Series Report Card: Godzilla (2024)

38. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Honestly, it wasn't a sure bet. Legendary's "Godzilla" and "Kong: Skull Island" were successful, while falling short of the culture-defining, Marvel-like domination the studio probably hoped for from their monster-filled cinematic universe. "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" was, in fact, a box office disappointment. "Godzilla Vs. Kong" underwent numerous reshoots and delays, enough that I began to wonder if the MonsterVerse was going to collapse during what was meant to be its finest moment. Timing, however, is everything. "Godzilla Vs. Kong" was one of the first major Hollywood releases after the COVID-19 lockdown eased up. It turns out watching a giant gorilla and a big-ass lizard beat the shit out of each other was exactly the kind of escapist entertainment the world needed after a year of real world horrors. The titanic title bout was announced as "saving cinemas." Naturally, Legendary, Warner Brothers, and Toho put their heads together to figure out a sequel. Godzilla and Kong would rumble again. Legendary was so determined to have a repeat of their previous success that they made sure Adam Wingard stayed on as director, making him the first person to direct more than one entry in the MonsterVerse. Three years later, the rematch between Godzilla and King Kong has roared into theaters, with the ungainly title "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire." 

Since the events of their last struggle, Kong has remained down in the Hollow Earth while Godzilla has stayed on the surface, brutally smashing any kaiju that challenges him. An infected tooth forces Kong to the surface, making Monarch worry another confrontation might ensue. Yet something worst is brewing. A strange signal from within the Hollow Earth is effecting the dreams of Jia, the last of the Skull Island natives and the adoptive daughter of Dr. Ilene Andrews. She follows Kong into the Hollow Earth with kaiju conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes, Titan veterinarian Tracker, and Jia. Inside, two civilizations are uncovered. One, a lost tribe of Iwi natives that have mastered the powers of the Hollow Earth. The other is a race of enormous apes, like Kong. They are ruled over by a sadistic tyrant known as the Skar King, who enforces his rule with an ice-spewing Titan known as Shimo. Kong, with Monarch's assistance, seeks to free his kind and prevent the Skar King from invading the surface. And he's going to need Godzilla's help to achieve that, something the thunderous lizard may not be willing to give. 

"Godzilla x Kong's" awkward title points towards its overstuffed, incident-heavy story. Plotting wise, "The New Empire" is a convoluted mess. For much of its runtime, the film is following three or four story threads at once. Kong explores the Hollow Earth, discover his people, and comes into conflict with the Skar King. Monarch is tracking Godzilla across the globe, as the monster charges up his power and battles other beasts. Ilene tags along behind the ape, hoping to figure out what is effecting her daughter so much. Multiple characters are introduced and reintroduced, some of them swiftly being killed off. The plot leaps all over the world, the monsters rumbling in several different cities across multiple continents. There's so many giant beasts in the film that it's a bit tricky to keep track of all of them. By the chaotic last act, so much is happening that I nearly got lost. "Godzilla x Kong" is jam-packed full of stuff happening, to the point that it risks becoming incoherent at times. 

While the mainstream critical press have largely dismissed the film for these reasons, it's hard for me to complain too much about "Godzilla x Kong's" action-heavy plotting. I'm not sure it all makes much sense but who cares when the whole thing is paced like a rocket sled? While most modern, effects filled blockbusters have bloated runtimes that exceed two hours, "The New Empire" runs a comparatively tidy 115 minutes. The movie has so much going on, that it never has time to get boring. Insane ideas right out of a comic book – like anti-gravity generating crystals, Kong having an enormous Power Glove grafted to his hand, or Godzilla morphing into a super strong, super pink new form – are introduced with whiplash inducing frequency. The film simply never stops barreling forward, introducing another dopamine stimulating bit of madness every second. Who can notice any plot holes when you're always cackling with glee? 

And cackle I did. "The New Empire" is even more of a kaiju Royal Rumble than Wingard's previous monster mash. That pro-wrestling comparison isn't just me being colorful. At one point, Godzilla suplexes Kong off the Great Pyramids of Gaza. This is, mind you, after he slayed the crab-beast Scylla with a giant sized Shoryuken earlier in the movie. "Godzilla x Kong" absolutely delights in displaying the fighting prowess and superpowers of his enormous entities. It says a lot about the movie that Kong bludgeoning a fleet of other huge apes with a juvenile giant simian doesn't even rank among the script's most outrageous moments. Finishing moves abound, as Kong literally rips apart numerous giant threats. Skar King whips skyscrapers at our heroes, Shimo freezes half of Rio de Janeiro, and a special kaiju guest star literally flies through the middle of the movie. This is following a zero-G rumble of massive proportions within the Earth's core. It is abundantly clear, every minute of its runtime, that Wingard and his team were having an absolute ball cooking up more and more insane scenarios for these supersized beasts to perform in. "The New Empire" radiates with the joy of a kid slamming his action figures together. 

"Godzilla x Kong's" focus on its monster ensemble beating each other up finally resolves the biggest problem that has repeatedly faced the MonsterVerse projects. The giant beasts are, truly, the stars now. Much of "The New Empire" is a non-verbal, wholly visual epic that tells its story through the body language and facial expressions of its giant beasts. Kong's existential loneliness as the last of his kind is made clear as he travels through the Hollow Earth. His disgust at the Skar King's tyranny is visible on his grunting face. An influence from Hong Kong martial arts cinema is felt, as we learn more about the creatures through their fighting styles. The Skar King's lanky posture, somersaults, and choke holds speak to his duplicitous nature. Kong's mixture of booby traps and brute strength shows his intelligent but direct style of combat. Godzilla, meanwhile, always goes for the direct approach, usually running right into his enemies. "Godzilla x Kong's" commitment to visual storytelling is such that you could probably cut the humans entirely out of this film and still be able to largely follow it. Unlike the frantically edited, overwhelming chaos of the "Transformers" franchise or the increasingly same-y CGI hodgepodges of superhero movies, this film feels almost experimental in its focus on telling as much of its story strictly through its non-speaking giant beasties. "Godzilla" fans have long dreamed of a movie starring the King of the Monsters without any humans in it at all. "The New Empire" comes as about as close to that goal as might be possible. 

However, there are people in the film. Even if 85% of it is made up of CGI monsters throttling each other, this is still technically a live action movie starring flesh-and-blood humans. Being the lowly mortal hero in a "Godzilla" movie has always been a somewhat thankless job and that's never been more clear than it is here. With Kong essentially functioning as the protagonist throughout the film, the human cast go with two distinct approaches. The first is bare minimum effort. Rebecca Hall as Ilene does get an actual character arc, of worrying about Jia and what decision she'll make. However, Hall spends the whole movie in a state of vaguely worried anxiety, never giving the role much energy. When the script reduces her to delivering a heaping ream of exposition about the history of the monsters and their conflict, she sounds audibly bored. The other direction the actors go in is over-the-top hamminess. Dan Stevens plays Trapper as a pseudo philosophical surfer dude type, seeming continuously in awe of everything around him and never getting down about the end-of-the-world stakes. Stevens is definitely having a good time playing such a cartoon character. Brian Tyree Henry is basically the movie's comic relief as Bernie, a ridiculous character who exists to react to everything with oversized fear. It's borderline annoying but Bernie is never the focus of a scene too long, so it's alright. Most of the rest of the cast either get killed by the monsters or literally don't talk. 

