From Jeff Nelson

The V/H/S franchise has been stretched every which way across the horror genre, allowing filmmakers to play in a creative vignette-based sandbox. As with any other anthological format, the shorts vary in quality. Nevertheless, the first two installments captured some memorable tales ranging from scary to campy. The franchise sought cohesion in time settings with V/H/S/94, 99, and 85. V/H/S/Beyond ties its segments together with an extraterrestrial link that provides another form of unity, but it still suffers from many of the same issues as other recent installments.

Six new tapes emerge, capturing seemingly impossible phenomena. This time, each segment captures sci-fi terrors that challenge the notion that aliens don’t exist. They’re all different variations of unfriendly.

This film’s framing device comes in a documentary form, written and directed by Cursed Films writer/director/editor Jay Cheel. It beckons to the stereotypical program on extraterrestrial life, inviting experts to speak on the topic and how humanity’s beliefs have changed over time. The talking heads bookend each segment, pulled from an anonymous Redditor who purchased the tapes at a flea market. It isn’t the worst wraparound story in the V/H/S franchise, but it does lack creep factor.

Jordan Downey’s “Stork” is the first and most straightforward tape. The police track down a dilapidated house full of dangerous, unknown threats after a pattern of missing babies leads them there. The creature design and gory practical effects are the most impressive part of this overall entertaining short.

The carnage continues in Virat Pal’s “Dream Girl,” following two paparazzi who are willing to do anything to get the best shot of superstar Tara on her latest Bollywood movie set. They discover a horrifying secret with dire consequences. The bloodshed is high, but its baffling execution is just a disorienting mess. 

Conceptually, Justin Martinez hits one of the most shocking goldmines of the bunch with “Live and Let Dive.” A group of friends go skydiving for a birthday celebration. Their fun is cut short when they collide with a UFO, sending them into a free fall and a fight for survival. The terror involving the “skydiving gone wrong” is substantial enough without the aliens. Unfortunately, it doesn’t reach those highs again soon after they reach the Earth’s surface, turning into a generic cat-and-mouse game with lackluster CGI work.

Christian and Justin Long co-direct the strange “Fur Babies.” An animal rights group investigates a taxidermist’s home after they suspect that she’s harboring a disturbing secret. Justin brought very familiar energy to the other side of the camera from Tusk (2014) and it’s certainly the oddest of the bunch. The gross-out factor isn’t enough to save that it doesn’t really know what to do with its concept.

Actor-turned-director Kate Siegel’s segment stands out from the bunch with “Stowaway.” A woman treks into the Mojave Desert to investigate the appearance of strange lights in the sky, ultimately finding exactly what she’s looking for. The premise doesn’t have any fancy bells and whistles, but it does win points for concocting a style and mood that feels genuinely distinct from the other vignettes. It’s the only one that actually feels like it comes from a video cassette, capturing true horror. Too much of this franchise feels overly digital and clean.

The sci-fi alien sub-genre pulls the tapes into a more cohesive movie that avoids the earlier installments’ erratic tone. This direction opens many new doors for the franchise’s future, but the shorts could use some tightening up. Even when the setups are good, they seem to run on until they hit a creative wall without a satisfying conclusion.

More recent installments to this horror anthology series steer clear of what is scary and thrilling in favor of disorienting the audience. Even the most interesting setups are battered down by poor execution the longer they run on. Siegel’s “Stowaway” is the best in this installment, going above and beyond to create horror that lingers. V/H/S/Beyond works best when it embraces the technology suggested in its name to look and feel like the footage was found on video cassette tapes, tricking the audience into believing we’re watching something we shouldn’t be. 

Rating: 2/5

V/H/S/Beyond played at Fantastic Fest 2024 on September 20th. It streams on Shudder starting on October 4th, 2024.

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