Another week, another V/H/S candidate. Seriously proposing all these guys is gonna take me until October. But today we'll be finishing up on candidates from the OG trilogy, with one of the weaker candidates from this series. But even factoring that in, I still think he has a good shot at qualifying. And with that said, let's get on with the proposal!
What's The Work?[]
V/H/S is a found footage anthology film, and the first film in the V/H/S series, kickstarting a series spanning across six (seen to be seven) mainline entries and two spin-off films. The segment we'll be talking about today is called The sick thing that happened to Emily when she was younger. Emily and James are a couple that have known each other since childhood, however, James lately has been a good distance away from Emily due to him going off to become a doctor. But the two maintain a good relationship together by having daily video calls. It's through these calls that James quickly finds out about some paranormal goings on in Emily's apartment, that may have a much more sinister explanation than first appears.
Who Is He? What Has He Done?[]
James is the main antagonist of the segment, we first meet him when he’s making simple chit-chat with his girlfriend Emily about how her time at work was that day, When she begins talking about a bump on her arm. After we get a scene of Emily “convincing” James to do all the work when they move in together, we get a scene of Emily showing James her apartment, specifically the part where she heard footsteps. Saying the next time it happens she’ll call James and maybe she’ll be brave enough to open the door to see who it is. We then cut to night with Emily calling James to tell him something is at her door, she goes to check it out despite James’s protest. And when she finds nothing she begins talking about how her apartment is haunted, and how she remembers this feels from when she was 12 and had “that big accident” and how it was the first time her and James’s had been apart. Then suddenly a ghost(?) runs past her and slams a door shut, leaving Emily and James in shocked silence. Cut to the next day and Emily and James are discussing the events of last night while Emily itches the bump on her arm. James revealed that he unfortunately wasn’t recording their chat last night but that he believes he saw a little kid. Emily says she’s going to ask her landlord if a kid died in that apartment but James advises against that idea and tells her to stop messing with her arm, saying that he’ll look at it when he meets Emily in person. Cut to night and Emily hears the noise again, with James telling her to get a weapon as she goes around her apartment. She ends up encountering the ghost kid again and runs back to her room, where James informs her he once again wasn’t recording.
The next morning Emily tells James her landlord said no one has ever died there, and no kid has ever even lived there. Emily then reveals to James she’s cut a hole in her arm trying to find that lump, believing it could be a spider bite, with James trying to stop her, saying it’s like her leg from years ago and telling her she’s acting crazy. Emily eventually relents and James tells her to go clean it up. Cut to night again and Emily is trying to talk to the ghost kid, forming a plan with James to prevent the kid from scaring her. With her closing her eyes and having James navigate her around the apartment. Emily eventually encounters the ghost kid and gets knocked out, causing James to get up from his seat and walk into Emily’s apartment. Yep big reveal time, turns out the ghost kid was actually an alien, and James was working with them this whole time. James then proceeds to cut an alien baby out of Emily’s stomach and at first seems concerned over how this is impacting her health, saying he’s not sure how much more she can survive, but is quickly convinced by the alien to continue going along with it, revealing in the process the bump in her arm is a tracking device. James then talks about how he’s going to have to make it look like an accident again, proceeding to break Emily’s arm. We then cut to the next morning, with Emily’s arm in a cast. It’s then revealed James framed the situation as Emily running out into trafficking, causing her to be diagnosed with a mild form of schizophrenia. James reassures her she isn’t crazy, that she’ll be fine and that she’s the only person he ever wants to be with. It’s then revealed James is also in a relationship with another woman who also complains about a painful spot on her arm… yeah, let’s just go onto the next section before I vomit.
Mitigating Factors[]
None, at first it appears James may at the very least have standards since he shows a bit of concern for Emily. But as I stated before, he's very easily convinced to throw this concern away and continue working with the aliens to impregnate Emily with weird alien babies, uncaring that she could die as a result. Even going as far as to break Emily's arm and gaslight her into believing she's schizophrenic. With his lines during the scene making it clear this isn't the first time he's done this, and practically outright saying the thing that keeps being alluded to with Emily when she was 12 was the aliens first setting up this whole operation. With James at the very least covering it up. Not to mention he's blatantly cheating on Emily with at least one other woman, and likely many more too. So ultimately I don't think James cares about Emily or her safety.
And no, I don't think V/H/S is shock value. It's no more gory than your standard horror movie (hell, V/H/S Viral got a 15 over here), and each segment dedicates more than enough time to have a clear cut story. With the gory stuff only really coming in at the end. I really don't understand how one could come to the conclusion that these movies are shock value.
Heinous Standard[]
This is James's biggest concern in my opinion, like I said last time the V/H/s heinous standard is no joke. However, I believe James does enough for two main reasons. The first being that he's dealing with some of the lowest resources out of any antagonist in the original trilogy (since anything after that is debatably canon). He has no cult full of loyal members that'll die for him or a magic cloak that kills people. The most he has is the aliens working with him, who it's clear he has no control over and has to convince to go along with his ideas.
The other reason is the fact James has a pretty bad niche in terms of crimes. He's setup a whole operation where he has aliens impregnate women, with him then cutting out the alien baby from their stomachs uncaring that he's endangering their lives and then gaslighting them into believing they're just crazy, going as far as to physically harm them to convince them of this. What we see Emily go through in the segment is nothing short of horrific, so the ending making it clear Emily isn't his only victim makes him more than heinous enough in my opinion. Also no, I don't think he fails to the aliens. He plays a pretty essential role in the whole operation, using his medical knowledge to remove the alien babies from the women, and then gaslighting them and covering the whole thing up. It's clear the aliens wouldn't get far without James.
Verdict[]
Ultimately I'm saying yes. What do you all think?