So, yes, King Kong is the proper hero of this film. His search for companionship drives the story. He's a giant gorilla Moses, arriving to free his people – or apes rather – from cruel subjugation. Wingard's previous Kaiju brawl openly compared Kong to Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon." The action movie star energy continues to resonate here. Kong is as beefy as Arnold was at his peak. He runs and dives behind pyramids like Bruce Willis in "Die Hard." When a haughty henchman gets in his face, he lays the ape out in a way that recalls Seagal. More than any other, Kong resembles Stallone as Rocky or Cobra, an uncompromising murder machine one minute and a weirdly warm average joe the next. He can conquer any foe with brutal strength but also gets his lunch stolen by Doug, the goofball giant lizard. Unstoppable hero but also slovenly everyman/ape, constantly getting the shit kick out of him but always triumphing in the end, the film creates an undeniably lovable hero out of Merion C. Cooper's eighty year old beast. 

This aligns the giant gorilla with a generation of father-like figures to anybody who grew up on eighties pop culture. Kong radiates Dad vibes throughout, even taken a shower in a waterfall to wash off the guts of an enemy at one point. I practically expected him to pop open a giant sized beer after that. All of this is fitting, since "The New Empire" sees the gorilla become an adoptive dad of sorts. Clearly paying homage to "Son of Kong," the sequel introduces a smaller Kong for the king to bond with. Identified in the credits as Suko, the ape is given giant, yearning eyes. His body language suggests a battered kid who is nevertheless eager to show his bravery. That makes Suko a little scrapper, who is introduced trying to shank Kong but quickly becomes attached to the big guy. That fearlessness, an ability to keep going even when everything seems bleak, is a trait that he shares with his adoptive dad. Kong and Suko's growing relationship clearly mirrors Ilene's bond with Jia and completes the gorilla's arc of trying to find others like him. 

Something "The New Empire" is really setting out to do is expand Kong's narrative. For most of his existence, the great ape has been defined by the same story, of being taken from his homeland and dying in a strange city. The MonsterVerse has freed Kong of this narrative. Unlike Godzilla, who has had many adventures and an extensive rogues gallery, Kong hasn't had much to fight outside of some persistent theropods. "The New Empire" gives Kong a supervillain of his own, in the form of the vile Skar King. The character is set up as Kong's intrinsic opposite. He's long and lean, where Kong is stout and buff. Kong's fur is dark black. Skar King is bright red. Kong fights his own battles, whole Skar King calls own Shimo – which he controls through magical torture, it must be noted – whenever he starts to loose a fight. While Kong is content to remain in the Hollow Earth, Skar King wants to expand his empire. The film does a wonderful job of emphasizing just how evil this big monkey is. He chuckles with sadistic glee, points and laughs at his enemies. Everything about how he's animated and acted gives off a deceitful, villainous vibe. Shimo, meanwhile, is like an attack dog, an innocent animal forged into a weapon by cruelty. She joins the Indominus Rex in the league of eerily pale reptilian antagonists but is ultimately redeemable, where the Skar King is a slave-driving villain through and through. 

But what of the other half of the title match-up? This might be more of a Kong vehicle but Godzilla still gets top billing. While Kong clearly has a complicated inner life here, Godzilla is treated much more like a straight-forward force of nature. The giant, radioactive lizard is driven by his desire to remain the Alpha Titan and will literally swim half-way across the world to smack down anyone who dares challenges his authority. This, surprisingly, has the result of making Godzilla a lovable bastard, a pure hater who simply wants nothing more than to pummel his opponents. We see this when he seeks out another Titan – the aquatic Tiamat, who has a cool, ribbon like fin around her neck – simply to steal more of her power. This need to dominate anyone who doesn't submit to him is paired with a very cat-like attitude. After tearing Scylla apart, Godzilla curls up in the Colosseum and takes a nap. He swats at jets like they are mice. He sneers at helicopters in contempt. You can't help but love the guy, no matter how big of an asshole he is. Like a typically selfish cat, this is just Godzilla's nature and all we can do is love him for it, as judging him for it will do nothing. It's a fun take on the character.

We are five films deep into the MonsterVerse. Yet it really wasn't until the last installment that the films started to feel like part of a bigger universe. "The New Empire" digs even deeper into this, in a way that allows for another star kaiju to appear half-way through. The world is really stated to feel fully flesh out now, to the point that crazy sci-fi tech existing or another monster being alluded to are taken for granted. My favorite element of the world-building here is how fantastical the Iwi colony inside the Hollow Earth is. They communicate via telekinesis. They carry spears made of pure crystal. They've harvested the otherworldly environment around them to create miraculous tech, like forcefields or anti-gravity. It feels very alien but is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner. These wacky ideas are introduced, they exist in this world, and we as a viewer just have to go with it. This freewheeling style of sci-fi/fantasy storytelling has always been commonplace in the Japanese "Godzilla" films and I love that the American ones have picked up on it. All of these touches do a lot more to make this shared universe feel like a fully formed, comic book universe of its own than all ten hours of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" managed. 

As with the last film, "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire" belongs more to a grander tradition of giant monster movies and Showa sci-fi than to any one director. This is a King Kong and Godzilla movie first, an Adam Wingard film second. However, the director's influence can still be felt. His love of neon, synthwave visuals continue here, this time via the otherworldly portals and lava-heated caverns of the Hollow Earth. Even Godzilla's power-up, his eyes and spines shimmering with hot pink energy, seems influenced by this aesthetic. Wingard is informed here by the monster movies, action flicks, cartoons, toys, comic books, and rock videos he grew up loving. This is especially true of the soundtrack, which is filled out with multiple Dad rock favorites. While you can say most of these choices are copied from James Gunn's playbook – not an altogether unfair accusation – I still can't deny that Kiss or Loverboy kicking up on the soundtrack made me smile. (The needle drops are certainly far more memorable than Tom Holkenborg's score. Which is totally serviceable but is seriously lacking in the powerful, recognizable themes that highlight any good "Godzilla" movie soundtrack.) 

The MonsterVerse has come a long way from the grim realism of Gareth Edward's "Godzilla." The series now embraces a highly entertaining mixture of Showa era absurdity, where just about anything can happen, with the more grounded, manga-like tone of the Heisei films. All with a Hollywood studio mega-budget that allows for spellbinding visuals and a massive sense of scale that grants these cinematic icons the sense of grandeur they deserve while respecting their legacy as camp icons. The comparison to the thoughtful, humane drama of Toho's most recent "Godzilla" film will do the sugar-high chaos of this one no favors. I'm not surprised most of the negative reviews have unfavorably brought up "Godzilla Minus One." Yet there's room in this world for many different approaches to Godzilla and his super-sized pals. "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire" is an exceedingly loud, chaotic, and goofy motion picture that I found immensely entertaining. [Grade: B+]

Series Report Card: Godzilla (2021)

36. Godzilla Vs. Kong

In 1991, Toho wanted to remake "King Kong Vs. Godzilla" but the complicated legal rights surrounding Kong made this impossible. These same issues would keep cinema's two most iconic giant monsters apart for fifty years. It would take the machinations of Hollywood's hunger for cinematic universes to make it happen again. Legendary Pictures – in partnership with Warner, Universal, and Toho – was determined to make "Godzilla Vs. Kong." Indie horror specialist Adam Wingard, gifted a mega-sized budget, was drafted to direct. Following multiple delays, due to reshoots following the underperformance of Legendary's "Godzilla" sequel and the COVID pandemic, the massive monster showdown is finally in theaters and on TVs. It's a rematch kaiju fanatics have been hungry for their entire lives but was it worth the wait? 

