Even the most dedicated horror fan is probably a little burnt out on found footage features by now. But as any true devotee of the genre knows, horror is all about rebirths and returns, and who better to resurrect the found footage device than a cadre of horror's emerging auteurs. Adam Wingard (A Horrible Way To Die), David Bruckner (The Signal), Ti West (The House of the Devil), Glenn McQuaid (I Sell The Dead), prolific mumblecore maker Joe Swanberg (Nights and Weekends), and the directing team Radio Silence each offer one frightening found footage short to the omnibus V/H/S, which garnered enthusiastic praise at Sundance's midnight movies screening this year.
V/H/S centers on some foolish burglars in search of a video cassette that's sure to bring them only trouble and terror. In seeking this mysterious tape, they watch five VHS tapes, each containing a more harrowing horror story. Earlier this week, we shared the red-band trailer, and now the official international trailer has hit the web, teasing some of the freaky feature's unsettling imagery. Check it out below, courtesy of Epic Pictures:
Maybe it's all the years I spent at slumber parties huddled in front of a TV watching parent-prohibited horror movies on static-ridden VHS tapes, but there is something distinctly frightening about this trailer. Spooky shots of gore and ghosts are deftly punctuated by lingering music stings, while all the static and distortions of the VHS format streak along, filling those who remember the days of videotapes with a nearly forgotten anxiety that the picture may be swallowed by the static any moment!
But if the jump scares and glitch graphics aren't enough to interest you, the trailer also boasts its prestigious film fest travels and critical praise that declares V/H/S a gruesome must-see that's "pushing the genre in a new direction" and is so frightening it will make you physically ill. What more can horror fans ask for?
V/H/S hits theaters October 5th, but hits VOD August 31st.
