By Geno McGahee
I am a child of the eighties and the video stores bring back fond horror memories. I often watch the SOV horror movies that found their way onto the shelves and it brings me back. When V/H/S came out, it became a hot ticket. It brought back attention to a lost format and presented a decent movie. It was gritty and unique and it spawned two sequels that were also successful. Trying to capitalize on the success of V/H/S is HI-8 (HORROR INDEPENDENT 8). It is shot on HI-8 and has that SOV look, which I love, but unfortunately, my love ended there for this production.
This is advertised as an anthology, but the tales are not connected. The “wraparound” tale just stops and then one of the other stories begins. We begin with a guy filming his own micro-budget film of a running girl being chased by a skull-masked man. Then, we get right into a tale.
SWITCHBLADE INSANE
A loyal wife sticks by her man even though he is a serial killer and rapist. She chronicles the activity by narrating to the camera and following her man around as he attacks and kills the women. She goes into how she was initially against it and wanted to stop it, but she began to understand and she was treated right. There’s a slight twist here in this tale. It was OK. Nothing special. Rating – 4/10
THE TAPE
The tape is the best tale of the bunch. A video store is closing and one of the employees is allowed to take home a box of VHS tapes. There is some commentary that most old school horror fans would agree with that I enjoyed. When the tapes are reviewed, the never released BLOODGASM is found, which looks like a snuff film. The guy becomes obsessed with it and brings his girlfriend to meet the filmmaker behind it and it turns out to be more than a movie. This reminded me a little of VIDEO VIOLENCE, which I love. I liked this one. Rating – 6/10
GANG THEM STYLE
We have a lot of attempts at humor in this one, but none of them work. We have a zombie invasion and the attempted rescue of a bunch of old people from an elderly community. It just tried too hard to be funny. There was some potential in this one, but it just didn’t come together. Rating – 2/10
THE SCOUT
A couple is driving in the desert to scout a location for a movie and then just ad-lib for ten minutes before actually doing anything. The acting is pretty bad, but the very end of the tale was interesting. They had an idea but didn’t know how to get there in a good way. It reminded me of COLD CREEPY FEELING until the end. Rating – 3/10
A VERY BAD SITUATION
We have a bunch of people held up in a garage as aliens take over the world and infect humanity. This one is OK, but it’s rather empty. The character development isn’t there, but the special effects in this one are memorable. Rating – 4/10
THICKER THAN WATER
A jealous girlfriend is pregnant and wants her man to prove his love by killing an ex. This was very simple and forgettable. Rating – 2/10
THE REQUEST
A radio DJ keeps getting an odd call from a woman. It’s a very strange tale with odd dialogue. It doesn’t make you want to smash your TV but it’s not good. Rating – 3/10.
GENRE BENDING
OK, I don’t know where to start on this one…but it’s about a fat girl that is being spied on by some perv when another perv saves her and demands sex as a reward. We then go into lame attempts at humor and we find out the fat girl has a dick. The end. Rating – 0/10
I really wanted to like HI-8 (HORROR INDEPENDENT 8), but it was terrible. I hope that others follow this lead and make films in this old school way, but do it with much better material.
Rating: 2/10
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