Sometime after the events of "Kong: Skull Island," the immense gorilla has been captured and kept in a holographic recreation of his home island by MONARCH. This is out of Dr. Illene Andrews' fear that, if Kong was out in the wild, Godzilla would inevitably hunt him down. Meanwhile, Godzilla attacks Apex Cybernetics seemingly unprovoked. Apex CEO Walter Simmons reaches out to Dr. Nathan Lind to find a way into the Hollow Earth, the mythical origin point of the Titans and home to a new power source. It's ultimately decided that Kong will be used to lead the way to Hollow Earth. This attracts Godzilla's attention and the two alphas are soon warring for supremacy. Meanwhile, Madison Russell – returning from "King of the Monsters" – partners with a conspiracy theorist to uncover Apex's horrible secrets. It all leads to a massive showdown in Hong Kong. 

First off, Godzilla fans should know that "Godzilla Vs. Kong" is more of a King Kong movie. The enormous gorilla, the biggest he's ever been in any movie, motivates most of the story. His empathic connection with humans is emphasized more than ever. Deaf little girl Jia, the last survivor of Skull Island's native tribes, communicates with him via sign language. Kong, unexpectedly, emerges as an underdog hero beset by challenges who only desires to return to his ancestral home lands. Godzilla is rendered as a largely unfeeling, unknowable animal driven by instincts. Considering how much personality the previous Legendary films gave Godzilla, it's a little disappointing. At the same time, Godzilla has had 35 films to his name while Kong only has eight-ish. So I guess it's a fair trade. 

In a far shorter amount of time, Legendary's Godzilla series has undergone a similar transformation as Toho's sixties movies. In 2014, Garett Edwards attempted to create the most realistic Godzilla movie possible, obviously indebted to Ishiro Honda's grim original vision. Wingard's sequel, meanwhile, has far more in common with the high-camp of the later Showa period. "Godzilla Vs. Kong's" plot is absolutely ludicrous. It involves an entirely new biosphere existing inside the Earth, sci-if hovercrafts, an ill-defined magical power source, a giant battle axe, and telekinetic kaiju bones that take possession of a Titan-sized robot. The story is so elaborately ridiculous that Godzilla boring a tunnel into the Hollow Earth with his nuclear breath isn't even in the top five silliest things that happen in this movie.

Of course, the disregard for grounded science and outrageous content is what made those sixties and seventies Godzilla movies so much fun. They were child-like in their gleeful surrealism. Wingard's film comes a lot closer to capturing that "anything can happen" atmosphere than I expected. Halfway through the movie, a light show in the style of "2001's" stargate sequence occurs. Kong floats through the air because of Hollow Earth's wacky gravity. Any connection to our actual world has long been severed. This allows moments like a battleship being flipped through the ocean multiple times or the simple application of some spilled alcohol destroying a complex computer to go down a lot easier.

A reoccurring criticism of Legendary's MonsterVerse films has been directed at the human characters. The first "Godzilla" had boring, wooden leads. I thought "King of the Monsters" got around this by filling its cast with lovable character actors and letting them do their thing. A lot of people still weren't satisfied. "Godzilla Vs. Kong" dispenses totally with any concerns about its cast. The puny humans are irrelevant to the movie's point. Bernie Hayes, the conspiracy theorist, is the goofiest kind of comic relief and given the most absurd dialogue. Madison Russell is reduced to a rebellious teenage archetype, gifted her own clownish comic relief in the form of a nerdy sidekick. The villains are cartoonishly evil. Dr. Andrews and Dr. Lind have the tiniest specks of emotional arcs. Only Kong's bond with his child companion, played by Kaylee Hottle, makes much of an impression. 

Nobody goes to see a movie named "Godzilla Vs. Kong" for the human subplots and Wingard and his team clearly understand that. Yet it is a little frustrating that, after the prior MonsterVerse movies took time to establish how humanity is affected by these enormous monsters stomping around, that this film reduces everyone to the simplest of roles. The cast is given so little to work with. Alexander Skarsgård has a winning smile and one or two funny moments but is given nothing else to work with. Rebecca Hall and Kyle Chandler, reduced to a bit part, do nothing but spout silly exposition. Brian Tyree Henry, Demián Bichir, Eiza González, and Julia Dennison – all talented performers – play their roles in campy manners that are somewhat distracting. Millie Bobby Brown probably gets it the worst. The character of Madison is almost unrecognizable from her last appearance and Brown is clearly at a loss with how to enliven such a routine part. 

Director Adam Wingard, who once made a whole movie for 2,000 dollars, clearly is not put off by switching focus from human matters to giant CGI monster fights. All of the visual and aural trademarks that defined his previous features are present here. In fact, the love of neon lighting shown in his other movies is pushed to an entirely new level here. The penultimate battle in Hong Kong is lit almost exclusively by searing pinks, golds, blues and reds. Wingard takes any excuse he can to get those bright colors in the film, whether it be the interior of a secret lab or a sketchy Chinese restaurant. The director also includes some of his beloved needle drops. Familiar tunes by Bobby Vinton, Elvis, Judas Priest, and the Hollies stand in contrast to the monster movie mayhem. (The score, by Junkie XL, features some of Wingard's beloved synth alongside Ifukube-style orchestral choruses.)

The big budget and heavy use of CGI allows Wingard to push his visual style into directions he never has before. The camera swoops along with the monsters and characters as they swing and fall through cities or underground tunnels. As Godzilla and Kong tussle around a fleet of battleships, spinning up and around the waves, the camera follows them. At one point, the hover crafts even glide around Kong's face and roaring mouth. In these moments, “Godzilla Vs. Kong” feels as much like an amusement park ride – one of those 3-D motion rides – as it does a movie. While sometimes exhilarating, this approach is also occasionally a bit tricky to follow. The movie is zooming along so fast, the viewer sometimes looses track of what's happening exactly.

Yet, when you get down to it, “Godzilla Vs. Kong” doesn't skimp on the massive monster movie action. Godzilla's huge tail cleaves battleships in two with ease. Kong and his reptilian opponent deliver roundhouses and bitch slaps of gigantic size to each other. The acrobatic gorilla swings around buildings and gets his arms around his enemy's neck, with Godzilla delivering at least one of his trademark judo flips to his hairy opponent. Wingard often directs the movie like it's a titanic sized pro-wrestling match. Monsters slam each others' faces into skyscrapers like they are turnbuckles. In all this massive carnage, the film even finds time for some classical Kong action. When he encounters an enormous cobra-bat in the belly of the Hollow Earth, he swings it around by his tail. It's gloriously silly and highly entertaining stuff.

