V/H/S/Beyond

I am a simple man, if I see found footage horror, I watch... Even though is hard to maintain good quality after so many movies the V/H/S cinematic universe keep driving me there, getting me back and excited to watch them, to see what they are coming up with this time. Maybe its the nostalgia as a 90s kid speaking or how amazed l got the first time l watched The Blair Witch Project (which definetly started my love for the found footage genre) I dont know.

I have to say though, not as good as the last one in the VFX department, and the first "tape" especially the creature looks like an inflatable costume more than a monster and the babies there is no way you can take your mind off of how doll-like they look, but l liked the "Resident Evil-esque" approach. The camera shots were great, I loved them.

The cameo from "VFX artist react" was a quite a surprise really been following their channel for years.

The acting was good enough in general, maybe some over acting sometimes but nothing too "cringe" imo.

The ending was weird and anti-climatic but whatever, you are not watching a Martin Scorsese film anyways.

This anthology series is a bit of a mixed bag, as they often are, but for horror fans, I almost reluctantly admit that I was entertained! I've seen a lot of horror but I had a blast with these varied stories. It's absolutely worth a look. While there's a theme threading through the segments, not all entries stick closely to it, which makes me think some of these may have been salvaged from earlier V/H/S projects, perhaps due to deadline or editing limits (I know what you're thinking but no - I dont think they were b-roll fillers). The UFO element doesn't resonate that much with me personally so for me it was no big deal. It's a solid horror, creatively executed.

I was a big fan of the VHS series of movies, but I've been very disappointed in the last two movies. HOWEVER, this one is pretty good! The first two movies in the VHS series were very well done, with some unique stories and good scares. I rated them an 8 out of 10.

But the next two were near absolute garbage to me. Not sure what went wrong but something went very wrong with them.

But, with this new movie they get back to what made the VHS series so great. This movie had very unique stories and a couple of decent scares. The main focus was aliens this time.

So if you didn't like the last two movies, give this one a chance, I think it is very well done. 👍

7/10.

As a documentary detailing a popular alien abduction site in Toronto plays, the footage is interrupted by various vignettes showing supernatural (though mainly extraterrestrial) encounters.

V/H/S/Beyond is the seventh entry in the V/H/S franchise that starting with soft reboot V/H/S/94 has become a regular staple of horror streaming service Shudder. The producers opted to have this installment being sci-fi based (as a sort of in-joke on horror franchises such as Hellraiser and Friday the 13th going into space in certain entries) and what results is something that's not without charm, but is in my opinion one of the lesser entries in the series.

The main narrative thread, Jay Cheel's Abduction/Adduction, following a documentary involving investigating a popular alien abduction spot in Toronto and anonymous alien proof tapes from a Redditor is nicely produced I guess and feels like something you'd see on one of those "Aliens: Fact or Fiction?" type shows, but while it's well produced with some humorous moments it doesn't really have a big payoff nor is it all that scary even with its ending stinger that was kind of disappointing.

The next segment, the Jordan Downey directed Stork written by Downey with Kevin Stewart, follows a group of cops who are part of a unit called W. A. R. D. E. N. investigating a rash of kidnapped infants (one of whom is a team member's child) and the raid reveals the abductors are not of this Earth. Essentially a police ride-along where the perps are monsters, it's an idea that's certainly been done before such as the short lived series Death Valley or the standalone X-Files episode X-Cops, but for what it is it delivers even if the monsters sometimes veer into silliness.

The second segment, the Virat Pal directed Dream Girl which Pal writes with Evan Dickson, follows two Paparazzi in Mumbai seeking to get footage of Bollywood star Tara only to discover beneath Tara's delicate beauty lurks something colder and deadly. The short covers very familiar territory satirizing the cult of celebrity and impossible beauty standards albeit transplanting it outside the usual Hollywood setting and into the Indian entertainment industry through a western lens. It goes through the motions well enough, though the reveal as to what Tara is goes into territory so ridiculous and prompting further questions that its brutal finale is more funny than scary.

