By As I write this, it has been less than 24 hours since my first experience of V/H/S. For those unaware, the film is an anthology of found-footage horror shorts, and it’s pretty awesome. It’s comprised of six different stories, and although not all of them are great (the framing story especially, entitled “Tape 56,” was pretty bad), there are a lot of cool uses of the found footage style.
So a sequel is happening, which is awesome… assuming they can keep the creativity going. They’re on the right track for that, though, because they’re bringing in mostly new directors to the fold. The only returning director is, unfortunately, Adam Wingard, who directed the aforementioned “Tape 56,” but he’ll be joined by three very interesting choices: Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project), and Gareth Evans (The Raid). There are others involved, but these three are the ones to watch, and most of the focus should be on those last two. Even though it wasn’t the first film of its kind, The Blair Witch Project is certainly the reason for the found footage genre’s modern day existence, so it seems very appropriate its co-directors play a part in the creation of the next V/H/S.
Gareth Evans is more of a wildcard. He is perhaps best known for The Raid, which is a crazy awesome Indonesian martial arts movie, and as far as I can tell, that’s his specialty. Bringing him on board as a co-director of a found footage horror short is strange, but it’s exciting. The easiest way to disrupt the mainstream is to bring in people who have no relation to it. With Evans a part of V/H/S 2, we have the chance for that found footage martial arts ghost-on-ghoul action that nobody has asked for but everyone now realizes they want.
Consider me excited.
[The Hollywood Reporter, via /Film]