One of the most consistently entertaining things about “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” was the clear affection the film had for the history of Toho's “Godzilla” series. “Godzilla Vs. Kong” doesn't have that level of callbacks or in-jokes. However, there were still a few moments that made me cheer. The best of which is when Kong recreates the most iconic moment from Toho's original “King Kong Vs. Godzilla” with the handle of his massive battle axe. Some of the movie's plot points directly resemble events from the Heisei “Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah” or “King Kong Lives.” Most surprising of all is an amusingly random shout-out to, of all things, “Lethal Weapon 2.” 

The biggest nugget for classic kaiju fans is, technically, a spoiler. Or it would be, if the last round of trailers and merchandise hadn't spoiled it for everybody. Yes, MechaGodzilla is in this movie. Compared to the skillful redesigns of the classic monsters seen in the previous Legendary films, I don't love this take on MechaGodzilla as much. The robotic kaiju has an overall boxy look to his appearance. This is especially noticeable when you look at his spines, which are very rectangular. His arms seem disproportionately long and awkward when compared to his organic counterpart. I also wished the Legendary MechaGodzilla shared some of the special attacks and superpowers of the Toho version. Still, I can't complain too much. There's a robotic version of Godzilla in a big budget Hollywood movie. He sails across a city with his jet-pack and clotheslines King Kong. I never thought I'd see that. 

Obviously, “Godzilla Vs. Kong” is not one of those kaiju movies with an especially vivid sociopolitical message. Yet even a “Godzilla” movie this goofy can't avoid the ideas that characterizes so many of these films. Before the end credits roll, the main villain reveals his motivation: To put mankind back atop the food chain. To reclaim control over the natural world. Of course, he learns a big lesson: That the natural forces of the world – and the giant monsters that represents her – cannot be so easily tamed. Mankind, no matter how powerful we think we are, are ultimately at the mercy of the planet we so often abuse. Godzilla, and all his cohorts, are here to put us in our place. 

Ultimately, a movie about Godzilla and King Kong fighting could not be more my kind of thing. Obviously, I am predisposed to enjoy a movie like this. Truthfully, I have loved every one of Legendary's MonsterVerse movie to varying degrees. I can't not love a movie where King Kong and Godzilla beat the shit out of each other. That finds a satisfying way to give the title bout a definitive winner without pissing off either camp too much. Yet I do wish Wingard and his team found a way to tell this highly entertaining, wonderfully ridiculous story in a way that didn't disregard the human element quite so much. Nevertheless, I do hope Legendary can give us more stories of this type, further Kong adventures if not another Godzilla feature. It just makes me really happy that these fantastic characters are back in movie theaters again. [Grade: B+]

Director Report Card: Adam Wingard (2017)

10. Death Note

Anime and manga, here in America, has gone from being a niche product to being more-or-less mainstream. “My Hero Academia” outsells most American comics and you can buy “Attack on Titan” t-shirts at Walmart. Yet attempts by U.S. filmmakers to translate Japanese animation into Hollywood blockbusters have been largely unsuccessful. “Dragonball: Evolution” was instantly despised. “Speed Racer” is beloved now but was a critical and commercial flop when new. “Battle Angel” immediately developed a cult following but didn't make a lot of money. The same year “Ghost in the Shell” came out to complete indifference from everyone, Adam Wingard would adapt “Death Note” for Netflix.

Before we go any further, I should probably tell you that I have no familiarity with “Death Note.” I've never read any of the manga. I've never seen any of the anime or previous Japanese movies. The closest experience I've had with the “Death Note” brand, prior to this review, was a time a dude at my college wasted all the ink in the printer by printing out pages of the manga. The only reason I even know what the comic/show is about is through cultural osmosis and reading up on it a little when Shane Black was attached to direct this movie version. So I sat down to watch Wingard's “Death Note” being basically all-but-entirely-ignorant about the source material.  

Here is my "Death Note" novice summation of the movie's plot: Light is a smart but frequently bullied teenager. He and his cop father are still traumatized by the murder of his mother. One day, a mysterious black book falls out of the sky next to Light. Upon holding it, he sees visions of Ryuk, a demonic spectre of death. Ryuk informs Light that, if he writes a person's name in the book, they will die just as he described. He quickly uses this book to murder notorious criminals around the world, crediting the deaths to an entity named "Kira." (Sometimes at the urging of his slightly sociopathic girlfriend, Mia.) This draws the attention of a brilliant detective known as only "L." As Light and L attempt to uncover each other's identities, the boy soon learns Ryuk is not to be trusted.

The most interesting thing about Wingard's "Death Note" is how it thematically connects to his previous work. Like "Pop Skull," it's the story of a disaffected young man falling to murderous urges for somewhat understandable reasons. Like "The Guest," it's a film about wish fulfillment with a horrible price. The power of the Death Note allows Light to change the world. I think we've all had idle fantasies like that, of how things would be different if some horrible person just dropped dead. Yet Light learns that the consequences of such power might be more than he can handle. Much like how David's true murderous nature was revealed in "The Guest," it soon becomes clear that the wish fulfillment Ryuk promises comes at a terrible price. Playing with the idea of getting what you think you want might actually suck is an idea that obviously intrigues Wingard.

Unfortunately, "Death Note" has a lot of problems around that nugget of an interesting idea. Condensing a twelve-volume manga/37-episode TV show into a single movie was always going to be problematic. Wingard's film sometimes gets tangled up in attempting to summarize the series' lore. Such as when it comes to the convoluted rules of the Death Note's power or the mysterious origins of L. Mostly, the movie rushes through the development of "Kira." Over the course of a few montages, we see Light and Mia's alter ego rise to almost cult-like power. While a mysterious force bumping off criminals around the world probably would earn a religious-like following, the movie leading us to that point over the course of a few scenes is not satisfying. 

This is not the only part of the story that feels rushed-through or underdeveloped. The romance between Light and Mia never feels very convincing. The two bond immediately over Light's murderous hobby, which is hard to believe. This makes it clear that Mia is unhinged, leaving the audience waiting for the inevitable moment she turns on Light. Despite that, the script still tries to build a genuine romance around these two. They declare their love for one another and kiss in the rain. Once again, the film rushes through stuff by isolating most of their romantic moments to montages. The result is we never actually care about this relationship we are told is important. This leaves much of the second half's tension, about the two betraying each other, utterly inert. 

It doesn't help that the performances do not allow the viewer an emotional way into the story. Nat Wolff has mostly starred in Y.A. adaptations like "Fault in Our Stars" or "Paper Town." (And did a stint as a Nickelodeon sitcom star/pop idol.) Light is his darkest role yet and he seems utterly unprepared for it. He mostly plays the magical vigilante as a petulant teenager, self-assured in his morals but pissy about his emotions. Margaret Qualley – Andie McDowell's daughter – plays Mia as a psychotic Manic Pixie Dream Girl, her quirkiness manifesting ad dead-eyed sociopathy. Shea Whigham, as Light's dad, embodies both worn-out movie stereotypes about cops and dads. 

Since "Death Note" is trying to condense a nineteen-hour story into 100 minutes, the romance and intrigue between Light and Mia is not the only thing it occupies itself with. Large swathes of the story is devoted to the cat-and-mouse game between Light and L. This too is never really convincing. L never seems to do much in the way of actual detective works. He seems to deduce, with very little evidence, that Light is Kira. On Light's end, he mostly uses the mind-control properties of the Death Note – did I mention it can do that? – to manipulate L's handler into revealing his true name. That shifts the focus from the conflict between these guys to the arbitrary time limits set by the story's contrivances. It's not until the two are chasing after each other do you feel like they actually have much in the way of a conflict. 

