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V/H/S is a 2012 Found Footage anthology film directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, and Radio Silence.

A group of hoodlums are hired by an unknown third party to rob a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape. Upon arriving, they discover the dead body of the house's owner and stacks of videotapes. As they search for the right one, they are treated to a seemingly endless number of horrifying videos, each stranger than the last.

  • Tape 56: The frame story. The criminals investigate the house to find the tape they're after, but things quickly grow more intense throughout the night.
  • Amateur Night: Shane, Patrick, and Clint are three college guys planning to go out for a night on the town. With the help of some glasses concealing a camera, the guys plan videotaping their sexual encounters and posting it online as an amateur porn video. The trio end up getting more than they bargained for when they pick up Lily, a strange woman who seems to be oddly attached to Clint.
  • Second Honeymoon: Married couple Sam and Stephanie go on a road trip to Arizona for their honeymoon, filming and documenting nearly everything along the way. Later that night, Sam is asked by a strange and awkward woman to give her a ride somewhere the next day, though he turns her down. While the couple sleep, they are unknowingly stalked by the mysterious woman.
  • Tuesday the 17th: Wendy, Joey, Samantha, and Spider are a group of twenty-somethings who travel to a nearby forest, using a camera to film their shenanigans. Suddenly, the group are stalked and killed one by one by a murderous entity covered in tracking errors that can only be viewed via camera. Wendy also seems to have some connection to the entity, as well as ulterior motives for her so-called friends.
  • The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger: In a segment told entirely through video chats, Emily, talking to her long-distance boyfriend James, believes that she is being plagued by paranormal phenomena, reminding her of a strange accident that occurred in her youth. While she aims to figure out just what the source of the apparent hauntings is, the truth turns out to be much stranger.
  • 10/31/98: On Halloween 1998, Tyler, dressed as a nanny cam, and his friends Chad, Matt, and Paul, head out to a Halloween party at a friend's house. When they arrive at the house hosting it, they discover that it is abandoned. As they explore the house, ghostly activity begins occurring. At first, the guys think that everything is part of an authentic haunted house attraction, but the scares soon become all too real... especially once they reach the attic.

Followed by

  • V/H/S/2 (2013) The first sequel premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. It features shorts from Gareth Evans & Timo Tjahjanto, Eduardo Sanchez & Gregg Hale, Jason Eisener, Adam Wingard, and Simon Barrett.
  • V/H/S: Viral (2014)
  • Siren (2016): A feature length film based on the concept introduced in "Amateur Night" with Hannah Fierman reprising her role as Lily.
  • V/H/S: Video Horror Shorts (2018): A series of shorts released on Snapchat.
  • V/H/S/94 (2021): Completed principal photography during the COVID-19 Pandemic and was released through the streaming service Shudder.
  • V/H/S/99 (2022): Debuted on Shudder.
  • Kids vs. Aliens (2023): A spinoff based on V/H/S/2's "Slumber Party Alien Abduction" segment.
  • V/H/S/85 (2023)

This movie provides examples of the following:

    open/close all folders 

    General 
  • Arc Villain:
  • Apocalyptic Log: Every single segment, with the exception of "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger", in which nobody dies.
  • Camera Abuse: Every story ends with the camera operator murdered, and in a few the camera definitely gets destroyed, leading one to wonder how the old man got the tapes.
  • Cosmic Horror Story: There's certainly implications of this trope at work in most of the stories, most noticeably in "10/31/98" and "Tape 56".
  • Crapsack World: If indeed all the tapes, including the ones from the sequel(s?) take place in the same world then everybody is screwed. You have malevolent aliens, ghosts, monster/ghost/demons that look like digital glitches, succubi, an insane cult that either brought a rampaging demon into the world or failed to exorcise it, and what looks like a Zombie Apocalypse, an evil corporation (or at least a neglectful one), and psycho lesbians.
    • Siren takes this further. There's a Sinister Minister running a hedonistic business using demons that killed those who summoned them but failed to control them. There are enough demons running loose due to screwed-up summoning that someone can make a living off it.
  • Deliberate VHS Quality: Naturally, the entire film looks like it's on VHS out of necessity.
  • Developing Doomed Characters: Happens quite a bit, even with the short running time with each story.
  • Downer Ending: Every single segment.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: This is the only main film in the V/H/S franchise that doesn’t end with the conclusion of the frame narrative, instead ending on "10/31/98".
  • Fan Disservice: Bare breasts, buttocks, and male and female genitalia. All featured during disturbing pseudo-rape sequences or murders.
  • The Foreign Subtitle:
    • Germany: V/H/S: A Murderous Collection
    • Japan: V/H/S: Syndrome
    • Peru: V/H/S: The Chronicles of Fear
  • Foreshadowing: A lot of the vandalism committed by the gang in the vacant house at the film's beginning is similar to how the haunted house gets trashed as the "10/31/98" party-goers are trying to escape.
  • Found Footage Films: An anthology of such.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Every supernatural foe encountered fits this trope, but Lily and the Glitch stand out in terms of weirdness.
  • Interface Screw: Strongest in "Tuesday the 17th" as the killer's presence always makes the picture begin to break up, but ultimately used in all of them since non-professional footage almost always includes lag, freezing, and pixelization. Noticeable as well in "The Sick Thing that Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" as they're using video chat, which is notorious for "cubing out". So naturally, it happens to Emily's image a couple of times. As one reviewer pointed out, the directors used this to their advantage by timing (probable) cuts with when the cassettes glitch, making it far more seamless than it otherwise would be.
  • MacGuffin Title: The framing device is based on finding a certain VHS tape.
  • A Man Is Always Eager: Defied like hell by both Clint in "Amateur Night" and Joey in "Tuesday the 17th". Both are put-off by the circumstances, Clint's broken arm and recently-murdered friends and Joey being told a very flimsy excuse about the absence of their friends before being propositioned.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: Invoked here and there, but really, much of what happens has no explanation, or very sparse.
  • Shown Their Work: Whether by accident or design, any time the video-cameras pass over a TV-screen, the screens flicker, which was common in the old CRTs shown in the movie.
  • Snuff Film: All of them, except "The Sick Thing that Happened to Emily When She Was Younger", in which nobody dies.
  • Stylistic Suck: It varies, but is most prominent during the wraparound segment.
  • Twisted Ankle: In a surprising "twist", it happens twice to male horror movie protagonists. Both Clint in "Amateur Night" and Gary in "Tape 56" took a tumble down the stairs running away from the villain in their respective segments, although one of them wound up with a broken arm instead.

    "Tape 56" 
  • Asshole Victim: While some of the characters in the vignettes fit, the ones here take the cake. They're a bunch of thugs who spend their time vandalizing houses and forcibly pulling up girls' tops in order to film them and sell the footage to a "reality porn" site.
  • Back from the Dead: The dead man found by the group, though we don't learn how.
  • Demonic Possession: Possibly. The seemingly dead old man, specifically.
  • Downer Ending: Every single member of the group ends up dead at the hands of the "dead" man. That said, given that they're textbook Asshole Victims, it's hard to feel much sympathy for them.
  • Dull Surprise: When Gary finds the bodies of his friends, the appropriate reaction probably shouldn't be to laughingly say "Oh, fuck".
  • Dwindling Party: The hooligans go missing one by one.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Barely even a minute into the film, the criminals sexually assault a woman in a parking lot while filming the attack, in broad daylight.
  • Faking the Dead: The old man constantly disappears from his seat, only to show up in the same spot after disposing of the body of whoever was left alone with him.
  • Hypocrite: The vandals all laugh and celebrate as they trash some unsuspecting person's house, only to bitch about it when one of their own number smashes the TV set they happen to be watching.
  • Jitter Cam: Throughout, just like every other segment.
  • Let's Split Up, Gang!: While it's mostly averted, the protagonists here fall into this, with predictable results.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: The thugs aren't sure what they're looking for, or whose house this is. It's implied they don't even know who hired them. And we have no idea how or why the dead old man comes Back from the Dead.

