V/H/S: Viral

The third compendium of found-footage terror tales in the V/H/S franchise gets a technological upgrade from videotape to mobile phones, helmet-cams and CCTV, though the same cannot be said for the content. The central story of a man out to rescue his lover from a speeding ice-cream van is (thankfully) interrupted by a trio of yarns involving a murderous magician, identical inventors swapping parallel universes and stoner skateboarders battling killer cultists. The episode Dante the Great, in which a magic cape bestows great power on a conjuror, is at least action-packed nonsense (a SWAT team is on the wrong end of his lethal legerdemain), while the butt-clenching climax to Nacho Vigalondo's Parallel Monsters adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "giving head". But it's third time unlucky for this horror series, so maybe it's time to call it day.