13 Best Horror Movies On Shudder Right Now

Found footage is one of those horror sub-genres that can either work really well or really badly, and it can sometimes take a while to figure out which one you’re in for.

V/H/S is an anthology of found footage within a found footage framing device. Some dudes are filming themselves in a spooky house and they find a collection of spooky tapes which they then proceed to watch one by one. It’s a bit like telling urban legends around a campfire, but for the video age.

There’s five stories (tapes) and, much like the subgenre itself, they are hit and miss. Most follow the standard found footage formula of: start out ‘normal’ with lots of actors being ‘natural’ and improv-ing their lines, then build to some Are You Afraid of the Dark? style twist at the end, usually with everyone getting horrifically butchered.

I’d say only two of them are actually close to scary, but it’s a fun concept. As a horror fan there’s something undeniably tantalising about the prospect of another forbidden tape going into the VHS player…