    "Amateur Night" 
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Lily is fairly cute, if slightly creepy. When she transforms, not so much.
  • Arc Words: "I like you." Made all the more meaningful by Siren and its revelation that Lily's species mates for life.
  • Body Horror: Lily starts out with scales on her feet, which only Clint notices, and as things get worse, she develops a maw-like crease down her face. At the end, she goes outright One-Winged Angel.
    • Lily's crease is a lot more natural looking in Siren.
  • Bystander Syndrome: The hotel clerks don't let in a man with an obviously broken arm, condemning him to his fate.
  • Camera Abuse: The last shot suggests that Clint's camera glasses fall off and hit the ground after Lily swoops down and carries him off.
  • Cute Monster Girl: Lily. At least, at first.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": Siren, reveals Lily is a "Lilith". True to the original filmmakers' intent, despite many viewers' assumptions, she never was intended to be either a succubus or anything from actual mythology.
  • Downer Ending: Clint is snatched away by Lily after he witnesses the gruesome demise of his friends.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: A minor one. Shane wasn't outright evil, but his intentions for the night certainly were less than honorable, since his plan was to film the sexual intercourse without the girls' knowledge. But once Lisa falls unconscious in a drunken stupor, he stops his attempts with her. The guys may be voyeurs, but they draw the line at rape.
  • Fan Disservice: We get to see Lily, fully nude, going down on Clint... after having turned into a monster, and covered in the blood of his friends. What's more, she's actually quite hurt that he's terrified rather than aroused.
  • Fate Worse than Death: The last we see of Clint, the poor guy's being carried off somewhere by Lily, screaming the entire time.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • Right as Clint approaches Lily and Shane to talk Shane out of having sex with her, there are two long bruises on either side of her spine, foreshadowing her wings emerging at the end to carry Clint off.
    • There are also a number of very brief glimpses of her following the trio into the club, then eying Clint from afar before she approaches him.
    • After they arrive at the hotel room, it's shown twice that her tongue is black, once when she licks Clint's cheek, and the second when she roars at Patrick's attempt to interrupt her.
  • Groin Attack: A very horrifying version when Lily rips out all of Patrick's tackle. Thankfully, the guy was dead by this point.
  • Hot as Hell: Lily is a demonic creature who kills the men she has sex with.
  • Jerkass: Clint, considering that while he was in on Patrick and Shane's little sexcapade, he wasn't that desperate.
  • Karmic Death: Shane and Patrick get killed by Lily, while Clint is carried away by her. It's vague what happens to him afterward, due to her apparent interest in him combined with his rejection of her.
  • The Loins Sleep Tonight: A completely justified version, since Clint's left arm just suffered a compound fracture while trying to flee from Lily, who tries to initiate a blowjob while coated in the blood of his friends. To make no mention of those rows of sharp teeth that could snip his member in a blink, among other body horrors.
  • Meaningful Background Event: Lily pops up frequently before she formally introduces herself.
  • Meaningful Name: Lily has a name that sounds similar to, and is sometimes used as a diminutive form of, Lilith, which happens to be the name of a mythological succubus.
  • Mugging the Monster: Well, more like raping the monster, as Patrick is bitten when he tries to initiate a threesome with Lily and Shane. This is pretty much when everybody begins to understand that Lily isn't just drunk or high, and is what sparks her complete transformation into... whatever she is.
  • Obliviously Evil: Lily seems to be killing as a biological urge, not out of malice. It's even shown that she fancied Clint, and was dejected when he said no to her advances.
  • Only Sane Man: Clint is the only one who notices something's... off with Lily. Quite ironic given that he's also the one she's most interested in.
  • Red Right Hand: Lily's creased forehead and deformed feet hint at her true form.
  • Sinister Silhouettes: After Lily kills Shane, Patrick and Clint retreat to the bathroom, but realize they can't stay there. They emerge into the darkened room to see a shadowed Lily standing in an odd position.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Lisa's fate. It is likely that she survived since it seems that Lily is a succubus-like creature who only shows interest in men, plus the timeline of events doesn't really leave any space for Lily to kill Lisa, but we have no visual confirmation.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The first thing Lily does before she goes on a rampage and abducts Clint to do who knows what to him? Sit in a corner and cry because he's not attracted to her. You almost forget that she's a monster, and even Clint apologizes... at least until her sobs turn into demonic growls...
  • Yandere: Siren reveals Lily to be this - she isn't a succubus, doesn't kill through sex, and really doesn't appreciate people trying to kill her mate, and she would've killed the protagonist's wife if he hadn't gone to live with her.

