I had such a hard time finding this movie last night I almost gave up. I could only find it on Comcast Xfinity when I searched a specific way and when I did, there was no option to rent it in HD. So I ended up purchasing my first rental on YouTube. I paid a dollar extra for HD and the highest quality was 480p. Whatever. At this point I was happy enough to be watching the damn thing.
I got a chance to see V/H/S: Viral, my most anticipated film of this MASSACRE MARATHON tonight at the Philly Film Festival a few days before its actual release. I felt special! I had high hopes for the third installment in the found-footage horror anthology series. There was a decent turnout for such a late showtime. It was time to see if the drive into the city was worth it…
WNUF Halloween Special is a curious work of art. It was made in 2013 but appears to be filmed in 1987. In fact, its grainy appearance is what grants it its charm. It was a very small release, costing only $1,500 to make. The creators wanted to keep it shrouded in anonymity, so they pursued a silent ad campaign consisting of throwing VHS copies out of car windows and dropping off piles of tapes at conventions. The whole entirety of WNUF was supposed to capture the essence of an earlier era of entertainment. While I’m all for a heavy heap of nostalgia, unfortunately this film takes it too far.
Found footage has very quickly become its own genre extremely fast in the horror world. That is why you shouldn’t be surprised that within the first four movies I have watched so far two of them fall into this classification. First, The Sacrament, and now Afflicted. I find myself a sucker for these films. Even though I am well aware that most of them will be plot-less garbage I seem to be drawn to the idea of the first-person fright fest experience. I’m glad Afflicted wasn’t a piece of trash.
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