This intense V/H/S segment from the director of ‘Pearl’ and ‘X’ shakes me to the core like no other

When the first V/H/S The film was released in 2012, it was a boost for the horror genre. The film wasn’t a box office sensation, but rather a fun playground that allowed some of the best horror filmmakers to come together for an experience combining an anthology film with found footage. It was such a success that it launched a franchise that continues today with the recent V/M/S/Halloween. The original film will always be the best, and while many fans rightly choose “Amateur Night” as the scariest segment, the one that will send chills down your spine and get deep under your skin is You west“Second Honeymoon” by . Forget the monsters and the scares, it’s the disturbing realism that will terrify you.

Many V/H/S segments follow a predictable formula

Horror had some dark times in the 2000s, but in the 2010s it bounced back with hit films like The Conjuring, InsidiousAnd Sinister. V/H/S was there too, lighting a spark by taking two familiar formulas and combining them to create something new. Making an anthology horror film consisting entirely of found footage segments was a brilliant decisionbut if there’s one major criticism of the franchise, it’s that it fell into the lazy trap of doing the same thing over and over again.

Among the best and worst V/H/S sequels, too many segments relied on predictable beats. A director comes up with an interesting idea, only to drop characters into a setting who encounter several jump scares from some sort of monster, then run around screaming with their shaky camera. It can be an attack on the senses in a format where less is supposed to be more. This is exactly why “Second Honeymoon” is so good, because it does the exact opposite of what has become exhausting.

What is “Second Honeymoon” about?

“Second Honeymoon” had the unfortunate task of following “Amateur Night,” which knocked it out of the park with a well-crafted and scary segment. What would it be like to follow something this good? Well, for starters, “Second Honeymoon” had Ti West in the director’s seat. Today he is perhaps best known for films like X, PearlAnd MaXXXinebut by 2012 he was already a rising star thanks to the highly underrated The Devil’s Housea slow-burn nightmare that perfectly recreates the atmosphere of a 1970s film.

In “Second Honeymoon”, we watch home video footage of a young married couple named Sam (Joe Swanberg) and Stephanie (Sophie Takal) who are crossing Arizona for their second honeymoon. At one stop, Stephanie approaches one of those scary psychic robots, which predicts that she will soon find someone she loves. That night, a strange woman (Kate Lyn) knocks on the door of their small motel room asking to be taken away, then is sent away. Then, in the night, the couple’s camcorder turns on, but this time it is not Sam or Stephanie who is holding it but a mysterious intruder who films himself holding a knife and caressing Stephanie with it, before stealing their money.

You might think you know where this is going, but “Second Honeymoon” Ends in a Bloody Twist. The next night, the intruder, wearing a transparent, frightening mask that distorts his features, enters the hotel room again and records on the camera. However, instead of targeting Stephanie, the intruder pulls out a knife and sticks it in Sam’s neck over and overcausing him to slowly die as he drowns in his own blood. It is then revealed that the killer is the woman who knocked on the door. To top it off, she and Stephanie kiss. The bride had always wanted to kill her husband.

“Second Honeymoon” does so much with so little

“Second Honeymoon” is effective on several levels. This segment is a change of tone from the rest of V/H/Swhich features monsters, aliens and the supernatural. It can be scary, sure, but the viewer can also detach and keep the horror away from them because we know it can’t happen in reality. “Second Honeymoon” is so scary because it’s raw and real, with only very human people bearing the brunt of it. There are no scares, no running and screaming with the camera, just a couple talking while they appear to be stalked.

The segment is effective because it builds our expectations before tearing them down. “Second Honeymoon” makes us think that Stephanie is the target of a genre where young women are always the victims. We even have this fortune teller who tells us that she will soon be reunited with a loved one, so we immediately take that to mean that she is going to die. And then, bam, out of nowhere, it’s Sam who gets a knife in the neck. Gore can be over-the-top at times in the V/H/S franchise, but there’s nothing in “Second Honeymoon” until it matters most. Instead of just showing a stream of red stuff, it gushes out of Sam, and we’re forced to listen to him choke on his life fading away.

“Second Honeymoon” is even better on a rewatch, not despite knowing the tricks, but because of it. It takes on a new dimension to see Sam and Stephanie together and to know that we saw it wrong the first time.. We want to scream at him to run away, but we can’t do anything. The story, like a snuff film, has been told before. Our only job as an audience is to catch up and figure it all out. We hear stories like this on the news, now we are forced to watch them unfold with our own eyes, witnessing the unpredictable horror. This will always be more annoying than any fantasy monster and scare tactic.

V/H/S is available for streaming on Prime Video and Hulu in the United States

Release date

October 5, 2012

Runtime

116 minutes

Suite(s)

V/H/S/2, V/H/S/94