it's CGI generated picture glitches.

Really? CGI VHS static and CGI firecrackers? And I am not speaking of those skeleton exploding effects. I am speaking of the fire cracker one of these fools throws around before the madness happens. You could not do this by practical effects and save some money for a movie which after all looks quite cheap?

Conclusion: I really liked both its predecessors, but this movie is a huge wast of time - although its only 80 minutes long. I think i caught the flu... or some other virus ;-)

Please note: This is my first review and i am not a native speaker -> so be generous and let me know how i can improve my reviewing and writing skills.

nah, better keep it a duology

[genji-hth-106-891191 · 4/10 · 26 October 2014]

I was impressed by the sheer amount of fresh ideas in the first movie. When the second one came around I was skeptical at first but surprisingly it was even better than its predecessor in every way (V/H/S 2 is about my favorite horror movie of all time) So naturally I had no doubts that the 3rd movie would be fantastic. The trailer sure looked so...

But unfortunately V/H/S Viral feels rushed. I mean some individual stories are actually quite captivating. "Parallel Monsters" for example had a very unsettling and yet realistic atmosphere to it. "Dante the Great" also had an awesome premise although I fell like it could've been more.

But the rest was just uninspired and loose. Especially "Vicous Circles" felt like it had no consistency at all. Generally I like it if a film does not explain everything but here there is no explanation for anything. It just has a constant stream of events that connect only vaguely. Often time the pacing of the segments was just off which made it hard to get involved in the story.

But it wasn't just the storytelling it was also the overall audiovisual quality of the whole movie. There were some good practical effects but a lot of bad cgi that really stuck out and really killed the mood. While the first two installments really incorporated the found footage presentation in their cinematography, we only see this rarely in V/H/S Viral.

All in all with some more time spend in pre- and post-production V/H/S Viral would've been a much better experience.

V/H/S: Viral sucks balls

[lnvicta · 1/10 · 29 May 2015]

This movie is borderline unwatchable. I tried watching this in two sittings and by the third I fell asleep. It's so bad, it's like they hunted down the worst horror writers and directors in hopes to sabotage a continuing V/H/S franchise and they succeeded. The camera-work is horrendous. It makes the final fight in Alex Cross look like The Raid 2. Awkward edits, annoying static every five seconds, terribly uninteresting plots and terribly written too. It's a shame because there was much potential from the first two V/H/S movies that this could become a good horror anthology franchise because it's such a great premise and found-footage is best in small 20-30 minutes doses but this movie tried to make an actual story with a couple random segments that make no sense.

Gun to my head, if I had to pick the best segment it would have to be the one with the alien penises. That sentence alone should tell you enough about this movie. It was such a dumb segment and it made no sense but actually attempted suspense and some form of story. The main story is dogsh*t. I hate this movie a lot. I remember thinking after V/H/S/2 "man, what a great idea for a horror franchise. I hope they continue these" and then Viral had to come along and take a heaping dump on film and sell it as a V/H/S movie.

If you liked the first two V/H/S movies, don't watch this. Don't ever watch this movie unless you want to feel depressed and p*ssed off in which case by all means V/H/S: Viral is the only thing you should watch. This movie sucks balls. It should have never been made and whoever greenlit this atrocious script should be fired if they haven't been already. I wish I could unwatch this movie. Spare yourselves.

90 minutes of my life I wont get back

[j-w-b-concepts · 1/10 · 5 November 2014]

The original VHS was great, VHS 2 was fun and tied in the first one, but I have no clue what the hell they were thinking when they put together this piece of garbage. A couple of the "videos" were mildly entertaining, and the one dealing with the alternate universe had great potential, that was, until the end. I watched this with a group of friends and we found ourselves laughing more than anything and questioning if this was a joke or if we were watching VHS to begin with. I am pretty much writing this review just tell anyone who is remotely interested in seeing this to save your money. If you just can not resist, try to watch it with friends so you can, A) split the price of renting/buying it, and B) enjoy sharing laughs with them at the expense of the ridiculousness of this film. Other than that save your precious time, and money

