a review of 致命录像带94

Didn't really vibe with the first three V/H/S movies, but hoped that a tighter thematic focus might turn me around on them. Turns out that the ONLY filmmaker who seemed to truly understand the assignment here (make a found-footage horror movie that looks like a mid-90s VHS artifact) was Steven Kostanski with his 30-second "VEGGIE MASHER" ad, which both captured the feeling of 1994 infomercials but also represented the subtle existential horror of the time. Every other segment either had some element that threw me out of the story or setting (especially Timo Tjahjanto's entry, with its full-HD first-person-shooter styling that felt basically *nothing* like something from 1994), or utterly ignored the "found footage" premise by including an impossible number of camera angles or cross-edits, or were otherwise just boringly predictable in their setup and "punchline." I've liked a number of full-length features made by V/H/S/94's contributing directors, so there's no reason why these anthologies should have to feel so half-baked. Maybe if Shudder weren't cranking these out on an annual basis they wouldn't be that way?