PLOT: The same V/H/S franchise you know and love. Stuffed to the gills with Halloween goodness across multiple anthology segments.
REVIEW: V/H/S has, in its own way, filled the shoes of two different franchises over the last few years. It’s become the gnarly sequel machine Saw used to be (if you remember, it used to feel like a new Saw movie came out every year around October). But it’s also a kind of modern Faces of Death. Obviously, no one is being tricked into thinking any of this is real in today’s day and age. But this franchise has created itself a nice little niche where it can get away with whatever the hell it wants and it revels in it. This adds a sense of danger to everything the same way that Cineverse has been able to do with the Terrifier franchise. You don’t know what to expect because these guys can get away with it.
When it comes to this newest entry, expect the usual: A handful of fresh found footage anthologies that make you feel like you’re doing something wrong just by watching. But this sequel keeps it fresh by doing a few things differently.
For starters, it feels like there’s a bit more comedy this time around. There’s still a fine collection of “I need to shower with a steel loofah after watching this” moments. Only with just a few more comedic gags than usual. For instance, the glue surrounding the entire anthology is an ongoing segment taking place in a lab. What takes place there is so over-the-top disrespectful to the value of human life that you can’t help but laugh out loud. Men, women, and children are treated as something as disposable as packing peanuts and you can’t help but giggle at the anarchy.
The addition of the Halloween theme this year really keep things from getting stale as well. Most surprising is that they inject the franchise with holiday atmosphere in their own authentic and depraved way. V/H/S isn’t trying to replicate the season-soaked opening of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (though that’s never a bad idea). Instead, they take the Halloween aesthetic you know and love, dip it in the Men’s room toilet of a trashy 7/11, sprinkle some genital jokes in, and call it a day. Somehow, it works. I’m just a few percentage points even more psyched for the Halloween season. Which is exactly what the assignment was here. I just won’t be eating any phallic shaped chocolates. I mean, not that I would have before.
V/H/S Halloween is perfect spooky season viewing for the initiated. For the uninitiated, you might feel like they are watching something they aren’t supposed to see. Hence The Faces of Death reference earlier. It’s easy to go out and do something just for shock factor. It’s much harder to sustain something annually celebrated by horror fans that still manages to stay innovative and entertaining. Perhaps what is most impressive about V/H/S Halloween is that a franchise with a handful of new filmmakers every year is able to keep a finger on the pulse of exactly what the franchise tick.
So, if you like the V/H/S franchise, you aren’t skipping V/H/S Halloween. It’s the same disreputable party you’ve been attending every year, now featuring horror fan’s favorite holiday. And this viewer wouldn’t mind if the franchise pivoted to being Halloween themed every year. Though I will say it could have benefited from ending the party a few minutes earlier. It gets to be a lot to take in on the ole eyeballs after a while and loses its edge. But either way, another solid addition.