    "Second Honeymoon" 
  • Disproportionate Retribution: While Sam is a bit of a pushy jerk, nothing ever indicated that he was abusive towards his wife, which makes his murder rather excessive. She could have just asked for a divorce.
  • Domestic Abuse: Sam isn't the best of husbands to Stephanie. He pressures her to let him film her in a state of undress and complaining excessively when she refuses, he's possibly lying to her about who was at the door, he blames her when the money in his wallet goes missing, and he's generally passive-aggressive toward her. This works against him when Stephanie decides to help her lesbian lover murder him.
  • Downer Ending: Sam is murdered by the mysterious stalker, followed by the revelation that the stalker is Stephanie's secret lover (and also a woman) and that they'd both conspired to kill him.
  • False Innocence Trick: Alluded to. See Foreshadowing.
  • Fan Disservice: One of the last shots is Stephanie, in her bra, making out with her Psycho Lesbian lover... while there is blood all over the latter's hands. Sam's blood.
  • Foreshadowing: Stephanie and Sam use an electronic fortune-telling machine, and by the end of the segment, both of their fortunes come true in a twisted way. Sam gets a fortune about someone close to him not being trustworthy, and ends up betrayed and murdered by his wife. Stephanie gets one about having a happy reunion with someone, and she and her girlfriend leave together as Karma Houdinis. Other arcs are referenced in the fortune card as well.
  • Karma Houdini: Stephanie and her lover, who kill Sam and escape. Sam wasn't the best of husbands, true, but there was no valid reason whatsoever to resort to murder instead of just divorcing him.
  • Mundanger: This is the only segment in any of the films in the series where there is most probably nothing supernatural or sci-fi going on. The villains are a Psycho Lesbian couple with nothing really abnormal about them aside from being Ax-Crazy.
    • It's subtle, but the supernatural element may be that the fortune-telling machine completely accurately foretold the fates of Sam and Stephanie. And that might be what makes the tape belong in the series with the others.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: In full force when, after their encounter with a would-be hitch-hiker after dark, said hitch-hiker is in their room, recording them both with their own camera while wielding a switchblade. Nothing happens that night.
  • Psycho Lesbian: The "twist" is that the stalker and the wife are in fact lovers who plotted to murder the latter's husband.

    "Tuesday the 17th" 
  • All There in the Manual: The audio commentary reveals a bit more about the nature of the Glitch, such as the fact that people killed by it become Glitch monsters themselves.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Wendy, seeming to be the Final Girl, actually led the rest of the group right into the Glitch's clutches.
  • Camera Abuse: A splash of blood ends up on the camera and remains there for the rest of the segment.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Wendy managed to dig a pit, set a bear trap, and construct a bed of spikes to catch the Glitch, showing that she's been preparing to catch it, and therefore sacrifice her friends to it in the process, for a long while.
  • Downer Ending: Wendy gets disemboweled by the Glitch, perhaps even a second one, after she'd taken her friends to the woods to try and lure it out in the first place.
  • Electromagnetic Ghosts: The Glitch is invisible, and can only show up on tape in the form of interference.
  • Eye Scream: Samantha gets a knife through the back of the skull, and it pokes out an eye from behind.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Wendy, if her thrashing was that of a disemboweled woman in agony and not a side effect of becoming another Glitch.
  • Final Girl: Wendy is a subverted example. She is the one responsible for all the deaths, as she lured her friends up to the mountains to use as bait to catch the Glitch.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • The dead pig found by the characters has its intestines draped over the ground, just like what happens to Wendy at the end.
    • Wendy's comment that the Glitch could be in two places at once. At the end, she apparently succeeds in killing the Glitch... only to be attacked and killed by a second Glitch a few moments later.
    • Five-Second Foreshadowing: Samantha's offer to show Spider "something really disgusting" is this considering the Glitch throws a knife through the back of her head seconds later, bordering on Tempting Fate.
  • Gender-Equal Ensemble: Two guys and two girls.
  • Karmic Death: Wendy gets gutted by the Glitch after manipulating her friends into coming up to the mountain as bait to try and capture it.
  • No Name Given: The killer, referred to in the credits simply as "The Glitch".
  • Oh, Crap!: Wendy when she realizes the Glitch has used either Offscreen Teleportation to escape her carefully constructed trap, or that a second Glitch had found her.
  • She Who Fights Monsters: Wendy, who uses her friends as bait in order to kill the Glitch.
  • The Virus: The audio commentary suggests that those killed by the Glitch become Glitches themselves.

