Released in 2012, V/H/S was a fresh take on the horror anthology format. Utilising the subgenre of found footage, it based its set up around a wraparound story of a person discovering shady vhs tapes and the cursed and horrific footage that is contained on them. This then became a franchise which has spawned 7 found footage films, two spinoff films, as well as a mini-series. Despite the entries of the franchise not being critically lauded, there is still a certain amount of excitement when a new film is announced. This year’s entry is no different, and with names attached such as Katie Siegel, Christian and Justin Long, and Justin Martinez, V/H/S Beyond has been awaited with bated breath.
With its world premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest, V/H/S Beyond is not so much a display of horror linked by an era or the frame story, but is essentially a collection of stories that seek to explore what is beyond this earth. The wraparound directed by Jay Cheel, serves as a documentary-esque setting, containing videos of “proof” that extra-terrestrial beings and UFOs exist, yet causes the audience to question what exactly is proof and how do we challenge its authenticity. The first segment Stork from filmmaker Jordan Downey is a downright bizarre depiction of a police raid in a house that seems to be at the centre of mysterious child abductions. Virat Pal’s Dream Girl is a Bollywood extravaganza that seems to question the treatment and exploitation of film stars within the industry. Live and Let Die from Justin Martinez examines what could go wrong when skydiving, and it's not typically what an audience would expect. Christian and Justin Long’s segment, Fur Babies, sees fundamentalist animal rights activists invade a home of someone they suspect may be abusing animals and the debut directorial segment from Katie Siegel, Stowaway, portrays the extreme lengths to which a woman will go to gather proof, even if it destroys everything else in her life.
Anthologies can be extremely hit and miss, with very few containing consistently strong entries, something that the V/H/S franchise entries have suffered from previously, and despite V/H/S Beyond not feeling as creepy or as insidiously cursed like the first film, it is a completely cohesive collection of science-fiction horror shorts, with the filmmakers demonstrating the strengths of short form storytelling. Despite Fur Babies being less of an exploration of the type of outer-space unknown, it still is an equally horrific and darkly comedic delve into the unknown behind a typical neighbourhood house, and is possibly the highlight of the anthology. The first four entries are gruesome and will satiate the gorehounds amongst us, whilst Siegel’s Stowaway is more of a contemplative cosmic portrayal of an obsessive search for “truth”, paired with incredible design and a very typical Mike Flanagan script, who wrote the piece. Jay Cheel’s conclusion finishes with what could possibly be thought of as the most disturbing and intriguing closer of any V/H/S film so far.
3.5 Screams out of 5
V/H/S Beyond is released onto Shudder on October 4th.
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