The Gist
The film sees six youngsters The Italian Girl (Florie Auclerc-Vialens – Smart Ass), The Australian Guy (Ruy Bechholz – Swim Little Fish Swim), The French Guy (Morgan Lamorte – Speed Shooting), The Belgian Girl (Delphine Lanniel – Les Colocs), The British Girl (Isabel McCann – Chat) and The American Guy (Petur Oskar Sigurdsson – Grimmd) head off for a weekend at a house that turns out to be haunted by a… VHS machine.
The weekend starts as you would normally expect – most of the guys are planning which girl they are going to try to get into bed which leads to tension between them. Things change though when The Australian Guy decides to educate the group on the beauty of VHS and they learn the powers of the supernatural device.
The Review
If you are looking for something entirely different to anything else around at the moment then you may want to check out new horror film House Of VHS. Coming from French director Gautier Cazanave House Of VHS goes back to the good old days when directors like Peter Jackson were shooting delightful little shlock horrors.
It sounds like an absolutely crazy idea but House Of VHS works. Early on you do find yourself wondering where the film is going to head but once the abilities of the VHS are shown the film goes to a whole new level. While the film does at times attempt to head into the comical side of things it is at its best when it sticks to its guns and stays a schlock horror that leaves you wondering which of the characters are going to survive and which are going to meet a grizzly end.
While not knowing who is going to live or die does play a big part of building the film’s suspense what really rises to the top and makes this film so thrilling is the audience trying to work out exactly what the VHS machine is capable of. While the idea that it can ‘breed’ VHS tapes together to create new films is interesting enough the film takes a very different turn when you realise the ‘horrific’ power of the machine… and the fact that the youngsters are stupid enough to start experimenting with the powers by putting themselves into movies.
Acting wise you get what you normally expect from a horror film like this. Nobody is going to win any awards anytime soon but the cast do the best with the material at home. Isabel McCann does brilliantly well as the most serious of the youngsters while Petur Oskar Sigurdsson does a great job playing a naive and rude American… especially considering he was cast in the film at the last minute.
The Verdict
As a director Gautier Cazanave takes his love of VHS and old-style horror films and creates a modern day horror that is going to have horror fans wanting to track down a copy of the film… just perhaps not on VHS. House Of VHS is a film that is going to be lapped up by lovers of good schlock horror and this is destined to become a cult classic.
Certificate: TBA
Director: Gautier Cazenave
Starring: Florie Auclerc-Vialens, Ruy Buchholz, Morgan Lamorte, Delphine Lanniel, Isabel McCann, Petur Oskar Sigurdsson
Running Time: 83 mins
Release Date: 16th January, 2017
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