Don't waste your time....i created an account just to tell this to people...such a let down

[gmoconnor532 · 1/10 · 25 October 2014]

I just created an IMDb account to tell people not to waste time on this hack of a movie. I am a huge VHS and VHS2 fan i thought both of them were amazing and i really liked how they changed up a very predictable genre. This movie is nothing like the first 2 except in that it is made of multiple stories. All of the stories are awful, offer no good scares and they never have no closure. The movie ends and your first reaction is to look around for a refund. I am extremely let down angry and disheartened because i had been watching the trailer for months with anticipation and was completely let down and i hope they never make another movie because i wont see it....please don't give these hacks your money. They don't deserve it and they just let down all their true fans. Such a waste of time. I hate them. I am owed an apology and refund

Awful - and I loved the first two!

[p-lorigo · 2/10 · 21 November 2014]

This movie is so awful it put me in a bad mood. Stay away, and I say this as a guy with an original VHS poser.

The wraparound story tries to break formula but ends up being a mess. I'm fine with a mess if it's entertaining or scary, but this felt like it was shot in a weekend.

The first story doesn't feel like it belongs in a VHS movie and the tone doesn't match. It's something your mom would like.

The middle story starts out promising but manages to feel like a parody of itself by the end. My favorite (?) of the bunch.

The third story feels like it should be airing on MTV in 2003.

Another bummer is that the directors have done good movies (Resolution and Timecrimes), I don't know how they lost their mojo here.

Also, there are only three stories. I'm cool with a shorter movie if it's a better movie, but they cut the fourth. People speculate bit was axed because it was so bad. How terrible must it have been to be left out of this limp, toothless pile?

Any soul, any scary or funny from the first two is not here. Avoid.

Pretty sloppy presentation...but some of the stories had potential.

[RevRonster · 4/10 · 24 November 2014]

I'm not the biggest fan of "found footage" films. Too often they are just an excuse for a cheap gimmick that involves POV-style camera work and story, character, and plot are always quick to suffer and be left in the dust. The "V/H/S/"films do little to not fall down this trap as the entire franchise is built on short, anthology collection of tales that are all about asking the question, "Wouldn't it be cool if we saw this from the perspective of nutjobs who film every aspect of their lives?" The first two films are pretty lazy and forgettable, in my book, and this one, essentially, is not much different. There's no real central story hub that the other stories branch off from like in the previous two and the editing is chaotic, sloppy, and an almost incoherent mess. However, and I found this shocking, the stories are actually better constructed than they've been in the other films.

Granted, the stories are still far from being grand tales but they are easier to digest and are not just quickly thrown together events made to utilize the gimmick. I will admit that I found the central story awful, terribly put together, and a complete waste of time but the other stories—ones that involve a magician with an evil cloak, demon battling skaters, and a dude that discovers a parallel world—to be fairly decent. Sure, some of them don't live up to the potential they have, suffer all the usual pitfalls that "found footage" films suffer from, and, sometimes, just end on an outright silly note but they have more direction than the other films have offered.

While there is clearly some improvement in this third film, the final product is still a really sloppy one and is very poorly constructed. The movie feels incomplete (maybe due to a whole story being edited out before it hit the Video On Demand market) and comes off like a quick, needless sequel.

Hi! The name is Rev. Ron and if you feel like reading more of my rants, ramblings, bad jokes, geek references, and other movie reviews (like a more in-depth look at "V/H/S/: Viral" and other films from this franchise) you can visit my blog at revronmovies.blogspot.com. If you don't want to do that because your DVR is filled to bursting and you need to spend your time watching all those episodes of "Pawn Stars" you recorded, I completely understand if you don't visit.

Why Hate On This Film? Bring On Part 4!

[newnoir · 30 December 2014]

Why are people hating on this movie? They're getting basically what they got in the first film! A series of incoherent found footage films strung together with a premise slimmer than an anorexic's g-string!

