Don't waste money watching this rubbish

Firstly, I am a big fan of the VHS series, and I thought the first two films were mostly well-directed, produced, and edited efforts. But VHS Viral was arguably one of the worst horror films and, by extension, one of the worst films I have seen. Viral has nothing really going for it. I'm not sure if it's because the genre, and 'found-footage' style, has become stale, but Viral really drops the ball here in comparison to its predecessors and as a standalone film. It has a dull narrative, a complete lack of scares (I did not jump once), the main storyline lacked cohesion and quality, the acting was mostly terrible, it was poorly edited (such as the overused visual distortion at the beginning which quickly became tiresome and the overabundance of boob shots), and the segments, my God the segments, were dire compared to previous efforts.

As I said, I thought the first two films were decent horror flicks. VHS had 'Amateur Night' and 'The Sick Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger', both creepy stories that built up the tension and delivered where it mattered. I thought VHS 2 was a more consistently scary movie experience, with both 'Phase 1 Clinical Trials" and 'Safe Haven' particular standouts.

With Viral, however, I cannot remember being scared during the entire film. There were no noticeable jumps, and the narrative failed to provide eerie suspense or tension. All in all, it was an underwhelming watch. I've mentioned my main gripes, but I think the segments really let this film down. Beware; if you want to put yourself through this, then there are spoilers below.

The first segment, 'Dante The Great', had potential. My main gripe with this was the acting. Horror isn't renowned for its high standard of acting, but this was just embarrassing. The lead actor cannot act, and the female assistant was just as bad (if not worse). The segment's 'fight scene', yes, there is a fight scene, was more comedic than scary. Seriously, my friends and I just kind of looked at each other and laughed. It seemed like a cheap dénouement to a low-budget, by-the-numbers action movie, not the ending of a horror story. The film pushed the boundaries of POV and found-footage style with numerous camera angles, slow motion shots etc, and it just jarred. The documentary style was interesting, but all in all, the segment did not provide a single jumpy moment and there was no tension built.

'Parallel Monsters' was the best of a bad bunch, but it would stick out like a sore thumb in the earlier VHS movies, and certainly didn't match anything from before. This segment had a decent premise and an encouraging opening, I'll give it that much. But it just gives way to ridiculous, unexplained plot points, comedy cocks, and, again, a lack of scares. It could, and really should have, explored more of the universe or maybe altered the storyline a bit for when they visited each other's lives.

But the worst segment goes to 'Bonestorm'. Jesus Christ this was a shocking insult to the senses. It comes across as a student film produced a couple of days before the deadline. Basically, a bunch of stoner skate kids with attitude, and a penchant for beating up skaters, take time out from ordering grown adults to 'get back in your house' or 'get back in your car' if they wronged our gang of reprobates, to go to Mexico and visit and skate park. Donning GoPros on their helmets, they ignore the classic horror tropes to get involved in what can only be described as Mexican occultists and zombies. It descends into farce when they clock up a kill count by shooting zombies, hitting them repeatedly with skateboards, until eventually fleeing (failing to register the deaths of two of their mates). It wasn't scary and, for me, offers the low point, the complete nadir, of the series.

I hope VHS can bounce back from this and offer a better experience next time, if the series gets a sequel. Coming off the back of this, I'd be very impressed if it managed another.