My feelings about the first V/H/S have improved over time, and I find myself looking forward to getting the Blu-ray of that one eventually. I wonder if my perception of this one will improve.
The framing device is a little more interesting this time around. A pair of private investigators are looking for a missing student. They look around his apartment, which looks like it's in similar condition to the house in the framing from the first movie. In fact, we hear a snippet of that framing, which is a nice touch.
The first story, titled Phase I Clinical Trials, is actually a pretty nice premise, even though it's been done a few different ways. A man who was in a car accident winds up getting a bionic eye, which is recording everything, in the interest of clinical trials. He finds that he can see ghosts - or something like that - around his house. A girl arrives, who plans on giving him some direction about how to deal with them.
A Ride in the Park was a little aimless, but it's still pretty enjoyable, since it offers a nice variation on a stock zombie story. The story is told from the POV of a cyclist, who gets infected by a girl he encounters on some bike trails. He turns into a zombie, and we follow him on his journey, where he infects others, and so forth. It moves along nicely, but there isn't much substance to this.
The third segment is Safe Haven, which was really bizarre, but probably the most fascinating of the movie. A news crew persuades a cult leader to let them interview him at his compound. The crew wears hidden cameras, along with their obvious camera setup. It's sort of impossible to explain this story, since it has a wide range of strange, and bloody events. It's just connected enough that it feels like there's a larger plot to figure out. There are some fantastic images in it, like a roomful of identically dressed men all committing suicide together.
Slumber Party Alien Abduction is another strange one. It started off well, with some sexy sibling shenanigans (which I won't' bother to detail). Then it gets into some strange territory, as the house, and all the kids, are attacked by aliens. They look like pretty standard Grey aliens. This segment would probably work better in theaters. When the aliens attack, there's a massive loud noise, which would have been much more startling in a theater. At home, it's just annoying. Of course, we never learn too much about what the aliens are abducting for, and the story ends with a dog's death (or serious injury) which is not a nice way to end things.
Then we come back to the framing device, which was suitably weird, but at least it was more satisfying than the first movie's closing.
The thing that I found more charming in the first movie - that the found footage format lent itself to unresolved stories - doesn't seem to have applied here. There are a few conclusions, but the stories without an ending (A Ride in the Park and Slumber Party) have serious weaknesses without them.
Maybe I'd buy this if it were packaged in a two-for-one deal with the first movie. But I can't say this is especially worthwhile. Sort of a shame.
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