It really isn't any better or any worse than the other films in the series. It may be the weakest yet it still has something to offer. You've got one great film, Parallel Monsters, very spooky, very trippy. One pretty good film that slowly grows on you, Bonestorm, which is saying something, since I really hate skateboarders. One highly mediocre film, Dante the Great, that's like something out of a lame SyFy Channel movie yet still watchable, and the wrap around film to tie it altogether, (the not so) Vicious Circles, the weakest of the bunch.

Plus there's a short and incoherent section of what looks like a bunch of Latino gangbangers having a party and one vato flips out and slaughters them all for no apparent reason. Weird. Loco.

And there's a gratuitous helping of cringe inducing gore, i.e. a man being dragged to pieces from a moving truck.

You're never getting a masterpiece of horror from the V/H/S movies, you're getting what's expected. One annoyance is the opening segment uses far too much feedback noise, a little of that goes a long way.

Free your mind and watch it for what it is, something to see and enjoy once and forget it! There's no classics to be found here! Adios, pendejos!

Viral? Looks like Vine!

[Fernando-Rodrigues · 6/10 · 8 October 2021]

Vicious Circles - 5/10 Dante, The Great - 6/10 Parallell Monsters - 7/10 Bonestorm - 5/10 Gorgeous Vortex -8/10.

Let this VHS collect dust in Mom's Collection

[lvaughnt323 · 4/10 · 25 October 2014]

This movie was utterly disappointing.

Most of the movie includes an over-saturation of CGI effects and unnecessary action. The plot line did not make much sense at all and left me more bewildered than interested; adding to my disinterest was the terribly written dialogue of our wildly underdeveloped main characters. There are also a lot of forced scenes to progress the plot and just like this movie, they were all over the place.

I was also saddened to see this movie shy away from what made it successful: Fear. There are almost no scenes in this entire movie that makes me jump and the intensity in this movie is just lost.

"V/H/S: Viral" got a lot of negative reviews. This isn't one of them.

[ericrnolan · 9/10 · 28 May 2015]

I'm a little flabbergasted here with the negative critical response to "V/H/S: Viral" (2014). I thought this was a fantastic little horror anthology flick that redeemed the "V/H/S" franchise from a pretty poor second installment. (And apparently fans liked that one?)

I'd give this a 9 out of 10. It certainly isn't for everybody, with its violence, gore and disturbing content. (I'm going to repeat that: as with past "V/H/S" films, this has some disturbing content, so beware.) But it should be a damned scary treat for hardcore horror fans.

This time out, we've got three short films linked together by a running "wraparound" film. (A fourth segment was edited out.)

The first is like a damn good episode of "The X Files." The fight with the cops was fantastic, and the special effects were surprisingly good for a "V/H/S" movie.

The second film is a wonderfully creative horror/science fiction tale that plays out like a terrific classic short story. (Yes, it begins a bit slow, but I think that's an intentional part of the narrative.) This segment gets extra points for its unabashed use of some not-so-subtle Freudian body horror.

The third film isn't perfect, with a thin story and some schlock horror cheesiness. But it's still really entertaining, thanks to the teen skateboarder anti-heroes (and their "photographer guy" tagalong) that were scripted perfectly and then performed perfectly by their young actors. I am still laughing at how one character threatens to "pistol whip" another for interrupting him. These kids were great. They're perfect malcontents at first — then, thanks to a nice flourish in the script involving a homeless person — they're shown to have more depth than that. Gimme a full-length feature film starring these brats. I'm serious.

Finally, the wraparound tale's finale was brutal and perfect. And what a great use of classical music!

A few things left me scratching my head:

1) We learn little about the story's antagonist in the wraparound tale — exactly who or what is responsible for the speeding ice-cream truck? I wanted to know more, despite the story's deliberate ambiguity.

2) Why does the main character's girlfriend in the wraparound story enter the truck?

