Day 20: V/H/S/2

V/H/S/2 (2013)

V/H/S/2 on Netflix

Another set of short horror stories held together by the mysterious collection of tapes that strangers insist on watching, even though the (literal) set-up screams danger.

This does what "ABCs of Death" should have done.  I'm not calling all the shorts in this one, and the first, better than ABCs, but there's a quality to these shorts that I missed with ABCs.

I also appreciate that the theme here seems to be what happens when you ignore the monster.  A monster with no tolerance for bullshittery.  Though, to be honest, that seems to be the point of most horror.  Some victims you pity, but their deaths are not marked by slow swells of soundtrack and epitaphs that mark dramas and romance.  Some victim-making you cheer, momentarily bothered by a moral compass reminding you that all life is sacred.

I'm not here to expound on that.  I could... but I won't.  That's not the point.  Mostly horror is about survival.  Not daily life, survival.  When the primal lizard brain kicks in and eats the inner fear, and either you find the power to fight back, or you meet death with a savage smile.  If it doesn't kick in, hit re-load and start the level again.  And not just by putting a new movie in, or re-starting the game.

Life continues whether you like or not.  It also kicks like a heavyweight boxer in steel-toed boots.  Some people never get to experience this-- and I could envy them, except I don't, because living a charmed life and laughing at "Hostel" or "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" because there is no emotional foundation to understand the fear and the instinct that it takes to endure the situation from either side of the story. These are people who treat a hundred dollar bill like the end of the world because they've never seen a $13,000 bill.  They self-diagnose themselves with multiple sclerosis from three idiopathic symptoms on webMD, because they've never sat in a doctor's office and been told that the trained professionals want to test you for cancer markers.   It sets you up for total loss.  The empathy is not there, and neither is the knowledge that things get better both randomly, and by power of will.  Those are the people schadenfreude is meant for.

Horror genre isn't new, and it's not going anywhere.  It's just adapting to the changes in storytelling methods. It exists for a reason.  We can hope it's used as a tool for good (no, seriously), as a modern Aesop and Grimm.  You'll just have to pardon us gorehounds as we enjoy it in ways you can't understand as we find the lesson within.

Would I watch this again? Yes.
Would I own it? Yes.  Maybe.