Movie review: Vhs Beyond

I'm a sucker for found footage films. They manage to both scare me while simultaneously make me laugh. Yesterday, I finished watching the seventh installment in the Vhs series. Several directors gather to make short films while another film provides the thread to connect them all to a central theme. Shudder makes these films once a year or so. This time the flavor of the year was aliens...for the most part. One short was about dogs and taxidermy, and the less that is said about that short, the better. The other four were interesting enough to captivate me for the two hours. The first one, titled "Stork" has cop-like activists hunt down aliens. A tried and true story with a twist on the abduction. The second film, "Dream Girl," is likely my second least favorite because, like the dog film, has nothing to do with aliens. I remember saying something like that out loud when I saw it. My favorite, "Live and Let Dive," follows friends skydiving when a UFO crashes into their plane. The ending was so ironic that I clapped. Then we have "Fur Babies," which, again had nothing to do with aliens. This short was also the most disturbing. Finally we have "Stowaway," in which a woman sneaks onto an alien ship. As she fumbles through the ship and hurts herself, the ship's nanomachines repair her in a way that is not human. Again the twist at the end was fantastically ironic. I'm usually generous to films so I'll give this a six. They definately had a budget with the cgi and effects in each film. Despite my praise I have no interest in seeing it again or analyzing it. It's one of those films you are done with once they are over, like most found footage films.

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