3) How do people on bicycles manage to keep pace with the speeding truck? One of them is a bicycle made for a young girl. They … even outpace the pursuing police cars?

Forget the haters, check this out.

Oh!! One more thing — if you view this via Netflix, as I did, you'll find that the entire second segment is in Spanish. You can fix this just by wiggling Netflix' captions function at the bottom right.

Not as good as part two, but more fun than the original.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 15 December 2014]

Viral, the third movie in the V/H/S horror series, is far from perfect, the framing narrative that connects the separate stories being incredibly hard to fathom, and the film's collective of directors taking great liberties with their format, frequently using footage taken from impossible angles and unlikely sources that serve to undermine the sense of realism so important to the genre. Stylised editing techniques further hamper the credibility of the found footage (this being most notable in the final story).

However, despite these issues, V/H/S/Viral still manages to be quite a bit of fun as a whole, with a trio of inventive tales amidst the chaos of messy wraparound story Vicious Circles from director Marcel Sarmiento, in which a young man on a bike gives chase to the renegade ice cream truck that has abducted his girlfriend while viral videos warp the minds of people in his neighbourhood (!?!).

The first of the separate stories, Dante The Great, is directed by Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead) and stars Justin Welborn as famous illusionist Dante, who owes his success to a supernatural cloak rumoured to have once belonged to Harry Houdini. The only problem is that, in exchange for his magical powers, Dante must feed the cloak human victims, and the mysterious disappearance of several of his assistants doesn't escape the attention of the police for very long. Admittedly this story is extremely silly but it is hugely entertaining, with lots of impressive visual effects and a few spots of splattery gore (a person's abdomen being magically opened up to reveal bloody ribs and innards being the best moment). Oh, and there's a great jolt to be had right at the end.

Next up is Nacho Vigalondo's Parallel Monsters, my favourite segment of the whole film, which sees a scientist opening a door to a parallel dimension where he meets his doppelganger. The two excited scientists agree to swap realities for 15 minutes but soon discover some startling differences between their two worlds. An absolutely demented but not very scary story that delivers toothy wangs and giant vagina dentata, this one gives Cronenberg a run for his money in the weirdness stakes.

The third tale, Bonestorm, directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, is little more than an excuse to pit a bunch of Larry Clark-style teenage slackers against the undead, using their skateboards as weapons. The story makes very little sense, and the only jumps on offer are of the skateboard variety, but the excess of Evil Dead-style splat-stick proves entertaining enough to excuse the lack of a decent narrative or shocks. This one uses a video camera and several GoPro cameras to capture the action, but ignores all the rules of the found footage genre by utilising fancy editing gimmicks including freeze frame and DePalma style split screen.

Marcel Sarmiento wraps up proceedings by concluding Vicious Circles in a muddled fashion that will leave viewers none the wiser about his intended message (if, indeed, there was one).

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for the dog with the barbecue fork stuck in his head.

Time to Retire This Series!

[khg808 · 1/10 · 6 November 2014]

While I enjoyed the first installments of this series, this title is a steaming pile of crap, Don't waste your money like I did. If this is the best they can do then they should retire the series.

I was saddened to see what they did with a once proud installment of high quality found footage style movie.

They just phoned this one in, and it really stinks! I can't believe there was a meeting of suits that approved of a deviation from the original formula that was entertaining and profit generating formula.

Why do new production crew feel the need to tinker on a model that has proved to entertain and generate revenue?

V/H/S Viral should have a shot to end it's misery...

[rmapinto · 2/10 · 13 September 2014]

I went yesterday to "Motel X" (Horror movie festival) in S. Jorge movie theater in Lisbo, Portugal. When I got in theater room, I found out that first we would watch 1 short movie (Awfull... Can't even remember the name... It's about a cab driver that strangles a guy in the back seat. Then we would watch "All Cheerleaders Die", before the screening of V/H/S Viral. This Cheerleader movie is... kind of funny. Finally, after 2 hours V/H/S Viral starts... IT'S SOOOOO BAD THAT HURTS IN THE SOUL!!! I watched the other 2 V/H/S movies and the first one kicks ass! The 2nd one is not that bad, and this last movie... I can't find words to tell you how much disappointment I had in the end of the movie. I wish I had 4 hands... To give this movie 4 thumbs down...