And let's talk about L. He's a totally ridiculous character. His intelligence is shown mostly through him just knowing stuff, instead of through the applications of any skills. He's more characterized by his bizarre behavior. He constantly scarfs sweets. He covers himself with his hoodie. He's entirely dependent on his handler, Mr. Watari, even to the point where he has to sing him to sleep every night. Without Watari, L collapses into a nervous mess. LaKeith Stanfeild, obviously a very talented actor, plays him in the most over-the-top and annoying fashion possible. L gives the impression of an overgrown man-child with a knack for crime fighting. Which stems, not from actual character growth, but a conspiratorial backstory. I'm just going to say it: I think L is a really dumb character and I hate him. Everything about him, from his silly code name on down, feels like a child's idea of what a genius should be.

"Death Note" was really the first time Adam Wingard graduated from his indie movie roots to big studio productions. To give you a shift in scale here, this movie was made with eight times the amount of money "Blair Witch" was made with. (Which, itself, costed much more than any of Wingard's previous films.) Adapting his style to such a larger canvas comes with some growing pains. The use of neon color that was present in "The Guest" returns here, especially during the night time set last act. The slow motion that also cropped up in "You're Next" reappears here as well. In that film, this technique was used sparingly to punctuate a few moments. Here, it's overused to hammy effect. A cop car smashing through a glass booth in slow-mo during an already overheated chase is silly, not stylish.

Perhaps it's not surprising that "Death Note's" best moments, when it most feels abreast of the director's prior work, is when it becomes a grisly horror movie. In the manga and anime, Light's main method of murder is a simple heart attack. In the movie, he engineers elaborately gory execution. A ladder swinging off a speeding vehicle graphically cuts someone's head off. A fall from a building or a collision with an armored truck turns people into splattering giblets. Perhaps it's juvenile but it looks cool. And it's the only time the film feels really engaging. Wingard's horror roots show through in the finale, set aboard a collapsing Ferris wheel, and the treatment of Ryuk. Wingard keeps the spiny bondage demon mostly to the shadows. When combined with Willem DaFoe's ominous croak, it makes for a creepy, intimidating villain. 

Another way you can tell this is an Adam Wingard movie is how it sounds. Superstar composer Atticus Ross was recruited to provide Wingard with another John Carpenter-inspired electronic score. And it's pretty cool, as far as these go. The pulsating synth provides most of the tension during the film's various foot chase. Yet the director's other musical trademark – contrasting emotion-heavy pop music with scenes of mayhem – really fails him here. The most dramatic moment of the Ferris wheel set piece is scored to Air Supply's "The Power of Love." Considering how the melodramatic emotions of the scene, and how unconvincing the love story was up to this point, a sappy song choice like that feels like a joke.

Unsurprisingly, "Death Note" would receive vitriolic reactions from fans of the anime. Before it even came out, the movie was wrapped up in the same whitewashing controversy that derailed "Ghost in the Shell." (A better movie than this one, for whatever that's worth.) Hardcore fans were appalled by the changes made to the source material, to the point that "the Netflix version" has since become shorthand among anime fans for a half-assed live action adaptation. I wish I could say the fans were just being prickly about this one but, speaking as someone who has zero attachment to "Death Note," I have to say this is a subpar movie. Netflix claims it was a success and a sequel is supposedly in development. It looks like Wingard is opting out of that, which is probably a good idea. [Grade: C]

Despite his two studio efforts thus far paling in comparison to his indie work, Adam Wingard continues to get high-profile gigs. Of course, his next movie – and biggest budget yet – is the long-delayed "Godzilla Vs. Kong." Obviously, I'm very excited for that one and was going to review it anyway, which is part of why I decided to go ahead and do this retrospective. Early buzz on the kaiju tussle has been positive, so I'm cautiously optimistic that Wingard will finally make a good big budget movie. He already has his next projects lined-up after that: a sequel/reboot of "Face/Off" and a feature adaptation of “ThunderCats.”

It is interesting that Wingard is the only "munblegore" director to really make the leap to big budget filmmaking. His work was always a lot more commercial than some of his compatriots. That back-and-forth between that sensibility and his grittier roots have led to an inconsistent filmography but I'm intrigued to see him continue to grow. Hopefully, his upcoming studio movies are better than "Death Note." 

Director Report Card: Adam Wingard (2016)

9. Blair Witch

In 2015, it was announced that Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett were collaborating on a new project, entitled “The Woods.” The film was very mysterious, with only a vague synopsis released beforehand. Based solely on my love for “The Guest,” I put the new film on my list of most anticipated projects for the year, even if I knew nothing about it. At the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, we learned why info on this new project was being so closely guarded. “The Woods” was actually “Blair Witch,” a brand new sequel to the original “Blair Witch Project.” It was a great surprise, a genius marketing move that counteracted the natural skepticism that greets the announcement of any new reboot. The surprise announcement actually raised a considerable amount of hype, which might've worked against “Blair Witch” in the long run.

Ignoring the meta narrative of “Book of Shadows,” this “Blair Witch” is a direct sequel to the original. When Heather Donahue disappeared in 1994, she left behind a little brother named James. Twenty years later, he's now an aspiring filmmaker himself. When mysterious footage, found in the Burkittsville woods, is posted to Youtube – seemingly showing a female figure – he becomes inspired to investigate. Along with a pack of friends – best friend Peter, his girlfriend Ashley, and mutual friend Lisa – they drive up to meet two local Blair Witch fanatics, Talia and Lane. They soon hide into the same forest Heather disappeared in. Soon enough, James and his friends begin to experience the same bizarre phenomenon, capturing it all on their cameras. 

The scariest thing about the original “Blair Witch Project” wasn’t the disorienting camera work, the lore built up around the titular entity, or the suggestion that the whole thing was real. It was the way the film emphasized a simple fear: Getting lost in the woods. Wingard’s “Blair Witch” definitely understands this, to a degree. The forest location - looking very lush and green in color, in contrast to the original’s stark black-and-white - is large and imposing. Once the characters are adrift in the trees, it becomes very easy to believe they won't be coming back out again. They feel alone out there and, in its best moments, "Blair Witch" understands that sense of forested isolation. 

The problem with Wingard's "Blair Witch" is, for every smart move it makes, it makes a misstep. The original "Blair Witch Project" was one camera, one camera person, the entire time. This further built up the illusion that the movie was genuine found footage, creating full immersion in the story. This "Blair Witch," however, cuts constantly between multiple cameras. I hate it when found footage do this. It's cheating. How are we supposed to believe the footage is "found" if someone's clearly edited it together from different sources? Does the Witch have a copy of Adobe Premiere out there in the woods?

Of course, the real reason "Blair Witch" utilizes multiple cameras is it was a 5-million-dollar studio production, not a 20,000-dollar underground film made by college students. It was shot in British Columbia, not in the actual hills of Maryland. (Something anybody who's ever actually been to Burkittsville will notice.) This allows the movie to explore some of the bigger concepts the original could only hint at. Such as the sense of temporal displacement the characters experience in the woods. That plays a big role here. Hours pass quickly and nights stretch on forever. People disappear for an hour but it's felt like days to them. Honestly, it's a cool idea the sequel hammers a little too hard. Despite the constant discussion of time being disturbed, the viewer never actually feels out-of-sorts. 

