Taglines: Mayhem goes viral.
A police chase after a deranged ice cream truck has captivated the attention of the greater Los Angeles area. Dozens of fame-obsessed teens flock to the streets with their video cameras and camera phones, hell-bent on capturing the next viral video. But there is something far more sinister occurring in the streets of L.A. than a simple police chase. A resounding effect is created onto all those obsessed with capturing salacious footage for no other purpose than to amuse or titillate. Soon the discovery becomes that they themselves are the stars of the next video, one where they face their own death.
About the Film
The following synopses are in order of segment appearance in the film.
“Vicious Circles”
Logline: As police pursue a mysterious, sinister vehicle through the streets of Los Angeles, a camera-obsessed teen joins in the chase, encountering others hell bent on capturing the next viral video
Synopsis: A police chase after a deranged ice cream truck has captivated the attention of the greater Los Angeles area. Dozens of fame-obsessed teens flock to the streets with their video cameras and camera phones, hell-bent on capturing the next viral video. But there is something far more sinister occurring in the streets of L.A. than a simple police chase. A resounding effect is created onto all those obsessed with capturing salacious footage for no other purpose than to amuse or titillate. Soon the discovery becomes that they themselves are the stars of the next video, one where they face their own death.
“Dante the Great”
Logline: An aspiring magician happens upon a cloak owned by Houdini which brings him fame, money and power; all at a deadly cost.
Synopsis: Scarlett sits in an interrogation room. Across her, a Detective urges her to continue her story. As she continues, the story of Dante the Great unfolds, documentary style. Living in a dump of a trailer park in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but fickle aspirations of becoming a famous illusionist, Dante comes across a cloak rumored to have been owned by Houdini himself, a cloak powered by profound, dark forces. With the cloak in hand, all of Dante’s wishes come true: fame, women, money, and power.
He becomes the most famous illusionist in the world. But his fame comes at an ungodly cost. The cloak demands payment in the form of human sacrifice. When Scarlett, his assistant, finds tapes of these gruesome murders she reports him immediately, setting off an elaborate stand-off between Dante and the Police. Spiraling deeper and deeper into a sea of murder and carnage, Dante has the tables turned on him when Scarlett takes possession of the cloak and feeds to it Dante himself. Scarlett burns the cloak and tries to move on from the past. But alas, she soon finds out that some things simply cannot be so easily escaped.
“Parallel Monsters”
Logline: In the dead of the night, after long, hectic hours of working, an excited Alfonso has finally culminated his long-time project: the construction of a machine that will allow him to go through the looking-glass and meet himself at the parallel world he suspects to be at the other side. He was right: there is a specular world with a specular Alfonso in it. They do not hesitate to exchange each other’s life, only for fifteen minutes. After all, they are but one person…
Synopsis: In the dead of the night after long, hectic hours of working, an excited Alfonso has finally achieved his long-time goal: constructing a machine that will allow him to go through the looking-glass and meet himself in the parallel world he believes to be on the other side. And he was right. There is a specular world that exists beside ours, with a perfect second Alfonso living in it and looking right at us. Hardly able to contain to their excitement, the Alfonsos decide to swap worlds for fifteen minutes. Mirror images, however, are not always what they seem and each Alfonso finds himself in a reality much different from the one left behind. Gruesome appendages, glowing predatory eyes, and brutal murder prove that some places should not be explored.
“Bonestorm”
Logline: A first person POV horror-comedy about young men making a skateboard video, who are attacked by a supernatural cult while filming in an isolated ditch in Tijuana.
Synopsis: Four teenagers try their hand at notoriety by making “gonzo style” skateboard videos. Kick flipping from roof tops, racing into on-coming traffic, and getting into bloody-knuckle brawls in skate parks, the foursome look to put the finishing touch on their video by skating an undiscovered ditch in Tijuana, Mexico.
The hope, of course, being to film a lot of sex, drugs, and booze along the way. Their debauchery has disastrous consequences when they become the human sacrifices for a Mexican Death Cult’s ritual. As they fight viciously against the undead, a darker and more evil creature rises amongst the blood and carnage. This fight they will not be able to win.
Director Statements
The following director’s statements are given in order of segment appearance in the film.
“Vicious Circles” Director Marcel Sarmiento
For the third wraparound segment in V/H/S VIRAL, I wanted to try and expand the mythology a little while still staying true to the conceit of people ‘taping’ themselves. I wanted to try something that was not stationary but constantly in motion. When they approached me, I specifically pitched an idea deviating from the other two wraparounds, which were more contained and calm (which admittedly was a good juxtaposition from the bookended segments around it).
However, instead, I pitched a fast past, adrenaline-fueled jolt featuring an evolving story that would keep the audience guessing, driving segments forward in clever ways. I wanted to drop the viewer into totally new environments each time, with new characters – all strangely connected by a core dilemma leading to a payoff that would include ALL the segments, past and present. Basically the evil has “taken the show on the road”, and it’s infecting more people, more quickly. So instead of a single idea told in fragments between segments, I attempted to tell five very different ideas, each connected to the other, but hopefully in ways that are not completely apparent until the very end.
“Bonestorm” Directors Justin Benson, Aaron Moorehead
We approached Bonestorm as a fun piece that progresses first person POV cinema, pays tribute to the V/H/S franchise, and just generally fucks shit up. It was a labor of love for an insanely talented group of collaborators that should be watched extremely loud with a cold drink.
V/H/S: Viral
Oirected by: Justin Benson, Gregg Bishop, Aaron Moorhead, Marcel Sarmiento, Nacho Vigalondo
Starring: Justin Welborn, Emmy Argo, Emilia Ares Zoryan, Amanda Baker, Stephen Caudill, Greyson Chadwick, Lindsay Clift, Jawed El Berni, Laura Eschmann, Natalia Ferreiro
Screenplay by: Justin Benson, Gregg Bishop, T.J. Cimfel, Ed Dougherty, Aaron Moorhead, Marcel Sarmiento, Nacho Vigalondo, David White
Production Design by: Cindy Chao, Molly Coffee, Todd Lincoln, Michele Yu
Cinematography by: Harris Charalambous, George Feucht, Morgan Susser
Film Editing by: Víctor Berlin, Gregg Bishop, Phillip Blackford, Ed Cardenas, Justin Dornbush, Michael Felker
Costume Design by: Vanessa Geldbach, Laura Cristina Ortiz
Set Decoration by: Zach Matthews, Nik Morgan
Art Direction by: Jeremy Lamberton
Music by: Joseph Bishara, Kristopher Carter
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: November 21, 2014
Visits: 65
