RichC2

I love the fact they released the combo pack with a Blu-ray, DVD and VHS copy of the movie - something you don't see very often

Why So Blu?

That's pretty cool. The last flick that had a VHS rleease was that special MONDO edition of Beyond the Black Rainbow.

Dan

At least it kind of makes sense to release V/H/S 2 on a VHS tape. Beyond the Black Rainbow seemed to be released that way solely so they could say, "LOOK! A VHS! We're retro!"

I finally watched V/H/S 2 the other day. I thought it was mostly subpar, but Safe Haven was insane and totally worth the rental on Vudu. I found the bike riding one to be pretty decent, but other than those two, everything else felt kind of bland and uninteresting.

Still... Safe Haven. Holy shit.

Solid Snake

That's the one by the director of The Raid, right?

EdTheRipper

Yes.

asianxcore

Also written by Timo Tjahjanto, who did the 'L Is For Libido' segment in 'The ABCs of Death'

That's what I've been telling friends who have been curious about the sequel. 'Safe Haven' alone is worth the price of admission.

Applejack

Watched this last night.

I liked VHS a lot, but thought this sequel was even better. I liked all of the stories, even the wrap around one. For me, the weakest one was the last short story and the best one was Safe Haven.

Definitely worth a watch for anybody who likes scary movies. Hope there is a part 3

Jules Winfield

Definitely a step up from the first one. Even though Safe Haven is the best, I thought all of them were pretty solid. After the atrocity that was the first one, I'm glad they made the second.

Maxflier

Just got done watching this and am very surprised reading through the thread how much everyone liked it. I liked the first one very much, but this was one of the worst pieces of shit I have ever seen.

Mr. Flix

This is on Netflix streaming now.

Just watched it. Quick thoughts:

1. It's better than the first, but that's somewhat faint praise
2. The wrap-around story is better than the first, but that's very faint praise
3. The cyborg-eye story: some really bad acting and an unoriginal plot line. C-
4. The zombie biker story: even worse acting at times, but the only one of the shorts that made me actually care about one of the characters. Nice, unexpected ending. B
5. The cult story: Woah. Scares, gore, and the only decent acting in the whole thing. A-
6. The alien story: They've should've saved the cult story for last, because this one was a complete, confusing dud. F

DaveyJoe

Watched this last night and it was really enjoyable. I really liked the first VHS but it had a couple of segments that were dull. I thought this one was much more consistent. The wrap around stories in both movies are pretty underwhelming, but luckily they don't take up too much time.

Cyborg-eye: boobs.

I thought the Zombie biking story was really clever. I can't think of any movie I've seen that has shown us the perspective of the zombie before, I really liked that about it. It had some amusing moments as well, when the zombies are eating the one guy and he sits up, the way the girl is casually chewing and the look they give each other was great. The ending was also kind of sad.

Safe Haven was definitely the high light of this, it was really impressive. Chaotic, but well directed, you knew exactly what was going on. Some very creepy moments and a throat cutting scene that was very disturbing.

Alien story: This one started off promising with the creepy shot of the alien in the water but it falls apart very quickly. I liked the first couple of shots from the dog's perspective but once the aliens attack it is completely incomprehensible. One of the worst examples of shaky cam confusion I've ever seen. It was so annoying that I quickly stopped caring about what happened and just wanted it to end. Terrible direction, which is a shame because I was looking forward to a scary alien story. Also, some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard, they were just grasping at straws trying to come up with edgy insults that kids would use. Cum dick? Really?

I would totally watch V/H/S 3.

Groucho

Thought this was better than the first, my favorite story was actually the eye one (originality be damned).

Enjoyed the cult story as well, especially:

DaveyJoe

I liked the eye story as well, thought it had some really creepy moments. Apparently the actor in that was also the director of that segment, he also directed You're Next.

This film had a lot more humor than the first one, which I think made for an overall more entertaining experience.

TheySentYou

rewatched this last night just to put my weak-stomached girlfriend through 'Safe Haven'. yeah, she went to bed hating me.

Safe Haven alone is worth rewatching multiple times. one of the most intense horror experiences i can say i've seen, especially as of late.

DaveyJoe

I thought The Raid was one of the most intense action movies I've seen in years. It had me on the edge of my seat and I was still feeling tense hours after leaving the theater. Gareth Evans has shown a lot of potential with what I've seen from him, I can't wait to see his take on Godzilla.

Groucho

Different guy. Godzilla is being directed by Gareth Edwards.

Dan

Haha, yeah. Different Gareth.
Mr. Evans is currently in post-production for The Raid 2, though, so

I loved The Raid, but the only disappointment was the poor video quality in most scenes. I chalk it up to bad lighting, so hopefully The Raid 2 looks better in that area.

sauce07

This was a big improvement over V/H/S/1, and I enjoyed that as well. Making it four segments helps, and the wrap around story took up less time. Safe Haven was awesome, Aliens had its moments, Zombie and Eye were both decent.

Bring on V/H/S/3

EddieMoney

Watched last night. Thought it was very solid. Safe Haven was easily the best. I actually thought the Alien story was good, had some very freaky moments. I give the director of that segment kudos, especially considering he's a cum dick.

Giantrobo

Watched this a few days ago and I was underwhelmed. I'm not seeing how this was better than VHS 1 to some folks but hey, different strokes right?

The Cult story was the best even with the corny one liner at the end.
The POV Zombie story was decent
The Alien Story was creepy but still just ok
The Bionic Eye was interesting...

I can't remember, was there more stories?