The bigger budget also allows for far more elaborate special effects. A moment much touted in the trailers has the campers' tents being snapped off the ground and pulled into the air. The horrors only suggested by the original are depicted here in full CGI. The makers of this "Blair Witch" could afford to fill an entire forest clearing with stick men of varying sizes. (Which, perhaps, lacks the subtly the original execution had.) They could also show what happens when one of those stick men is broken, a person snapped in half at the same time the twigs are. 

One could argue that, perhaps, bodily dismemberment and computer generated monsters doesn't have much to do with what made the original "Blair Witch." And they'd be right. But, occasionally, Wingard and his team do engineer a scary moment. A hiker injuring their foot early on becomes a reoccurring concern, resulting in some cringe-inducing scenes involving infections and pus. "Blair Witch" has excellent sound design and this is important. The scariest scenes, the ones that most invoke the original, involve isolated characters beset by unsettling sounds. A chase through the dark woods, a noisy interruption in a tent, or a shaky climb of a tree manage to generate some suspense. Largely thanks to the shrieking sounds of the unknown just off-screen.  

Yet Wingard's "Blair Witch" faces a problem that also plagued the original. How do you make people wandering around, lost in the woods, cinematic? Wingard and Barrett up the cast from three principal characters to six. As in the original, inevitably conflicts emerge among the cast during such a stressful scenario. Yes, there are scenes devoted to assholes arguing in the woods. The reveal that Blair Witch fanboy Lane faked at least some of the spooky shit that happens early on further pushes a wedge between the team. Unlike the original, where these interactions felt like genuine panic, these moments feel like totally deliberate attempts to escalate circumstances. 

The truth is I never care about any of these characters. The movie tries. Josh is haunted by the disappearance of his sister and this drives him further into the woods. In the end, it's what convinces him to go into the Witch's lair. Yet the other characters are cyphers at best. The pre-camping trip scenes, of the gang hanging out in a bar or goofing off in their hotel room, do not invoke much empathy. These scenes exist more to establish bear minimum relationships - Peter and Ashley are boyfriend/girlfriend, Josh and Lisa have UST - and introduce gimmicks like the camera drone. All of this stuff will be important later but it never gets us emotionally involved in the story. 

When you read the behind-the-scenes story behind "Blair Witch," you see that Wingard and Barrett were preoccupied with making the sequel as scary as possible. Ignoring that the original functioned more on atmosphere than scares, they pack "Blair Witch" with a lot of jump scares. And as his segment in "V/H/S/2" proved, Wingard is not very good at jump scares. Repeatedly, he has people leap out of the shadows at someone, accompanied by a loud noise on the soundtrack. The sequel does this so much that one of the characters even asks someone that they stop doing that. It's a cheap way to constantly make the viewer jump and quickly grows annoying. 

Worst yet, "Blair Witch" indulged in a cliche of the found footage genre that the "V/H/S" films pointedly avoided. While running through the woods, on several occasions, the cinematography lapses into incoherent shaky-cam. Why would a (comparatively) big budget sequel that breaks the one-camera rule of found footage so much delve into motion-sickness-inducing shaky vision? One can only assume it was a deliberate move, another way to induce confusion and hopefully panic in the viewer. It doesn't work and, instead, sticks out badly. 

Yet even this is not the worst mistake "Blair Witch" makes. As Josh and Lisa return to the house glimpsed in the original's conclusion, "Blair Witch" started to suck me in. There's some claustrophobic thrills in a scene where Lisa is trapped in an underground tunnel. The film smartly brings things around, to the found footage discovered in the sequel's first scene. Just as things are ramping up and I was thinking maybe this would work, "Blair Witch" does the unthinkable: It actually shows the Witch. Completely violating the "fear of the unseen" principle that the original was built on, we get a look at a blurry and long-limbed entity. This is even after a character says you'll drop dead if you look directly at the Witch. I get wanting to satisfy that curiosity but actually revealing the Witch, the definition of a villain never meant to be seen, so completely misunderstands everything that made the original effective. (Barrett would later try to claim this entity wasn't the Witch but come on. An early scene even references Elly Kedward having her limbs stretched.) 

In the run-up to the "Blair Witch's" release, Wingard and Barrett would talk about how they got many reboot offers after "You're Next." (He was within inches of directing the "Halloween" reboot, for one example.) It's easy to see why they would choose to helm "Blair Witch," considering the obvious influence it had on their "V/H/S" contributions. Despite both clearly being big fans, it's surprising that their "Blair Witch" seems to miss some the point of the original. The sequel still more than made back its budget at theaters but proved a disappointment to Liongates. Perhaps the Blair Witch wasn't as relevant in 2014, after twenty years of rip-offs and would-be successors. Maybe the public was still burned by "Book of Shadows." I think there's a way to successfully reinvent the iconic brand but it should involve returning to the zero budget, guerrilla production roots. Trying to retrofit "Blair Witch" into a traditional studio found footage flick, instead of remembering what made the original special, is why this "Blair Witch" is ultimately a failure. [Grade: C+]

Director Report Card: Adam Wingard (2014)

8. The Guest

When I first saw it, I really liked “You're Next” but it took me a couple of re-watches to really learn to love it. Either way, the film absolutely put Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett on my radar. (And the “V/H/S” films made me pay even more attention to them.) Still, I went into “The Guest” with few expectations. Which was, perhaps, the best way to meet the movie. I found an even more pleasantly surprising genre experiment than I did with their previous movies. This was, in fact, the overwhelming reaction to “The Guest,” which ended up being a big hit with longtime fans of cult cinema in 2014. 

Caleb Peterson died while overseas in the Middle East. The death has left his mom Laura traumatized, with his younger siblings Luke and Anna trying to move on the best they can. Out of the blue one day, David stops by the home. He claims to be a recently discharged war buddy of Caleb's. He has arrived to bring a message of dying love from Caleb to his family. David immediately ingratiates himself to the Peterson family, impressing Laura and protecting Luke from bullies at school. Anna is skeptical at first but is slowly won over... That's when the dead bodies start to pile up. Anna thinks something isn't right about “David's” story and she's correct. He has a horrible secret and, soon, men from the government arrive to investigate. 

“The Guest,” at first, operates under a powerful notion of wish fulfillment. What if someone came into your life and they had all the answers to all your problems? David shows up out of the blue and immediately sees the solutions to whatever vexes the Peterson family. He beats up the jocks that torment Luke at school. When Luke fights back and almost gets a suspension, David effortlessly intimidates the principal into changing his mind. When an old boyfriend harasses Anna's friend at a party, he immediately gets the guy to back off. He even finds a way to get Spencer, the dad, a promotion at work. He also gives Anna a look at his perfectly sculpted abs, temporarily firing her lust. 

Of course, it all comes at a horrible price. By rooting its story in a fantasy anyone can relate too – and the easily understood reversal of “be careful what you wish for” –  “The Guest” sets up a universal scenario to pervert. David's uncompromising sociopathy is revealed exactly at the twenty minute mark, when he blows a weapon dealer's brains out. From there, the script gives us more and more of a peek at how dangerous this seemingly perfect guy is. The film brilliantly escalates from there, blowing up a small scenario focused on a nuclear family into an action movie shoot-out. It's a fantastically paced movie that moves at the exact correct pace.

