This concept of luring sacrificial victims to the slaughter-by-tape is furthered during the wraparound segment of “V/H/S/2” entitled “Tape 49,” written and directed by Simon Barrett. In it, a couple of private investigators are hired by the mother of a boy, Kyle (L.C. Holt), to look into his recent disappearance. The PI’s find a stack of VHS tapes and a still-recording laptop in Kyle’s room, with the laptop capturing real-time footage of one of the investigators watching a few of the tapes (hence, the movie’s segments). Eventually, it turns out that the laptop recording is an essential aspect of the plan concocted by Kyle and his mother, which is to make a cursed tape of their own.
Although the title of the wraparound would imply that it takes place before the first film’s “Tape 56,” we do see footage from that “tape” on Kyle’s laptop during this segment. Given that, it’s more likely that this tape takes place after “Tape 56” (unless Barrett is playing around with some supernatural time travel shenanigans again, as he does in Wingard’s “Blair Witch”). Furthermore, Kyle and his mother can’t be the main perpetrators behind the VHS tapes, given that a vlog Kyle recorded that one of the investigators watches describes how the tapes must be watched in a specific sequence in order to have an effect. This implies that the tapes are being discussed in a very underground, urban legend, Reddit-esque manner. It also implies that the effect they have on people varies — it either makes them insane, murderous, eager to make their own tape, some kind of creature, or perhaps all of those things.
Thus, there’s a viral element to these tapes, in which the infected are seeking to spread the infection. Not only does this harken back to the original virally cursed videotape horror movie, Hideo Nakata’s “Ring” (later remade as “The Ring” by Gore Verbinski), it also links the “V/H/S” films to the notorious “Mondo” and “Faces of Death” movies of the 1970s, which purported to contain footage of real atrocities. These connections further implicate the viewer in meta fashion, suggesting they’ll be forever disturbed after watching the movies. There’s a bit of Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games” to all this, especially given the ending of the film, which sees Kyle kill the last investigator on camera before giving us a thumbs up. We’re sick, and we wanted to see this just as much as he wanted to make it.