Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: On Halloween, a babysitter decides to watch the disturbing scenes from an unmarked VHS tape found in one of the children's bag of candy.
Review: What is with the ridiculously low rating on imdb--did this hit the mainstream at one point? Forget the rating--this is surprisingly much better than you would expect. The only legitimate criticism I've read laid against this film is that it feels like a slightly tamer version of "V/H/S" which I can agree with to an extent. My main gripe is actually that two of the segments were already in existence ahead of time and were simply incorporated into this film; that's lazy as fuck. Other than that, the one entry they did create for this film was easily the weakest of the bunch. If you overlook those grievances, and the bouts of shoddy acting, there is a lot to enjoy. The atmosphere is respectable, the gore is decent, the stories are imaginative, and the music is amazing. The ending is even unexpected in the fact that it plays with your expectations.
Wraparound Start: Now this is how you do a wraparound; if anything, it's better than the actual stories presented. Since they made the wraparound important and lengthy, I've decided to break it into two sections in order to fully do it justice. While it does feel like they borrowed heavily from "V/H/S," I thought this film established a more reasonable and interesting reason why people would watch a creepy videotape. Anyway, a babysitter, who looks more like she'd be the mom, is watching two brats after they recently finished trick or treating. When going through the candy, the boy finds an unmarked VHS tape someone must have slipped into his bag. This concept unto itself is unsettling and opens the door for limitless potential. The kids pester the babysitter until she decides to put on the tape, but she checks first to see if it's a scary movie or someone's private sex or snuff video (or whatever). I do need to point out the outlandish idea that a 10 year old would know what a VHS tape was instantly. And even if such a kid were out there, what average household these days still has a VCR front and center hooked up to their TV (besides a geek like me)?
Segment 1: The kids fire up the tape, and after a few bullshit establishing shots, we see a woman waiting for a train. The footage should have been given shitty picture quality, but I can overlook this detail. The woman goes to the bathroom momentarily and returns to find a weird-looking clown staring at her. The clown, apparently called Art, is the overarching antagonist in the segments so hopefully you will find him intimidating enough. Art drugs the woman and she wakes up in a subway tunnel, bound by a chain, and accompanied by two other chained women. After small talk, one of the women is dragged off down the tunnel as the remaining two chase after. The two women are then attacked by freakish-looking individuals and one woman is killed; I'm not sure if the freaks are meant to look this way or we are to assume these are masks. The main woman is restrained as she is being prepared to be raped by, I guess, the devil. At the same time, a pregnant woman has her fetus cut out of her belly to create a bloody drink for this devil. And that's pretty much all that happens before the babysitter turns off the tape; this is followed by her sending the kids to bed. Eh, this segment has good effects, but we don't know jack about what's happening. I guess we can simply assume this is supposed to be a satanic sacrifice of sorts. The music was awesome though and enhanced the mood; honestly, if someone only played the audio to me, I wouldn't be able to tell it was from a modern film.
Segment 2: With the kids being pains in the ass about getting into bed, other kids are egging the house it would seem. There appears to be something or someone in the house as the babysitter gets back to watching the mysterious videotape for whatever reason. This is the only original segment created for this film, other than the wraparound of course, and boy did they waste the potential. A woman, alone in a house in the middle of the woods, discusses how her artist husband created a painting he doesn't remember doing; apparently he had a nightmare, and when he woke up the painting was there. That sounds really awesome, right? That opens up the possibilities to all kinds of scary avenues to pursue. Now what if I told you this segment was actually about aliens and that painting story has absolutely no relevance? FUCK! This tale does build itself up slowly with alien abduction-esque ideas, but you think it will have a connection to the painting rather than outright aliens. Sure enough though, the woman stumbles upon an alien, who looks too much like a scuba diver, that moves about the scenery like they're swimming. Ugh...what a waste. Again, we have no idea what's the point as this segment ends with the alien dragging the lady off to god knows where. At least it did end by showing us that the creepy painting the husband made was actually of Art. Shortly after this, the babysitter turns off the tape and thinks she sees the alien in their house.
Segment 3: The babysitter decides to check in on the kids who mention that they are annoyed she keeps checking in on them; this is coupled with the girl claiming someone is in her closet. Hmm...the kids you are babysitting say someone is in the house and mention how the door keeps opening when you're not around...yeah, best to ignore that shit and get back to watching a weird videotape! This segment begins with a girl stopping at a gas station where Art is being driven off by the attendant. For some reason, this is the first segment that tried to have shitty picture quality. Look, this is an all or nothing kind of situation; now it has become an inconsistency in your film, people! Shortly after filling up the gas, there is a noise from within the gas station that the attendant investigates. When the attendant doesn't return, the girl checks in on the guy to find that Art has cut him to pieces. Fleeing in her car, and trying to call for help, Art appears in the distance to taunt the girl. Finding a car pulled to the side, the girl tries to get this person to help her, but they are badly mutilated and the girl returns to her car...which you can easily guess now has Art in the backseat. After narrowly surviving a suffocation, the girl slams on the breaks, fucking up Art, and runs off toward a barn or something. Locked in, the girl notices somehow Art has dug his way up through the ground and lashes at the girl with a makeshift cat o' nine tails. When a few blades fall off mid-strike, the girl uses one to stab Art in the eye and back--believing to have killed him. A passerby picks up the girl, but he is blown away by art who stole the girl's car and seemingly pulled a gun out of his ass. The girl wakes up from the car crashing and finds she has been completely dismembered by Art who has also carved profanities into her flesh. The segment simply ends with Art laughing at her screams of horror. Well that was fucked up. This was a decent tale and a lot better than the first two in its presentation and storytelling ability.
Wraparound Ending: When the babysitter tries to turn off the tape, it lapses back to Art killing the attendant before finally going off. Then the phone rings and the babysitter hears dialogue from the third segment. The tape turns itself back on with Art coming at the screen trying to get through it in a sort of mime gag. The footage transitions to showing the babysitter in the house and Art is sitting behind her on the couch honking his horn. Before Art can get her, the babysitter destroys the tape and the clown has disappeared. The little girl screams from upstairs, and the babysitter finds a blood-covered Art laughing at the top to the stairs. Art disappears yet again and the babysitter finds that the kids have been decapitated. Oh great, I don't think you're getting paid anymore, hun. And that's pretty much the end of the movie--I was just surprised the babysitter didn't end up dying.
Overall, this is one of the better anthology movies I've watched, and it being a Halloween horror helps a lot. It's not perfect by any means, and "V/H/S" is unquestionably better than this, but that doesn't take away from this film's efforts. The main reason I couldn't rate any higher was due to the recycling of existing stories rather than coming up with all new entries; the second segment also dropped the ball big time when it was the only real addition. I think this is a worthy "Halloween" alternative, and is probably easier to get a hold of compared to many of the others I've reviewed thus far.
Notable Moment: When Art tries to come out of the TV screen. He's no Sadako/Samara, but I appreciate the effort.
Final Rating: 6/10
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