    "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" 
  • Alien Abduction: Strongly implied to be the cause of the events, coupled with Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong, given that James removes what looks to be a fetus from Emily's torso, just below the ribs.
  • Body Horror: At first, Emily gets a small bump on her arm, which she suspects is from bruising. Later, she digs inside her arm with a scalpel and a kitchen skewer after suspecting something in there. But the crowning moment has to be the reveal that she's pregnant with alien spawn... and it's heavily implied this isn't the first time. The thing she thought was in her arm was real as well, and is revealed to be a tracking device the aliens put in her.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: James is working with the aliens who are abusing Emily, and is later seen doing the same to at least one other girl.
  • Bookends: The segment with a webcam chat between the title character and James, in which Emily complains about her arm and undresses for the camera. At the end, James switches to a different chat and has almost exactly the same conversation with a different girl, revealing that Emily isn't the only one who has experienced this. Also an example of Here We Go Again!.
  • Creepy Child: The aliens look like this.
  • Downer Ending: James' manipulations convince Emily that she's delusional, and the very end reveals that he and the aliens are experimenting on at least one other woman.
  • Dull Surprise: James. Justified due to the fact that he's in league with the aliens and isn't actually concerned for her.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: James prevents the alien children from killing Emily, though this may be for the sake of avoiding unnecessary police attention. Regardless, it does reveal that he shows some degree of care for her.
  • Gaslighting: James turns out to be in league with the aliens and manages to successfully convince Emily that she's delusional.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Emily is only a little curious when she's fishing around in her arm with a skewer.
  • No Name Given: The aliens.
  • Obliviously Evil: The aliens.
  • Tracking Device: The lump in Emily's arm turns out to be one of these.

    "10/31/98" 
  • The '90s: The segment is set in 1998, and the four friends go out to the Halloween party dressed as contemporary news items, the Unabomber and the Nanny Cam.
  • Alien Geometries: The house has this, and we get to see them actively shift.
  • All Part of the Show: The initial reaction of the protagonists when they stumble upon an exorcism in the attic, gleefully chanting "cast him down!" — until they see the woman get smacked hard. In the alternate ending where they escape, they walk away thinking that everything they saw was just a particularly extreme and badass Halloween attraction.
  • Always Save the Girl: The guys go back to save the poor captive girl. Unfortunately, once they reach a railroad crossing, the favor is not returned.
  • Attack of the Monster Appendage: After the guys "save" the possessed girl from the exorcists, ghostly arms began reaching out of the walls and floor as they carry her out of the house.
  • Demonic Possession: The protagonists stumble upon an exorcism in progress. Thinking that the woman possessed is being held against her will, they try to free her, only to realize that there's a reason she was being held.
  • Downer Ending: The possessed girl causes the group to get trapped in their car on a level crossing and get hit by a train, and she herself is free to wreak havoc on the world.
  • Eldritch Location: The house definitely qualifies thanks to its Alien Geometries.
  • False Innocence Trick: Possibly, if the demon were escaping an exorcism and not an instance of Evil, Inc., Hijacking Cthulhu as in Siren.
  • Foreshadowing: The main characters have to stop at a railroad crossing on the way to the party. On the return trip, the possessed woman they tried to rescue makes the car stall in the middle of the same railroad crossing, causing them to be hit by the oncoming train. They also tease one another about people reaching out of the walls when they start to explore the house, and the guy dressed as a teddy bear nanny-cam finds the same torn-up teddy bear in two different rooms.
  • Meaningful Background Event: There are no on-camera supernatural events for several minutes... except for a chair that seems to follow the cameraman.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The four main characters interrupt an exorcism and "save" the possessed girl, allowing her to go free and kill them all. Given that they came upon four men chanting something weird, surrounding a chained-up girl while one of them held a knife, conclusion-jumping is pretty understandable.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Those guys really shouldn't have gone back to rescue that girl.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: Subverted. The segment starts out with all the supernatural events happening off-camera, to the annoyance of the cameraman. Of course, that's because he thinks they're just haunted house effects.
  • Reality Is Out to Lunch: For a brief but intense sequence, the house becomes the site of a rapid-fire example.


Alternative Title(s): VHS 2012

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