That David is a military vet, that he appears to disrupt the equilibrium of the nuclear family unit along side news of their son's death, is important. As the story reveals more of its layer, we learn that “David” is some sort of experimental soldier, programmed to clean up all loose ends and ruthlessly exterminate anyone who gets in his way. He was created by the government, to kill efficiently and without mercy. Coming back home, and living again in normal society, is not something he was programmed for. That he fills the void left by Caleb's death, filling the role of a surrogate son for Laura, is fitting. Caleb didn't come home but he was made into a killing machine by the U.S. military industrial complex too. David is a literalization of how normal boys are turned into murderers. 

“The Guest” represents a big leap forward for Adam Wingard in another way. The director had mostly worked in the realm of low-stakes horror and independent movies. “You're Next” was a bigger and more stunt-heavy movie, an instinct that “The Guest” takes even further. A full-blown action sequence breaks out in the middle of the movie, when the government kill squad descends on the Peterson home. And, pleasant surprise, but Adam Wingard directs the fuck out of these shoot-outs. Slow-mo, crash-zooms, and bursts of splattering blood punctuate several movements. The editing is incredibly smooth, as David leaps through the air or slides out from under a bed. It's distinct but not showy, stylized but not distracting, direct and brutal but imaginative too. 

Of course, “The Guest” doesn't have Adam Wingard stepping entirely out of his comfort zone either. It's sort of a horror movie too. We don't know if “David” is just a result of psychological conditioning or some sort of genetically engineered super soldier. Either way, he's not exactly human. He exterminates his targets with the grim determination of Michael Myers, even wielding a similarly oversized butcher knife in a few scenes. (Though with more apologies and smirks.) In the last act, when Anna and Luke are chased through a Halloween tunnel while David wields a box cutter, “The Guest” fully embraces the slasher movie genes hidden inside its DNA. 

And I can't help but adore “The Guest's” fucking gorgeous October atmosphere. The film is set around Halloween. The Peterson house is decorated for the holiday, with a spooky scarecrow out front. A pumpkin carving scene takes place, as does the consumption of pumpkin pie. Paper skeletons and black cats put in appearance. The finale of the movie, set in a high school auditorium converted into a haunted attraction, is bathed in neon lights and a layer of smoke-machine fog. Styrofoam tombstones and rubber body parts decorate the area. Obviously, for a Halloween devotee and horror nerd like myself, such brilliant scenery is enough to make me love the movie even more. 

Ultimately, like “You're Next” before it, “The Guest” balances out its grim thrills and intense violence with sick humor. The early scenes, of David perfectly dismantling assholes with both his fists and cunning, obviously have a degree of humor to them. Especially when Luke takes David's encouragement to fight back to its natural inclusion. Yet, once David's truly homicidal side shows, “The Guest's” jokes gets darker and blacker. When forced to murder random bystanders, David almost seems annoyed and resigned to it. Scoring rolling grenades and an exploding diner to the sappy swell of Stevie B's “Because I Love You (The Postman Song)” is the ultimate black punchline to the movie's sense of humor.

“The Guest” wouldn't have worked nearly as well as it does if the perfect actor was not found for David. Luckily, Dan Stevens came along. Best known a the time for a supporting part on “Downton Abbey,” Stevens is completely controlled as David. This perfectly handsome man turns up the charm to its maximum level in all the early scenes. Of course a guy who looks this good and acts this kind is virtuous. Yet Stevens always hints at the hollowness inside David, the hidden truth that slowly comes out as the film goes on. His ability to turn on a dime from charming to murderous is impressive. Stevens even finds the room to suggest that David isn't even in control of his murderous impulses. It's a star-making performance. (And, God and the Queen willing, will insure that Stevens is our next James Bond.)

Stevens leads an accomplished cast. Maika Monroe has a unique energy as Anna, equally beguiled and suspicious of this visitor to her home. As displayed in “It Follows,” Monroe also makes the character a believable survivor too, as she fights back in the final act. Brendan Meyer has an amusing sad sack and awkward quality to Luke, an endearingly nerdy kid. Shelia Kelley definitely makes it clear that she is a mother broken by the lost of her child. Indie horror mainstay Joel David Moore, who somehow had never appeared in a Wingard movie before, also pops in as one of David's earlier victims. 

During that wonderfully Halloween atmosphere filled last third, one image on the school wall is of a distinctive skull, pumpkin, and witch mask. Any genre nerd will recognize these from “Halloween III.” This is just the most blatant John Carpenter shout-out in the movie. The score, composed entirely of pulsating synth, is obviously indebted to Carpenter. To further form the eighties atmosphere the movie is obviously striving for, “The Guest's” soundtrack is also filled top-to-bottom with classic goth and dark wave music. “A Day” by Clan of Xymox and “Anthonio” by Annie (which is not an eighties song but certainly sounds like one) are especially well-used.

“The Guest” received praise from critics and fans. It immediately became a beloved favorite among a certain breed of Carpenter-worshiping genre fan boy. This did not exactly mean box office success. The film failed to out-gross its budget in theaters. However, it's obvious the reception to “The Guest” considerably raised Wingard's profile, who started to receive far more high-profile projects after this. It might still be the director's best movie, a fantastically entertaining genre fusion that still rocks from beginning to end with an absolutely perfect lead performance. [Grade: A]

Director Report Card: Adam Wingard (2013)

7. V/H/S/2

In the world of independent horror films, it can be tricky to figure out what qualifies as a success. Movies of this type rarely receive much in the way of a wide theatrical release. If they do make a profit, it usually comes in the forms of DVD sales and digital rentals. Usually, success can be more easily measured in terms of buzz. Regardless of what you thought of the film, the first “V/H/S” absolutely generate plenty of buzz in the horror and film press. The production companies behind the film clearly saw “V/H/S” as a potential franchise. (And, to horror nerds, few things are more exciting than a long-running franchise.) A sequel was fast-tracked. “V/H/S/2 – which originally had the amusingly referential title of “S-VHS” – was in theaters a year later. Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett would return, along with several other up-and-coming genre filmmakers, for another round of found footage mayhem. 

“V/H/S/2's” framing device revolves around a sketchy private detective hired to locate a missing college student. They locate the guy's home but only find his extensive VHS collection, which they watch for clues. “Phase I Clinical Trials” follows a man who has an experimental ocular implant installed, everything he sees being recorded. And what he sees are ghosts. “A Ride in the Park” concerns a mountain biker who has a camera atop his helmet. He stumbles upon a zombie outbreak and is infected himself, his camera recording his undead experience. “Safe Haven” follows a news crew investigating a religious cult, who soon uncover disturbing phenomenon. “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” is about exactly that: Kids goofing around with a video camera at a party end up capturing extreme evidence of alien life.