Disappointed at how this movie turned out

[savannah-stiddom · 2/10 · 27 October 2014]

I was a huge fan of the first two movies, they were fantastic and had a true sense of uniqueness to them. This movie had potential, but nothing was ever really explained and not only were we never introduced to the characters, but they were annoying. It was just a really weak movie, the segments didn't make sense individually, and the main story also made no sense. Also this one was a lot more high tech than the others so it didn't make much sense for it to be classified as "found footage", especially since some of the camera work was not done by someone involved in the segments, it would be shot from random angles that wouldn't make sense to be shooting from if you were just filming with a friend. It wasn't exciting or scary, and unlike the other two, I never got a laugh from anything about this movie other than how badly they messed it up. Waste of time and waste of 11 dollars.

Very Weak

[kthomas93 · 2/10 · 31 October 2014]

FilmAddict303 hit a lot of good points with this review.

Easily the worst of the 3 and is far from scary and hardly violent. From time to time you get some good scenes like the (Spoiler)guy's feet being dragged from the car and the 2 hand scenes in the magic video.

Vicious Circles starts of promising with the couple video but their story is the least exciting and never really goes anywhere.

Dante the Great started off good but just got repetitive and low budget towards the end. Its a very cool idea to play with but it wasn't ended properly.

Parallel Monsters was good for the first minutes or so but when they are doing their things it just goes way down hill and there is never any sort of explanation for the hell is supposed to be going on, its just confusing.

Bonestorm had so much potential but had some major flaws. I don't understand why the camera guy kept lying to them about filming, it was just a waste of several lines. but the worst parts about it were that the fight scene could have been so much cooler had it not been so up close like that and we never got to see whatever came out at the end.

and truth be told I'm not even sure what Gorgeous Vortex was, there were only 3 videos and then the main story type deal, so if someone could help me out on that one.

Overall, the movie is poorly executed and fails to even touch the other 2 in terms of horror and creativity

A supremely disappointing follow-up to a great anthology series

[megatom64 · 4/10 · 27 October 2014]

First I'd like to say, as with any horror film, the less you know about the film going in the better it will be. For those wondering if they should spend their money on this. I would say wait for Netflix, IMO it does not live up to the previous VHS movies, and actually seems to lose what the unique premise was. I love VHS and I liked VHS 2 a good bit, but this feels like a drop off of sorts. If VHS was a 9 and VHS 2 was a 7.5 then VHS Viral is probably an average of 5.5 (but the second segment is a MUST SEE).

The previous 2 movies have gotten many talented young horror film makers and collectives together to make interesting short films. VHS was probably my favorite horror film of 2012, some of the shorts fell flat (static monster and connecting story) but most of the others are really amazing, especially the last. VHS 2 lacked some of the originality but still felt like a solid horror film. VHS Viral just feels like it lacks the same vision and direction that VHS 1 and 2 had.

Whether you like it or hate it VHS is built around the idea of playing with portable cameras, experimenting with the "found footage" horror sub-genre, and really presenting a horror film from the POV of those going through it. It is basically like a haunted house on film, some with interesting stories and ideas. VHS 2 didn't really revolutionize anything but was still interesting. It stuck with the premise and kept it going in interesting ways. Probably my biggest issue with VHS Viral is that it ostensibly completely drops the found footage premise, but still sticks with the found footage type editing and shooting. This breaks the immersion, which is The whole point of found footage stuff.

As you can tell I didn't like the movie for the most part. The second segment is the ONLY reason it even has 4 stars out of 10. Ultimately though I am disappointed because they didn't really try anything interesting with the found footage format, especially the way that the previous 2 films did. Also 3 segments feels too short, even though this film has a lot of filler.

