V.P. was written and directed by Augustine Dalton. It stars Evan Hall as Sid Lothrop, a podcaster researching a mysterious video known as Yellow Rachel. As he grows more obsessed, the search for Yellow Rachel threatens to exacerbate his vices.

Some of the performances are similar to the sort of performances you’d see in reenactments. They feel uncanny. It’s difficult to say whether that benefits the overall narrative or not. There are many characters, but Sid is the only one that feels explored. He’s usually depicting his podcaster persona, but I do appreciate the glimpses of his real self. There are no character relationships worth mentioning. The dialogue is impressive. It completely captures the speaking habits of horror-centric content creators.

I liked the pacing. V.P. switched things up right when I began to feel things were getting repetitive. There are moments with great atmosphere, but the mood falls flat for me sometimes. There’s no talking around it, V.P. is about porn addiction. That’s great. The problem is my immaturity turns a few of the climactic moments into humorous ones. If you’re the type of person whose sense of humor aligns with Last Podcast on the Left, there will be things you may not be able to take as seriously as it would like you to. The other major issue is that Sid is a podcaster. So much is directly mimicking the video essays of Youtubers that when I found out that all of this was for a podcast, it put a lot into question. Were some scenes part of a video essay, or was it real life and just filmed like a video essay? The reenactment scenes work in the context of a video essay. They are less effective if they’re depicting what really happened. It makes everything weird. It would have been so much easier if they said he was a content creator and left it at that. He streams, but that doesn’t explain the scripted content. I’m left to assume that he’s a podcaster, YouTuber, and streamer, but it would have been so easy to prevent me from being in this position of having to assume. The lighting is good sometimes and amateurish at other times. If he’s a small YouTuber, that’s common. The editing is great. The practical effects are not.

V.P. gets a whole host of tiny details right. Yellow Rachel is a perfect reflection of early internet creepypastas. Dalton has tapped into the world of horror YouTubers enough to mention some of its biggest representatives. It takes some big swings, and although a lot of those swings are hit or miss to me, I found V.P. to be unique and commendable.

7 out of 10