The V/H/S franchise began life as a single found footage anthology film in 2012, bringing together some of the foremost names in independent horror cinema — including David Bruckner, Ti West, and Adam Wingard — to dole out bite-sized helpings of analog-related terror in a carefully curated package. Like nearly all anthologies, the original film was a mixed bag, offering as many misses as hits, but there was life in the concept, and so it continued pressing on completely undeterred by any critical derision in its bid satiate horror fans and found footage enthusiasts alike. 13 years later, we are now up to our eighth installment in the V/H/S saga, with new entries having been turned into an annual tradition by the folks over at Shudder some four or five years ago, cranking out annual installments just in time for Halloween. In fact, this year the producers over at Bloody Disgusting have opted to lean into that holiday aspect wholesale, resulting in V/H/S/Halloween, which offers six new tales of holiday-related horror. The consistency is admirable, but quality continues to be sporadic, with V/H/S/Halloween struggling to break any new ground, even with the added trick-or-treat atmosphere. It’s not the worst of the franchise, but it does very little to stand out from the pack either — though at this point it would be foolish to expect any new V/H/S film to unleash another “Safe Haven” on unsuspecting viewers.
It wouldn’t be a V/H/S film without a wraparound story, and V/H/S/Halloween’s framing narrative is “Diet Phantasma” (directed by Bryan M. Ferguson), a series of test footage tapes involving volunteers sampling a new soda from The Octagon Company, led by CEO Blaine Rothschild (David Haydn). Little do these test subjects know, the soda cans have been bottled up with various demonic entities, which results in the mutilation of any poor soul who dares imbibe the bubbles. It’s an amusing idea for a short film, but the repetitious nature of the wraparound grows tiresome in a hurry, with each discrete section consisting of a hapless rube drinking a soda can before their face summarily gushes a torrent of blood or becomes enveloped by a swarm of tentacles. Rinse and repeat. The first proper segment, “Coochie Coochie Coo” (directed by Anna Zlokovic), is one of the more effective, following two high school seniors embarking on a final night of trick-or-treating before they shuffle off to separate colleges. When the pair come across a particularly enticing house, they soon find themselves locked inside, forced to contend with the wrath of The Mommy, a lactating ghoul looking to grow her family. “Coochie Coochie Coo” represents the best of V/H/S’s lo-fi capabilities, trapping its central characters in a single, darkened location, navigating the unknown corridors and bedrooms to face the horrors within. Airlift this out of V/H/S/Halloween and it would likely stand up on its own, but the segment does lose points for utilizing generative A.I. to create some of its more unsettling images, an execrable choice that completely sours the entire experience.
Next up is “Ut Supra Sic Infra” (directed by Paco Plaza), a true crime-esque entry — and the only one in Spanish — that intercuts between police investigating the lone survivor of a Halloween party massacre at an abandoned mansion and footage of the night before in question, where survivor Enric (Teo Planell) and his friends break into the aforementioned mansion, which once belonged to an infamous Italian medium. Following the swift pacing of its preceding segment, “Ut Supra Sic Infra” grinds the action to a halt, painfully building to a foregone conclusion as everyone involved meets a grisly fate (spoiler alert: it involves a cryptic Latin phrase, a rotary phone, and forcibly extracted eyeballs). But quickly injecting some pep back into the anthology’s step is “Fun Size” (directed by Casper Kelly), another trick-or-treat centric short that follows four friends on the prowl for good candy. When they fail to heed the warning of one special bowl that asks they only take one piece per person, they get sucked into the realm of Fun Size, a gumball-machine monster looking to mutilate the friends and turn their body parts into sweet treats. This chapter ends up a bit too cute by leaning on its self-referential humor — two of the friends are dressed as “protagonists of a found footage horror movie” with multiple GoPro cameras strapped to their bodies, eschewing the need for unbroken takes in favor of frantic editing once the scares kick in — but the energy is appealing, ideal for this format, and “Fun Size” is a delightful candy-colored demon of doom.
The segment most likely to get cinephiles talking is Alex Ross Perry’s “Kidprint,” an early ’90s-set chiller that involves missing children and a video store that helps document their lives for search party purposes. Some will undoubtedly praise Perry’s bold choices, while others will argue he crosses a moral line — this segment features not just child endangerment, but the graphic and prolonged torture and murder of several children. For this writer, the prevailing impression is of tedium, as it’s particularly disappointing to find Perry (inarguably the most accomplished filmmaker of V/H/S/Halloween’s slate) to go for empty shock value. File this segment under “your mileage may vary,” at best.
Closing out V/H/S/Halloween is “Home Haunt” (directed by Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman), which sees a father hoping to rekindle his relationship with his son by building the best haunted house in their neighborhood, an annual tradition they once shared. Like “Fun Size,” “Home Haunt” is all about energy, as the haunted house comes together in splattery fashion, impressing the most dubious of locals (special effects legend Rick Baker has a humorous cameo as a critical neighbor) before they are inevitably slaughtered by forces beyond their control. So while V/H/S/Halloween ends on a high note, the road to get there is an uneven one, especially considering the project’s distended runtime (at two hours in length, the feature could easily afford to excise at least one of its segments). Die-hard fans of the franchise will no doubt continue to enjoy the ride, but for everyone else, it’s just business as usual at the V/H/S factory, a roller coaster of quality that threatens to topple over from its own shaky foundation
DIRECTOR: Various Directors; DISTRIBUTOR: Shudder; STREAMING: October 3; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 55 min.
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