This is the “tech horror” segment. A teenage incel (played with perfect slime by Steven Ogg’s son?) uses a new digital camera to spy on his mother and a beautiful neighbor. When he discovers the neighbor is actually a Gorgon (Medusa), he tries to weaponize her gaze. “The Gawkers” is uncomfortable because it is accurate . It portrays the early days of digital voyeurism (1999’s “scanner culture”) and the entitled rage of rejected teenage boys. The final shot, involving a statue garden of horny teenagers, is darkly hilarious.
A group of amateur punk-rock teenagers in 1999 break into a condemned concert venue (The Rack) to film a music video for their terrible band, “R.A.C.K.” They hope the edgy location will help them win a local battle of the bands. Inside, they discover a secret room where a failed performer named “Gore” apparently immolated himself during a stunt. They find tapes of his other failed stunts. As they film their video, they accidentally trigger a supernatural curse tied to Gore’s rage. The segment ends with the band members being painfully and grotesquely merged into a grotesque, screaming wall of flesh (a “human video wall”), forced to perform forever. A VHS tape of their fate is labeled “V/H/S/99.” v h s 99 2022
Unlike V/H/S/94 , which leaned into political paranoia and military-industrial dread, focuses on a narrower, arguably scarier subject: the teenage psyche in 1999. This is the “tech horror” segment
Unlike the first two films, which suffered from distribution hell, is readily available. “The Gawkers” is uncomfortable because it is accurate