You have to give streaming services credit, once they hit a hot streak they rarely ease up on the gas. A healthy example of this is the Phoenix-like rise of the retro-minded anthology franchise, V/H/S, that started way back in 2012 as something of a bold experiment in indie horror but then, after a move to Shudder in 2021, was reborn as a genuine Halloween tradition that has seen contributors both established and new offer up short contained stories to shock and/or amuse.
Well, 2023 was no different as the V/H/S series took a step back even further in time to embrace the 80s in an attempt to fully embrace a decade that proved to be a wildly inventive and utterly bonkers decade for horror.
Fueled by directorial talent both familiar (David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson) and otherwise, could the V/H/S sojourn into the decade of piano key ties and back brushed hair keep the series’ impressive modern run going?
Events kick off with “Total Copy”, a sort of Unsolved Mysteries type programme concerning bizarre phenomena that someone has taped over with a bunch of other found footage stories. Between the introductions we see the obsessive Dr. Spratling as he attempts to study and communicate with an amorphous, shapeshifting creature nicknamed “Rory”. However, as the scientists attempt to accumulate Rory to humanity via popular culture, the organism has some ghoulish plans of it’s own.
The first full segment, “No Wake”, turns out not to be a full segment at all as it forms something of a two parter with the later segment, “Ambrosia” and while the first instalment sees a bunch of vacationing youths fall foul of a sniper as they party on a boat in the middle of a private lake, the second sheds some light on the motivations of the killer with a supernatural twist linking the two.
Next up is God Of Death which sees a Mexican morning news show rudely interrupted by a massive earthquake that kills everyone except cameraman Luis. Found by rescue team, the survivors find that the only path open to them is down as they head through the crumbling building, into the basement and into the catacombs that have opened up under the city streets. But once down there, they find the altar of Mictlãn, an ancient Aztec God who doesn’t receive visitors particularly well…
The next story is TKNOGD (or technogod, if you’re slow like me) that sees a passionate performance artist attempting to use her art to speak out against the “new god” that is technology, but her use of primitive V.R. ends up with a trip into Cronenbergian body horror.
Finally comes Dreamkill, that sees the work of a brutal serial killer recorded on videotape and mailed to the cops seemingly in an attempt to mock them, however, the kicker is that the tapes arrive three days before the murders actually occur. What in the precognitive hell is going on here?
While V/H/S/85 arguably has the most variety per episode than any single entry in the franchise has seen thus far, the franchise’s trip to the 80s proves to be noticably the weakest of the three newest movies so far. It’s a shame, because not only does the film contain a couple of legitimately heavy hitters in a returning David Bruckner and The Black Phone’s Scott Derrickson, but it also tries to things mix up a little in order to keep us on our toes.
The first change is that the wraparound (usually the weakest aspect of a V/H/S movie by far) actually is a story in its own right instead of merely being a framing structure for all the other segments and the notion that all these other messed-up tales have been partially recorded over the top of a freaky documentary makes everything flow a hell of a lot smoother than usual. With that being said, while David Bruckner’s “Total Copy” comfortably stands as the best wraparound in V/H/S’ twenty one year history, the story of Rory probably would have benefited more if we didn’t have to keep cutting back to it. With that being said, the ending, which sees the squishy, grey Rory suddenly turn violent in order to persue his love of 80s workout videos is a fun, blackly comic ending to a fairly creepy segment.
Also aiding the movie by being a little different is Michael P. Nelson’s double bill of “No Wake” and “Ambrosia” that starts off playing like Creepshow 2’s infamous segment “The Raft” and then switches into Zodiac territory as our characters are all riddled with bullets from an unseen sniper. However, the twist is that the mystery lake that four of their number has been swimming and water skiing in has magical properties and revives them, despite the fact that they all still carry horrific injuries. As they contemplate their undead existence with blown out skulls, exposed intestines and a hideously pulped jaw, we later see the flip side in “Ambrosia” that reveals that the shooter was a young girl who took the opportunity to fulfil her psycho family’s tradition of taking seven lives as a rite of passage. While Nelson (who also made the Wrong Turn reboot) does a good job with two very different – yet connected – stories, you can’t help but feel that the more entertaining parts of tale probably come after they’ve both ended. You mean you don’t want to know what becomes of a camper van full of mutilated yet undead teens?
While taking more traditional cracks at the V/H/S template, Gigi Saul Guerrero’s God Of Death and Natasha Kermani’s TKNOGD still show plenty of originality as one story sees rescue workers stumble across a heart ripping deity and another is essentially one of those tiresome one woman shows that has a doozy of a big finish, but despite their intriguing set ups and some rousing gore (TKNOGD’s parting shot is a genuine cracker) they both tend to not stick in the memory all that much once they’ve climaxed.
That just leaves Scott Derrickson’s Dreamkill to run its course and it’s a pleasant surprise to see that the director of Sinister, Doctor Strange and The Black Phone hasn’t forgotten his grungy horror roots. However, it seems like he’s out to prove something as his entry proves to be particularly nasty, even for a V/H/S movie. Starting off with brutal first person murders that give us close ups of slashed eyeballs and severed fingers and ending with the same kind of kinetic, visceral action seen in V/H/S/2’s “Safe Haven”, Dreamkill feels a little more visually polished than your average entry, but even this fails to break the film’s streak of not being able to linger long on the memory the way a Raatma or a succubus has managed in the past.
Whether V/H/S can manage to put out a seventh entry in 2024 remains to be seen (rumours persist it’ll have more of a sci-fi bent), but wherever it goes from here, it’ll need a bit more oomph for it to get our brains to record footage than this one.
🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 