I was hoping to have a different reaction to V/H/S: Viral upon rewatching it. I still think this is the weakest of the series. I found myself only partially drawn in by the segments and the frame narrative failing to make me care about anything going on. I don’t know if its because I had watched the previous two so soon before this one or if its some other reason, but it failed make me care about what was going on throughout the story.
The frame narrative was called “Vicious Circles” and it took the ideas from the second movie’s frame narrative and skipped to the endgame of the plan rather than it taking several steps. It also feels completely disconnected from the previous two, though there are shots from “Amateur Night” from V/H/S shown. The story also showed the continued evolution of the internet and how video changed along with it.
All three of the segments “Dante the Great”, “Parallel Monsters”, and “Bonestorm” are all really interesting. Each have interesting concepts and ideas, especially “Dante the Great” and “Parallel Monsters”. “Bonestorm” is a fun watch, but I feel like it only gets a tiny bit to shine before the segment ends. “Dante the Great” has a really amazing fight scene that makes the most of the concept of the segment.
I did find that there was a shift to visual effects in V/H/S: Viral while there was a good mix in the previous two. There are some great practical effects but they stand out because of the abundance of visual effects used throughout.
V/H/S: Viral is filled with segments that are much better than the whole. I don’t know if I’ll give V/H/S 94 another watch or if I’ll give it a rereview. I’m still looking forward to V/H/S/99 quite a bit. I think another thing I had an issue with in Viral is that there was a focus taken off of VHS tapes, which feels like a betrayal. I give V/H/S: Viral 4.5 cameras out of 10.