V/H/S: Viral (2014)

My rating - 5/10

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The third entry in the VHS franchise features three stories and slightly extended footage of the framing story. Story one "Dante The Great" is about an illusionist who's just not very good. He discovers a cloak that was once owned by Harry Houdini and when he wears it, it gives him actual magic powers. He uses this to become famous and takes on a new assistant, but for the cloak to keep working he needs to feed it human victims. As he becomes the number one suspect after people go missing he becomes paranoid and uses the cloak to try and murder his way out of trouble. I really like this one and find it a lot of fun. Some of the effects are great, especially those involving the cloak, and although not that gory it does have it's moments.

Story two "Parellel Monsters" is about an inventor who manages to create a contraption to leads to an alternate dimension that looks identical to his world. He sees himself on the other side and they both agree to go through to experience each others world. He quickly discovers the people on the other side are not what they seem and he tries to return as his wife could be in serious danger. I really like this strange little story. It's a lot of fun and was definitely not what I expected.

Story three is called "Bonestorm" and involves a couple of skateboarders who hire a videographer to film them performing stunts in the hope of creating a viral video. They take a trip to Mexico and start to film at an old storm drain but notice a strange symbol drawn on the floor. It soon becomes clear this was a site for demonic worship and they're attacked by cultists both alive and dead. Not really a fan of this story as the main characters are just too annoying and obnoxious. The attack scene also suffers from an overuse of fast editing and far too much shakey camerawork so you can't see shit. Some of the gore is decent but overall it's a story I can skip.

The framing story "Vicious Circles" involves a guy who likes to constantly film his girlfriend until she gets tired of it and wants him too stop, even though he won't. After seeing footage on TV of a police chase in his area he takes his camera, jumps on his bike and tries to follow it. It seems as the chase is just going round in circles and people get strange pictures on their phones that cause them to become violent. It's an okay story and takes up quite a bit of the movies runtime to the point where you wish they'd have use some of this time to do another proper story. I like this entry in the franchise more than most seem to with the first two stories being a lot of fun and the third being just okay.

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