V/H/S: Viral

V/H/S: Viral
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nacho Vigalondo Marcel Sarmiento Gregg Bishop Justin Benson Aaron Scott Moorhead
Written by	Nacho Vigalondo Marcel Sarmiento Gregg Bishop Justin Benson Aaron Scott Moorhead T.J. Cimfel Ed Dougherty David White
Production company	Bloody Disgusting The Collective Haxan Films
Distributed by	Magnet Releasing
Release dates	October 23, 2014 (2014-10-23) (VOD) November 21, 2014 (2014-11-21) (US)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English Spanish

V/H/S: Viral is an American anthology horror film. It features a series of found-footage shorts written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead.^[1]

V/H/S: Viral's segments include the story of a deranged illusionist who obtains a magical object of great power; a homemade machine that opens a door to a parallel world; and teenage skaters who unwittingly become targets of a Mexican death cult ritual.^[2] An additional segment was filmed, but Todd Lincoln's short, Gorgeous Vortex, was cut at the last minute since it did not fit in with the overall theme of the film.^[3] The short is included as an extra on the film's DVD and Blu-ray release, which starts after the credits for the main film end.^[4]

Plot

Vicious Circles

• Directed by Marcel Sarmiento
• Written by T.J. Cimfel, David White, and Marcel Sarmiento

In the wrap-around, Kevin becomes obsessed with shooting footage of his girlfriend, Iris. When a high speed pursuit near his neighborhood is broadcast on television, he sees the opportunity to create a viral video. He is too late to shoot footage as the truck speeds past his house, though he sees Iris wander outside in a daze and be abducted. Kevin chases after the truck, egged on by images of Iris broadcast to his cell phone. The truck circles the neighborhood repeatedly, and people receive strange images on their cell phones that cause them to become violently insane. When Kevin catches up to the truck, it is empty. A recording of Iris demands that he upload the footage broadcast to the neighborhood cell phones. Kevin at first refuses but does so when she begins to self-injure. As the recording of Iris continues to taunt him, he discovers her dead body. The closing shot of this video shows a view of a city in smoke and fire as a helicopter in the background spirals out of control, implying the uploaded video has gone viral and has begun to affect thousands.

Dante the Great

• Directed and written by Gregg Bishop

Dante the Great, an untalented illusionist, discovers a cloak that grants him the power to perform real magic. He quickly becomes famous, though he learns that the cloak requires regular sacrifices to work. Dante hires a series of female assistants and videotapes their violent deaths at the hands of the cloak. When Scarlet, his latest assistant, discovers Dante's stash of tapes, she alerts the police. Dante uses his magic powers to escape captivity and kill an entire SWAT team. Scarlet then confronts him, and the two duel over the magic cloak. Though Scarlet is briefly able to take it from him, he overpowers her and recovers it. Before Dante can kill her, Scarlet uses a trick he taught her to immobilize him, and the cloak feeds on him instead. Scarlet burns the cloak, only to find it in her house; the segment ends as arms reach from inside the cloak and grab her.

Parallel Monsters

• Directed and written by Nacho Vigalondo

On each side of an interdimensional portal, parallel versions of inventor Alfonso cautiously greet each other. Overcome by curiosity, the two explore each other's worlds. At first the worlds seem exact duplicates, but they are revealed to hold divergent dominant religions. As a pornographic snuff film plays in the background, his wife Marta prompts him to perform a ceremony with two men. Disturbed, Alfonso leaves the house and sees a large blimp with an inverted cross. When he attempts to record it, he angers the two men. Their appearance turns demonic, and he attacks them. He flees back to his house, where Marta, now naked, reveals demonic genitalia. Alfonso strikes her and flees back to his world, where the demonic Alfonso has attacked the normal version of Marta as she slept. The two versions of Marta each kill their husbands, blaming them for the actions of their double.

Bonestorm

• Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead
• Written by Justin Benson

A trio of skateboarders perform various stunts as the videographer they hired pushes them into increasingly dangerous circumstances. After they become bored, they go to Tijuana, where they subsequently become lost after buying fireworks. Once they find a suitable place, the videographer encourages them to again perform more stunts. When one of the skateboarders injures himself and bleeds on a pentagram, a group of cloaked cultists attack them. Using improvised weapons, including their skateboards, the skateboarders kill the cultists, though all but two of the skateboarders die in the ensuing fight. The dead cultists then rise as skeletons. Using the fireworks, the skateboarders destroy several of the skeletons. The surviving skateboarders then flee back toward the border as a monstrous creature appears and resurrects the dead skateboarders as skeletons.

Cast

Production

V/H/S: Viral was filmed from May 1, 2014, until May 8, 2014. It was completed on July 1, 2014.^[5]

Release

The film was released through Video on Demand on October 23, 2014, and was released in select theaters on November 21.^[6] The home-release on Blu-ray disc and DVD was on February 17, 2015, through Magnet Releasing.^[7] Magnet Releasing premiered the film on March 20, 2015, on Netflix Instant.^[8]

Reception

Most reviews for the film have been negative. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a score of 39% and an average rating of 4.4/10 based on 23 reviews.^[9] Metacritic gives the film a score of 33/100 based on reviews from five critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews" from critics.^[10] Peter Debruge of Variety described the film as "three playful yet thoroughly disposable experiments in short-form p.o.v. cinema".^[11] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Lacking the originality of the first film and the superior entries of the second, V/H/S Viral spirals downwards towards the same sort of obsolescence as the home video format that provides its title."^[12] A. A. Dowd of The A.V. Club rated it D+ and called it "slapdash and ineffectual".^[13] Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian rated it 1/5 stars and wrote, "Besides one bright spot involving razor-sharp genitals, this horror compilation is bereft of thrills, scares or creativity."^[14] Shawn Macomber of Fangoria rated it 3/4 stars and wrote that the change in tone from previous entries in the film series will alienate some fans but is a "welcome breather".^[15] Brad McHargue of Dread Central rated it 4/5 stars and wrote, "The shorts that comprise V/H/S Viral are inventive enough to make up for the blunder that is Sarmiento's wraparound, even if each one breaks the found footage 'rules' in egregious ways."^[16]

References

Further reading

• Icons of Fright Interview With V/H/S: VIRAL’s “Bonestorm” directors, Benson/Moorhead
• AICN HORROR talks with all five directors from V/H/S VIRAL! Plus a review of the film!
• Exclusive V/H/S: Viral Interviews Part 1: Gregg Bishop, Justin Welborn, Nacho Vigalondo, Marcel Sarmiento
• V/H/S: Viral Interviews Part 2: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

External links

• Official website
• V/H/S: Viral at the Internet Movie Database
• V/H/S: Viral at AllMovie
• V/H/S: Viral at Box Office Mojo
• V/H/S: Viral at Rotten Tomatoes
• V/H/S: Viral at Metacritic