The third segment, The Justin Martinez directed Live and Let Dive which Martinez writes with Ben Turner, follows a group of characters celebrating the birthday of one of their own by taking him skydiving only for the celebration to be cut short with the arrival of a UFO, some military fighter jets, and a mid air collision that sends the survivors hurtling downward. The segment has some good buildup and an excellent middle portion where we follow the POV through a go-pro struggling to open his chute in mid-air, but once on the ground it goes into very standard territory with characters rushing around an orange grove with an alien monster that's not all that unique or special. In short: excellent setup, standard payoff.

The penultimate short, Fur Babies written and directed by brothers Christian and Justin Long, follows a group of animal rights activists investigating a dog daycare run by Becky (Libby Letlow) by going undercover as dog boarders only to discover Becky's professed love of dogs manifests as a violent hatred of humans. Largely throwing away "sci-fi" theme of this short, Fur Babies instead goes into more bodily mutilation territory similar to Human Centipede or Tusk (rather funny because Justin Long was in Tusk). The biggest asset to the short is definitely Libby Letlow as Becky who's just fantastic in the role playing someone cloyingly sweet who can turn on a dime and reveal an ugly darkness within. I'd honestly compare it to something like Kathy Bates' performance as Annie Wilkes from Misery she's that good. Even as someone who didn't like Human Centipede or Tusk, I actually did kind of like this one for how insane it got with the directions it takes.

The final short, Stowaway directed by Kate Siegel and written by her husband Mike Flanagan, follows a woman named Halley (Alanah Pearce) who having left her family behind travels to the Mojave Desert to investigate alien sightings and finds and boards an alien ship where she uses technology that's not "user friendly" when it comes to humans. This is probably the best realized take on the whole sci-fi concept as Siegel and Flanagan create something truly memorable and alien without even having a traditional antagonist as the aliens seem largely unaware or indifferent to Halley's presence on board. The ship features some excellent creepy production design and a healing technology leads to some solid body horror that's reminiscent of something like Croneberg's The Fly.

As with many anthologies V/H/S/Beyond is a mixture of peaks and valleys, but ultimately I felt the peaks were outnumbered by the valleys. While I liked Stowaway, the frame story and other sci-fi based shorts were very underwhelming in my opinion. And while I respected the insane turns taken by Justin and Christian Long's Fur Babies as a spiritual sequel to Tusk of all things with a great performance by Libby Letlow, I do have to question its placement here when it strays so far from what's supposed to be the core theme of this installment. Some good things to appreciate, but definitely the lesser of the Shudder era franchise entries while being better than V/H/S and Viral.

I love the V/H/S franchise with all my heart. Each year I am very excited to see what new AND interesting spooky stories we will get to experience.

Beyond focus on aliens which is new to the serie! The narrative story felt alright to me, i wasn't very much intrigued like the previous entries, but it did manage to laydown properly the fondation of what we were going to see.

Now into the fun spooky stories! Without going into spoilers, for me V/H/S Beyond started with what I can only consider one of the best story of the whole franchise. I can safely say it will remain with me for a while. After this one I was afraid that because it was so good, the remaining ones might be a let down, but I was wrong. The second and third story were also very new and fun! Didn't expect it at all to dive (pun intended) into this direction. I was hooked and couldn't look away!

Sadly, the 4th story is where things fell of for me. It just felt boring and not very spooky. It felt very off beat compare to the other stories. Nothing that will remain in memory for me. The 5th story althought it did feel more inline with the main narrative, felt also a bit boring. Its extremly slow and predictable. It's intended too, but the way this is shot is so dark i kept trying to see what was going on. Sadly, these two last film take about 50minutes and killed any momentum the movie had for me.

You are left with the final snippet of the story narrative and it was weird and a bit dull. Overall, VHS Beyond lacks a bit of charmed but had some memorable stories that still makes the movie worth the time. I would have reorder stories to leave the first one as the last. The last two VHS movies were better, but Beyond is far better than Viral, definitely the worst. Don't expect too much and you should like it!