V.H.S; sorta scary...sorta meh

   Falling again for those trailers that have quotes stating that they have what could be "the SCARIEST movie of all time", threats of ladies walking out or of you soiling your trousers because of the new findings in the scaring-shit-out-of-you sciences...that is how I first got an interest in this sort of good movie.
   V/H/S is a movie compiled of half-dozen short films that are all shot in the first person perspective, ala Blair Witch Project. None of the films are related, save an overlapping story of a couple of ruffians ram-sacking a creepy house in search of some video tapes to make a quick buck. Amid the creepy ambiance and horrible lighting, they find time to browse a dead man's VHS collection. The movies have that distinct headache inspiring camera work, but if the objective was going for realism...then this was done very well, mimicking that drunk dad at the Barbecue  camera technique. The stories all seem to be ripped off of other movies or at least spin off the idea of most. Not to say that most all horror movies are influenced by prior genre staples but in the V/H/S shorts it is very obvious.
    Individually, each story is much different from the next, themes range from slasher in the woods to the haunted house scenario. Using various genre tropes like pointless nudity, breaking the fourth wall and more than a hand full of gory scenes filled with rubber and red corn oil  made V/H/S enjoyable during certain scenes, however, this over exaggeration of  moments in the film made the build up scenes seem very mundane and drawn out.This heavy handed style of give and take works out for full lenght films but in a short film narrative had me bored between flashes of tit and neck stabbings.
                  This movie would be better enjoyed in parts, maybe catching shorts individually on youtube or wacthing scene by scene with your DVD. Each short was good on its own merit, be it creepy vampire ladies, crazed lesbian lovers, or a slasher victim taking sweet revenge on a supernatural killer are bythemselves very satisfying gore filled and suspensefull little treats, better enjoyed everyonce in awhile not in copious amounts, afterall...you might get a tummy ache. You won't see anything groundbreaking in this movie and while some parts are scary and not just surprise jumps ....VHS is far from the latest and greatest in the scare medium. I do recommend
the short films individually but not all in one sitting...it does get loooooong and drawn out.