By 2013, found footage was just about played out. Horror fans had seen almost every variant on the concept imaginable. The filmmakers behind “V/H/S/2” were obviously struggling with how to distinguish their film from the hundred other found footage movies that were out by that point. (The lo-fi, video aesthetic did that for the original but much less attention is paid to that here.) The solutions range from the novel to the absurd. Bike ride videos are a genre onto their own on Youtube. Combining that with the found footage premise, in “A Ride in the Park,” was extremely clever. “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” straps the camera to a dog for part of its run time. “Phase I Clinical Trials,” meanwhile, takes the glasses gimmick from the first movie's “Amateur Night” segment too far, sticking the camera inside the human eye. If you have to invent new technology to justify your found footage story, maybe just don't tell that story. 

The last two segments of “V/H/S/2” are less concerned with finding new ways to justify why the cameras have to keep running. That's because “V/H/S/2” is much more focused on just telling good stories than fulfilling the anthology's gimmicks. This means approaching the first film's defining tactic – tales of violence, horror, and sex on VHS – in a different way. Yes, there's quite a lot of horror and violence in the film. A bit of nudity and sex too. Yet the in-your-face “extreme horror” style that made the first “V/H/S” sometimes abrasive is not so much a priority this time. This results in a less distinctive movie but probably a better one too.

As with the first “V/H/S,” the framing device is the weakest of the movie's segments. Screenwriter Simon Barrett steps behind the camera, making his directorial debut. There's some interesting ideas contained within “Tape 49.” The recorded monologues of the tape collector suggest a subculture of people who collect freaky found footage exists in the “V/H/S” universe. (The guy casually laughs off finding “CP” in the tapes, proving how extreme this subculture is.) That probably should've been the focus of the framing device, as it's more intriguing than the private detective angle. The detective tries to blackmail the cheating husband he finds in the first scene, suggesting the E.C. Comics style sense of justice that informed the first movie. 

Yet most of these angles are abandoned in favor of the idea that watching evil tapes destroys the mind. We see this in the way the detective's female accomplice slowly develops strange symptoms while watching through the evidence. This is a premise thoroughly explored in “The Ring,” “Videodrome,” and other movies before. ”V/H/S/2” doesn't really engage with the potential deeper meanings of that idea, like those other films did. “Tape 49's” best idea is the reveal at the end, that the tapes within-the-film end directly where the framing device starts. That, admittedly, caught me off-guard and sets up a pretty decent series of scares.

If the framing device underwhelms, that feeling continues with the first proper segment. Adam Wingard directs and stars in “Phase I Clinical Trials.” (Wingard stepped into the starring role after the original choice, James Rolfe of “Angry Video Game Nerd” fame, had to pass.) If the shaky premise Wingard cooked up for the segment suggests a lack-of-interest, so does the episode's content. “Phase I Clinical Trials” is largely devoted to underwhelming jump scares. Multiple times, pale ghostly figures with big bags under their eyes leap at the camera. Loud noise shrieks on the soundtrack every time this happens. The primary ghost is even a spooky little child, one of the most badly abused clichés in the horror genre. Considering the quick turn-around between this sequel and the first one, perhaps Wingard was a little crunched for times and ideas. “Phase I Clinical Trials” is truly uninspired. 

Luckily things start to improve with the next segment. Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale pioneered the found footage genre with “The Blair Witch Project,” so it was fitting that they were invited to work on “V/H/S/2.” The two managed to cook up a novel approach to the zombie premise, the only horror idea more played out than found footage was in 2012. While movies before had purported to tell the zombie apocalypse scenario from the zombie's point of view, “A Ride in the Park” commits to that rather literally. It straps a camera to the zombie's head, giving us a first-person perspective as they shamble along, attack people, and consume human flesh. It's an almost fresh perspective on the genre, at least adding a novel angle to this often-told tale.

By telling a zombie story directly from the point-of-view of the zombie, “A Ride in the Park” manages to find some humor and even pathos in the idea. Zombies, being mindless corpse, respond to everything in the most dead-pan of fashions. Whether it be a poke in the eye with a barbecue fork or a torn-off limb, they groan quizzically and continue wandering around. Yet there is something sad about the lifeless zombie too, crawling around as a rotten reminder of the lives they had. When our main zombies picks up a teddy bear, it seemingly stirs something in his dead brain. The film emphasizes this by having the zombie cluelessly answer a phone call from his still-living girlfriend, who has no idea about what happened. In just a few minutes, “A Ride in the Park” manages to find a lot of depth to these undead archetypes. 

If “V/H/S/2” downplays the in-your-face style of the first, it's only in attitude, not content. “Safe Haven,” the third segment, features the most intense gore in the entire series. This is not surprising, considering the film comes from Gareth Evans and Timo Tjahjanto of the famously bone-crushing “The Raid” duo. The story of a demonic religious sect collapsing in on itself, and a camera crew caught in the middle. We have a first-person perspective of a throat being slashed, blood spurting everywhere. A circle of men blow their brains out in a synchronized motion. A man explodes directly into the camera lens, reduced to a slurry of blood and guts. An enormous demon crawls its way out of a woman's body. Shotgun blasts reduce heads to pulp right in front of us.

The film doesn't just throw this gore around for its own sake. Evans and Tjahjanto know exactly how to make this violence hit with maximum impact. The found footage angle – which definitely doesn't address the “why doesn't he put the camera down?” question – is mostly used to put the audience right in the middle of this madness. And it's so effective that we don't ask that question. “Safe Haven” accurately captures a sense of panic and chaos. As the characters grapple with zombies, or have a crowd of cultist close in on them, the intensity definitely keeps rising and rising. The stakes are continuously upped, especially once that goat-headed monster appears. “Safe Haven” keeps rocketing along, with grotesque and disturbing imagery, until its final and intentionally sarcastic image. It's a hell of a ride.

“Slumber Party Alien Abduction” attempts to keep that tension going and somewhat succeeds. Director Jason Eisner, of “Hobo with a Shotgun” fame, has some pretty smart tricks to visually and aurally overwhelm the audience.  The alien invaders are often accompanied by blasting lights and rumbling noises on the soundtrack. The creatures are classical greys, a simple special effect that is further exaggerated with smartly utilized CGI to make them more inhuman. The segment – which resembles forgotten found footage classic “Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County” in a few ways – is largely a series of attack scenes once the chaos starts. Yet Eisner largely keeps the sense of panic going, making “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” a pretty intense episode to close on. 

Now, Eisner has a style that is distinct from the other directors. “Hobo with a Shotgun” was closer in spirit to Troma than John Carpenter. (This was even evident in his “ABCs of Death” segment, a ditty about neon-drenched pedophilia.) Eisner makes sure to include a little bit of that neon color and lots of profanity-laced scenes of teen boys screaming, drooling over girls, and playing pranks. It's borderline obnoxious but, I don't know, it kind of works for me. Dialogue this extreme can be excused when writing teenage boys. Teenage boys actually talk that way after all. If nothing else, it's nice to see Eisner can maintain his personal style while still delivering an effective horror short.

While the first “V/H/S” was somewhat divisively received, the sequel earned much better reviews from fans and critics. “Safe Haven” was especially singled out, with some even listing it among the best horror films of the year. While that is probably the stand-out segment, I think pretty much everything in “V/H/S/2” after Wingard's installment is pretty damn good. It's a little more accessible than the first and perhaps more strongly assembled in general, even if some of the attitude and aesthetic that really distinguished the first movie are reeled in some. Either way, the two films together stand out as some of the best later entries into the found footage horror trend. [Grade: A-]