Daytripper

Agree. I thought the first one was great. This? Not so much. The best segment, as everyone has already pointed out, is "Safe Haven". But my God, the damn thing felt like an eternity. It just went on and on and on. The rest of the movie was borderline terrible. Especially the alien storyline.

SuckaMC

I found the pacing to be much better in this one. It didn't feel like a 4 hour long movie like the first one. I liked all the stories too. The wrap around was weird, not sure if I missed something with the thumbs up at the end.

EddieMoney

Watched the first one over the weekend. Thought it was better than the second.

Still, they did horror movies better in the 80s. Everything was better in the 80s. Especially around 1986-1988.

Abob Teff

I thought V/H/S had more potential than what it delivered on. V/H/S 2 fared better, but still did not hit the marks this series is capable of.

If I remember right, they basically tell the directors to make a POV horror short/film and then the producers develop a wrap-around story to tie them together ... is that right? If it is, they need to quit this. The segments are good enough to stand on their own, but the wrap-around in both films was difficult to follow and did nothing to further the movie. In fact, the wrap-arounds actually detract from the story in a manner that leaves the segments impotent ... more on that after we talk about the segments ...

Phase I Clinical Trials (the cyborg eye story) -- a creepy short which was well-made but had no real meat to it. The concept was decent enough, but the segment fell flat and simply went through the paces. It hit some of the beats, but moved too quickly for the viewer to develop any understanding of what was motivating the story. This would probably make a decent feature on its own as it needed more time to develop. Grade: It had the potential for a solid B, yet delivers a disappointing D+.

A Ride In the Park (the zombie biker story) -- while not the best segment, it was certainly my favorite. It was very simple and did not try to be overly ambitious (which is a fatal flaw of many of the segments in anthologies). Essentially this segment was "a day in the life of a zombie." The director did not try to provide anything earth-shattering, but rather chose to stay more subdued while giving us a few things we haven't seen before in a zombie film. Nice little twist at the end. Grade: B+

Safe Haven (the popular favorite, the cult story) -- it's about the journey, not the destination. In this case, the journey is much more rewarding than the destination. The story itself unfolds at its own pace, which is a fantastic contrast to the first segment. It drove me crazy (in a good way!) trying to figure out where this segment was headed ... there were so many avenues for this story to go. The slow burn was wonderful, but I thought the course it finally launched on was not worthy of the build-up. The ending takes off on an unoriginal path at a frantic pace which leaves much of the sensibility of the story behind. Grade: B-

Slumber Party Alien Abduction (you read the title, I don't need to provide a description) -- even the title for this segment sucks! Poorly developed, poorly executed ... was there even a story to this one? Somebody here said the aliens were the scariest he/she had ever seen. That is true ... if this is the only movie you have ever seen with aliens in it. The best part of this was I really felt this director procrastinated until the day his film was due and then pulled this out of his ass. Grade: F- (is there anything lower I can give this?)

Tape 49 (the wraparound story) -- a completely nonsensical series of events which are supposed to tie the segments together. What this accomplishes is actually a complete neutering of the segments. The premise of the V/H/S series is a "cursed" collection of home movies which can drive the viewer insane. However, for this wraparound premise to work a zombie apocalypse could not have happened. For the wraparound story to happen the End of Days could not have occurred. While it isn't necessarily the fault of the wraparound, the scale of the segments mean this wraparound concept is useless.

More specific in my nitpicking of the V/H/S 2 wraparound, the wraparound story states "you must watch these tapes in a certain order" and yet the character who is most affected didn't watch three of the four tapes. It drives me up a wall when movies cannot follow their own rules. Grade: F-

All in all, V/H/S 2 is worth a watch for its high points. V/H/S 2 was a step up from its predecessor, but it still is not hitting the mark. I would like to see the series continue, but the producers need to start bringing their "A game" or bring in some new help. Overall Grade: C+

Supermallet

This one was much better than the first one, if only because one of the four stories was very good, and one of the four was great, whereas only one of stories in the first movie was even very good.

Phase I Clinical Trials, aside from being a total rip off of the subpar horror film The Eye, and also featuring the heavily overused pale ghosts with gray circles around their eyes, is utterly unscary in every way. Ooooh, you can see ghosts now! Ooooh, they're gonna kill you! Yeah, no shit.

A Ride In The Park started off in a way that felt derivative, but switching to the POV of the zombie was a nice, fun twist. I was disappointed in the ending though, but that was the only misstep in what was an otherwise fun and creative short.

Slumber Party Alien Abduction: A bunch of kids I didn't give a single shit about get abducted by really disorganized aliens. Whoever made this story has no concept of "less is more". We see tons of the aliens, but mostly through shaky cam, and also they kill a fucking dog, so fuck them for making such a piece of shit short.

Tape 49: A chance to deepen the metastory of the series is completely wasted. The stupidity in these segments had me laughing. The dude finds his girlfriend disoriented with a nosebleed, so he says he'll go get aspirin and tells her to keep watching videos? Seriously? Then he finds her seemingly dead and screams "Somebody help!" without ever calling 911, and decides to watch another video? I liked the snippets of the guy recording his own video, and the final shot of him giving the thumbs up, but the rest was just dumb, dumb, dumb.

Safe Haven: I saved this one for last because it is by far the best segment of any of the V/H/S pieces, and is honestly one of the best horror films I've seen in years. I wish they had scrapped V/H/S 2 and funded a full length feature of Safe Haven instead. The directing and editing were just perfect, the atmosphere was incredible, the ending was a delight. I'm still thinking about it. So well done in every way.

I see there's a third VHS movie, Viral, and I have zero interest in watching it. There's no way any of the segments are better than Safe Haven, and some of these in the first two films have been so bad that I don't want to bother going any further.