Worst film of the year?

[ghost_dog86 · 1/10 · 19 November 2014]

The third installment in this fairly admired cult series, is not only the worst in the series, but maybe the worst film I've been subjected to in a year that has already seen two Adam Sandler and three Kevin Hart movies.

First off, if you don't know how these films are constructed, parts one and two use a framing device where characters (all amidst their own scary situations) watch found V/H/S tapes, which depict 3 found-footage, low budget horror short films (all from different directors). In "V/H/S: Viral" the three shorts are held together (like glue) by the story of a guy trying to film a supposed car chase, which becomes (from what I can decipher) a stupid commentary on the lack of coherent content in videos uploaded by teenagers that go viral, in this day and age. But wait, that doesn't sound like a plot which would contain a segment where someone watches V/H/S tapes. Well, that's because it doesn't. Here's my point: Would it be a valid criticism to say that in a movie called "V/H/S: Viral", the fact that it contains not one actual V/H/S tape throughout its 82 minute runtime, was a drastic misstep? I believe so.

But (you ask yourself) even though the glue of the film was lacking, maybe the short films throughout were its saving grace? Uhhh, NOPE! With low budget film techniques and visuals ranging from passable to downright hokey, there is absolutely no reason to watch this film; or read the rest of this review. But I guess, if you have nothing better to do, you can read on and find out more about the individual shorts "Viral" has to offer.

The first short, "Dante the Great", directed by Gregg Bishop, is about a lame magician, who finds a magical cloak and becomes a big star. But just like Audrey 2 in "Little Shop of Horrors", this cloak apparently needs to be fed. Verdict: Good premise, but poor visuals, with a story that goes nowhere.

The second short, "Parallel Monsters", directed by Nacho Vigalondo, sees my favorite premise, where a man creates a door to an alternate universe, only to have a conversation with his alternate self. During this conversation, they both agree to switch places for 15 minutes. Verdict: This short really had me leaning forward in my seat, until it suddenly took a sophomoric turn, choosing to focus on alien genitalia. The visuals in this short were also the worst of the three, as the genitalia in question were obviously hand puppets (puppetry of the penis?).

The third one, "Bonestorm", directed by…oh, who cares; it's probably better that I don't divulge this directors name, since his short is by far the worst of the three. This GoPro driven story sees a handful of obnoxious punk skater-boys, who are teenagers and have guns for some reason. They decide to go to Tijuana after hearing about an "awesome skate spot". Problem is, this location happens to be the home of some of the strongest, yet weakest Mexican Satan worshipers ever put to film. From there, we see things get shot and hit with skateboards for way too long.

The biggest issue I had with these shorts was that not for one moment was I scared. And this was clearly advertized as a HORROR MOVIE. ITunes, can I have my money back? Final Thought: Even though I wasn't a vehement apologist of the last two films of the series, like other critics I know, the premises (for the most part) made sense. Yes, none of the actual videos have any sort of connection, but they never have. What I am talking about is the framing device used here, which in the past had only been used to facilitate the showing of the main attraction (the shorts). In "V/H/S: Viral" the framing device makes absolutely no sense, with an ending that is so incoherent, that when the main female lead proceeds to continuously bang her head against a wall during the final minutes, I wanted to join her in this action, if only to avoid watching any more of this movie.

A nice found footage movie

[santi_perez_isasi · 7/10 · 12 September 2014]

I watched this movie at the Lisbon Horror Movie Festival (MotelX); when I did, I hadn't watched any of the previous ones (now I have), so I did't really know what I was going to see, and I quite enjoyed the experience.

As its predecessors, V/H/S Viral is formed by three found-footage stories, tied together by yet a fourth frame story, also filmed in a found-footage fashion. (Apparently there was supposed to be one more segment, directed by Todd Lincoln, but it was never filmed or it didn't make the final cut).

