The V Word (2006)

Memorable, crazy movie

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A Major Disappointment

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This was somewhat boring considering it was about the V word. The end result felt more like an anti-drug after school special, not that drugs were involved in this episode. It felt like it could have been cut down to 30 minutes or a 10-15 minute skit and the pace was annoyingly slow, probably to show dramatic emphasis. Not to mention whoever wrote this episode has never played a video game in his/her life. Whenever the two main characters talk about games they sound like a 60 year old non-gamer trying to figure out why people play in the first place. At least Doom 3 didn't have Pac-man sound effects, but still most people would prefer to play it on the PC with a keyboard and mouse. Chalk it up to artistic license I guess.

Generally speaking, I am a huge fan of the great "Masters Of Horror" series, but one has to say that the individual episodes differ immensely in quality. While some episodes, such as Dario Argento's "Pelts" or Takashi Miike's "Imprint" are utterly brilliant, some other episodes are pure entertainment, and some episodes, such as Mick Garris' "Chocolate" or Tobe Hooper's "Dance Of The Dead" were, as far as I am considered quite disappointing. "The V-Word" directed by Ernest K. Dickerson (I wonder what qualifies him as a 'Master Of Horror' anyway), however, is by far the worst episode of this otherwise great Horror anthology. Not only is the story ridiculous and the suspense almost nonexistent, even worse, this quite poor attempt of an MoH episode was so obviously made to advertise a Video game, which the main protagonists not only play all the time, but about which everybody talks about throughout the episode. The performances are also quite poor, the only true reason not to skip this episode is the great Michael Ironside, who at least gives this thing a little bit of eeriness.I won't bother to describe the plot, since it it so thin that even a short description would mean writing a spoiler. "The V-Word" is watchable for Michael Ironside, but otherwise it's a waste of time. Watch ANY other MoH-episode before giving this a try.

This 1 hour episode starts out OK, but falls off in the second half.Initially, there's a kind of creepy buildup during which a couple of teens go to a funeral home for amusement. The first 30 minutes are actually pretty good and are all about ambiance. It is pretty difficult to maintain a suspenseful and creepy tone, so the director really succeeded here.However, the downfall of the movie comes when the first laughably ridiculous decision is made: when a terrible thing occurs in front of one of the main characters, he just turns around and stands there thinking about what to do. By the way, he happens to be holding a phone. Do you know anyone who would do that? It's all downhill from there - the story never recovers and becomes very bland after such a good buildup.This one is worth skipping.

All right, I have just finished watching the first showing of "The V Word" on Showtime, and having done so I have a few things to say. "The V Word" is an episode about a new-breed of vampiric legend. While they do retain many of the traditional myths, they've adapted to a new ideal.The concept for this episode is done in the best and worst of ways. While they captured the realistic nature of the idea of vampires, seeing as how rather than any psychical change they simply tear the throat of their victim out and drink the blood. Once they've had their throat removed, or at least most of it, they go through a seemingly agonizing transformation, and forever retain that physical would that never seems to heal over. It takes the idea and makes it somewhat believable, at least until the bad part comes into play.And here is that bad theme.While they've been created in this way to be believable, they seem to include some of the more silly stereotypes. These vampires do not have fangs, which makes sense, however, they burst into flames under the touch of sunlight, and it is implied that they are allergic to garlic, all though I don't think they made that official or not.It's a good episode, and a very impressive concept... however, it is insulting the basic idea of a vampire, as well as fans of the sort.However, this one does seem to have better acting than most, and it has the girl from Silent Hill in it, which amused me.Overall... I'd give this episode a 6/10.