PLOT: A set of Halloween-themed videotapes unleashes a collection of twisted, blood-soaked tales, turning trick-or-treat right into a battle for survival.
REVIEW: I’ll be the primary to confess that discovered footage isn’t precisely for me. I usually discover the gimmick to be a bit stale, and it’s laborious to make it final convincingly for a whole movie. However I’ve actually discovered some appeal with the anthology aspect of the V/H/S collection. I’ve favored that it has basically turn out to be a yearly anthology collection, as a result of I all the time like some yearly familiarity in my horror. In contrast to a number of the latest ones, V/H/S/Halloween isn’t confined to a specific 12 months. As a substitute, we’re getting a number of tales which can be merely set on Halloween. Signal me up!
If that is your first time with the franchise, V/H/S tends to have a wraparound section that seems sporadically all through the movie, and many alternative brief tales in between. Not one of the segments join right here, and it’s all nearly Halloween vibes. As an enormous fan of the vacation (who in horror isn’t?), I actually simply needed Halloween ambiance and, for probably the most half, this movie delivers. In reality, I had a tough time choosing between “Home Haunt” and “Kidprint” as my favourite section, as they each understood the project. Even nonetheless, not one of the segments actually have that prime of ceilings, and there are nonetheless loads of flaws current. And don’t go into this anticipating a lot horror, because the comedy is ramped up right here, and there’s not a lot in the way in which of terror.
“Home Haunt” nearly looks like a basic Goosebumps story, with a person bringing house a mysterious vinyl to play throughout his Haunted Home. Nevertheless it finally ends up making his selfmade haunted home into one in every of absolute terror as real-life monsters take over and begin killing the patrons. It’s shot effectively, and with objective, and gives the very best Halloween vibes of the movie. I additionally actually loved the number of supernatural beings we get. “Kidprint” was disturbing and nearly had a Noticed really feel to it in elements. I additionally actually loved the wacky killer on the heart of all of it, however the low funds actually creeps in right here.
“Fun Size” and “Coochie Coochie Coo” are largely hampered by some fairly tough performing. They each took me out of it a bit. However I loved how each movies had been capable of handle that “trapped in a supernatural building” with out feeling too unbiased. There’s nothing worse than seeing an actor clearly have a simple escape, solely to disregard it due to the script. Each these segments do job of creating the characters really feel trapped. Sadly, in addition they require very silly characters to even be capable to advance the plot, which is one thing I’ll all the time discover irritating in a horror film.
The wraparound story, in case you may even name it that, “Diet Phantasma” is admittedly simply the identical factor again and again, with varied folks consuming a thriller soda and dying in horrible methods. I saved ready for it to interrupt the mould and do one thing completely different, but it surely’s the identical state of affairs rattling close to each time. And the payoff actually isn’t price it. This might have simply been a contained section, with the repeated deaths trimmed, and it most likely would have labored out loads higher.
The worst of the segments is definitely “Ut Supra Sic Infra.” It simply doesn’t have a lot in the way in which of scares and feels far too easy. It additionally doesn’t assist that it feels very indifferent from Halloween. Simply placing some characters in Halloween costumes doesn’t actually really feel prefer it’s sufficient. However I really feel like this all the time occurs with the V/H/S franchise, the place there’s all the time one section that feels very disconnected from the remainder, nearly just like the filmmakers didn’t fairly perceive the project.
In the end, I believe V/H/S/Halloween would have been a lot stronger had it simply centered on the stronger segments. However I suppose that might be true of any of the V/H/S movies at this level. However with a virtually 2-hour runtime, they simply may have trimmed out one of many weak hyperlinks, and the movie would have been higher off for it. I additionally discovered it very odd that there have been no recognizable filmmakers concerned. I really like Indie movie and discovering new expertise, however wasn’t the purpose of this collection to permit greater names throughout the style to make their very own little brief movies? I’m undecided if that is simply indicative of the place they’re taking the franchise or if it’s merely a one-off, however I’d actually like them to return to what labored earlier than. As is, this has some enjoyable segments, but it surely’s very tough across the edges and feels extra like watching rising filmmakers who haven’t fairly figured it out versus those that are consultants within the style, eager to toil in discovered footage.
V/H/S/Halloween is Streaming on Shudder on October third, 2025.