The frame story, "Vicious Circles" by Marcel Sarmiento, is quite unsettling. It starts with a police car chase of an ice-cream van, and a young couple much in love who is split by the intrusion of pure horror in the form of viral videos that appear in their mobile phones. This story is split in four small segments, some very brief, others much longer, until the final scene which closes the circle, so to speak. It was in general quite enjoyable, with some concessions to gore, a few clichés flowing around and some very enjoyable scenes. The use of music in the very last segment (Beethoven's 9th symphony) was very clever, in my opinion. My score for this story, 7,5/10.

The second story (first of the viral videos), filmed by Gregg Bishop, is more a mockumentary than a found-footage, although it obviously includes many "interviews" and closed-circuit camera footage. It tells the story of "Dante the Great", who always dreamed of being a magician and got to do so when he discovered a mysterious cape: a cape that was so powerful that apparently it frightened Houdini himself. This story is the least gore of all the pack, and it is in a way quite predictable, but it is well executed. The main sin for me is that at one point the movie abandons the "found-footage" form and includes some scenes with a more traditional filming; and that is hard to accept in a movie that is precisely about videotapes being found. Score: 6/10.

"Parallel Monsters", by Nacho Vigalondo, is probably the best of them all. It is filmed in Spanish and has a slightly different look, more professional, more acted, less realistic in a way. It tells the story of a scientist who opens a gate to another parallel universe, only to find that in that universe there is another version of himself, who has built exactly the same machine. When they decide to exchange universes for 15 minutes, he will discover that there are in fact a few, ahem, minor differences between their universes. This segment is quite original, very funny, very cruel; it explores its premise with intelligence and leaves quite a few things unexplained (which is not a bad thing at all). The only thing that disappointed me a bit was that the development of the story turns to more conventional horror clichés. In any case, I am giving it a 9/10.

"Bonestorm", by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, follows a group of teenage American skaters who decide to go to Tijuana to explore an abandoned skating park and film some videos. When they get there, they get haunted by a death-worshiping cult (or something similar) who used that skate park as their ceremonial ground. The premise is extremely simple, and apart from a few scares and gore scenes you won't get much out of it. The best part is the humor in the creation of the characters. Score: 7/10.

All in all, I enjoyed the experience. The segments are obviously uneven, but I guess that's inevitable in a collective movie. Nacho Vigalondo's segment is one level above the rest, followed by the frame story by Marcel Sarmiento. After watching the three films of the trilogy, I think it was a good idea to abandon the "damned videotape" idea and update it in a form of viral videos, which allows for a different kind of frame story.

Oh, and I think the movie is trying to tell us something about our urge to be famous at any cost and by any means, but quite sincerely, I don't think anyone who sees this movie will really care about that.

Overall score: 7/10

Not too good....

[dadatuuexx · 2/10 · 25 October 2014]

I saw the first V/H/S when it was released,and although it was kinda shoddy ,a bit of it was o.k. It had a saving grace ,and even if only one segment was great,it had a place in the market.With the second in the series ,it too had one great part ,and the others were only passable.This third one is .....well, a mess.Incoherent is a nice thing to say about this 3 rd one.First ,it should be called Cellcams viral,because i don't think anyone in the last two movies have even seen a 1/2 format VHS cam at all.I will admit that being a fan of zombies ,and an old skateboarder had me liking the last story (?) the best.Still ,it made no sense ,so it is like the rest of this mess...leaving you saying W.T.F. ? ? ? I hate to say,but i hope this is the last V/H/S .This whole "found-footage" thing is WAY played out , and when i see that its "one of those" type of movies,i pass.I should have passed on this one ,and will avoid any future parts like the plague.Sorry guys, MAJOR FAIL !

Almost equally as crazy and entertaining, as the first two!

[Hellmant · 9/10 · 5 December 2014]

'V/H/S: VIRAL': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

The third installment in the popular 'V/H/S' found-footage anthology horror series. This one features three short films and a wraparound story; mostly dealing with teens obsessed with internet fame. The shorts were directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead. They were written by the directors; as well as T.J. Cimfel, Ed Dougherty and David White. I loved the first two movies and found this one to be almost equally as crazy and entertaining!

