V/H/S/94

A crack SWAT team are on their way to raid a property. Filmed on dodgy tape that’s the sort of quality that those more long in the tooth will remember seeing the likes of Clockwork Orange on back in the day. Reaching the location, they find may rooms with TVs playing and people either drugged or dead watching them, their eyes, a mess.

Breaking into a newscast and Chloe Okuno’s ‘Storm Drain’ we start with story one of ambitious reporter Holly (Anna Hopkins) tracking down what is reputed to be a Ratman or maybe just an urban legend. Setting up Holly and cameraman spot someone in a large waste pipe, investigating they see he’s a bit odd and decide to backtrack only to get lost and then found by what appear to be homeless people sheltering there. And there is something in the drains which manifest itself gruesomely after Holly is rescued from the drain and back co-presenting the news. This is a solid monster romp with lots of tension and a good payoff.

Back to the now very stressed SWAT team and into story two ‘Empty Wake’ written and directed by Simon Barrett. Hayley (Kyal Legend) is a funeral home attendant left with a body in a coffin for a wake during the night. The night draws on until one person turns up, followed by thunder storm, lights out and noises within the coffin. Built up from several camera positions and perspectives this enjoyable hokum with a lot of crashing, bashing and tumbling people and bodies.

Short SWAT break then into story three where we go a little Tetsuo with Timo Tjahjanto’s ‘The Subject’ with a mad prof experimenting with heads on spider legs and other such wonders. Naturally these get out of control with the creation going haywire requiring lots of shooting and body-horror. Actually for all the full force of mechanics and bloodletting twisted with dynamic photography this is quite an empty story and maybe the weakest of the lot.

The SWAT team are really getting panicked now as we find ourselves in story four ‘Terror’ by Ryan Prows. A militia training camp in snowy rural America with ‘patriot’s preparing to attack a federal building with new weapon that they test on a rabbit and source from a person that they shoot repeatedly without killing. An original black comedy, albeit with cliched red-neck type characters that has its moments as the misfits, deluded and just plain evil get to play with big guns and old powers.

Afterwards we conclude the SWAT wrap around story ‘Holy Hell’ pretty well though some may be left less than enthused by writer/director Jennifer Reeder’s conclusion. That however is offset by the intertangled stories that on the whole are very good.