The film tells the story of a young man, in a serious relationship, who's more concerned about capturing the next viral video than he is about his love life. So when he sees, on the news, that someone is driving an ice cream truck insanely around town (killing people), he is obsessed with getting it on video. Even though his girlfriend, Iris (Emilia Ares Zoryan), asks him to stay with her and ignore it. On the van are a bunch of potentially viral videos, containing their own horrific stories. The three central videos (shown) tell the stories of a crazed magician on a killing spree, a machine that opens the door to a parallel world and a group of teen skaters hunted by demonic forces in Mexico.

Although the film has a lot of flaws, I still love how bizarrely original and crazy it is. It's so random, unpredictable and fast paced that you have to just sit back and enjoy the ride of it all (and not think too much about whether it all makes sense or not). A lot of the characters often do a lot of irrational things, and some of the effects are kind of cheap and cheesy, but if you can ignore all of that it's a lot of fun. It's not quite as good as the first two movies and it does sometimes feel like more of a satire than a frightening horror film (although the gore is unreal). It also doesn't always follow the rules of a normal found-footage film either, but it does have some great commentary on the internet obsessed world we all now live in. Some shorts are better than others (I really enjoyed 'DANTE THE GREAT' and 'PARALLEL MONSTERS') but even as a whole, most fans of the series shouldn't be disappointed!

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Why people hate this movie so much?

[user-155-832193 · 7/10 · 23 April 2015]

I think it was great! It wasn't as scary as the earlier but even more groovy and rocking! Gruesome, filled with unnecessary violence, sex, magic, occultism - what else can you wish for a great flick? If you can't handle this, you haven't seen enough internet's dark videos. This was better than any of the SAW's or any mediocre 3-6 rated horror film. You guys just don't have guts so you can't enjoy this.

I bet these guys who gave one star for this are normal poodle movie fans and this is too shocking and brutal for them. 2nd time I watches this(which is rare what comes to movies) and still enjoying! I would go see or buy new VHS - anytime if one would come up. If you liked this, you'll like Collector saga, or Poughkeepsie Tapes and other VHS's.

You all are wrong. There's dozens and dozens of movies coming all the time what you'll watch which are much worse than this.

Nothing more than a parody of its own franchise

[ToxicJug · 4/10 · 6 October 2021]

Coming off of a franchise that I at least enjoyed V/H/S Viral was a massive disappointment! This film feels like nothing more than a cheap parody off of the other two (far superior) films in the franchise. As found footage horror film, the goal is to be scary and/or disturbing using the realism factor of "found footage", something that the first two films pulled off fairly well. Viral takes that film premise and makes a mockery out of it. While V/H/S Viral can be at least "entertaining" at times, I can with certainty tell you that you aren't missing much if you skip this one and stick to the first two.

Not great, I'd suggest watching it once to see what I mean

[mochancey96 · 4/10 · 30 October 2014]

V/H/S 1 and 2 were amazing in my opinion. They had mostly no clichés and were really engaging. I'd re-watch them any day. I recently got to getting V/H/S: Viral and my friend and I love these movies so we were really excited to see this one. Sorry to say, but it was a huge disappointment... There were some very blunt parts, and some parts that seemed out of place. I also liked how in V/H/S 1 and 2 they were all from P.O.V Cameras. Or how it's also called, Shaky Cam. Everything is recorded from a personal camera making it seem more realistic. Some parts of this movie didn't have that. They were higher budget shots. I think they were going for a higher budget type movie to make it better but it made it worse. There are those Shaky cam parts but with it but not all like that, it didn't feel the same. I would hope that the Writers and Producers of this movie see all these reviews and decide to make V/H/S: Redemtion or V/H/S: Revival or something. A name of re-newel that stuck to the first two movies. I'm sorry to say, but If you're a fan of V/H/S, I wouldn't watch this. There are a couple decent parts, but nothing like the first two.