V/H/S/Beyond

This is I believe the seventh of the V/H/S franchise to come out and this one has a theme focus on sci-fi horror and creatures from other planets. As with the other films, it is made up of several shorter segments telling various stories through the use of "found footage". The found footage horror genre is one that gets a pretty bad name from what I've seen, but I've personally found the V/H/S films to be some that do this better than most, however I felt this one fell a bit flat. I am actually quite surprised at the high rotten tomatoes rating on this. This is probably the least entertaining of the V/H/S franchise so far and the tie-in's with alien abduction tales was weak at best for most of the segments. The resorting to gore for most of the horror elements was a cheap replacement for telling a good story through the use of the found footage medium and style. Part of what made Blair Witch so terrifying was that you never saw the witch. You were terrified because the characters were terrified. I wasn't terribly engaged by these, nor was I disturbed as I have been from others. In other films I've found myself impacted and unable to stop thinking about at least one of the stories but for this one they each devolved into shock and gore and just left me bored.

The anthology V/H/S/ Beyond tries again with the found footage format, this time with a sci-fi approach. However, what seemed like an opportunity to revitalize the genre ended up limiting the creativity of the invited directors, resulting in a series of shorts that, overall, failed to surprise or leave a lasting impression.

Here's my take on each of the short films:

Stork: This short is quite simplistic. The plot is about 15 or 20 minutes of police officers killing strange creatures that look like zombies. There's an attempt at shock value in the end, with a bizarre moment, but honestly, it doesn't go beyond that. It felt like watching someone play a hyper-violent first-person shooter, where violence is the only focus. The final result is a short that doesn't challenge the viewer and sticks to the basics.

Dream Girl: Among all the shorts in the anthology, this was the most eccentric. We follow two paparazzi trying to sneak into the set of an Indian artist, but, as expected, the plan goes wrong. This segment stands out for its extreme level of violence, which may shock more sensitive viewers. Although it's not an easy watch, the unpredictability of not knowing the next move and the subtle reflection on AI kept me mildly interested. However, in terms of innovation or impact, Dream Girl wasn't strong enough to leave a lasting impression.

Live and Let Dive: This short film starts with an interesting premise: a group of friends goes skydiving but crashes into a spaceship. The possibilities for this narrative were vast, and it had the potential to be much more intriguing. Unfortunately, it ended up taking a lazy, cliché-filled path. I admit the scene where the protagonist falls through the open sky was visually interesting, but the rest of the short is let down by a weak narrative and, above all, terrible visual effects that looked like they came straight out of a PS2 game. I felt the segment didn't explore the originality of its premise, and it was a missed opportunity.

Fur Babies: This segment left me genuinely confused about how it fits within the sci-fi theme. The plot follows a group of young people investigating a strange and eccentric dog breeder, but aside from this odd premise, the short doesn't go much further. There are bizarre moments that suggest the story could have gone deeper, but it felt like everything was only halfway developed. The potential was there, but it lacked the ambition to really explore its ideas. Despite being weird and eccentric, it wasn't memorable either.

Stowaway: This was the short I was most looking forward to, mainly because it was directed by Kate Siegel, who I'm a fan of. The premise is interesting: a woman in the desert filming a documentary about aliens ends up entering a spaceship. The idea has a lot of potential, and you can tell the director had a vision for the project. However, the execution failed badly. The big issue is the cinematography: at a certain point, it becomes nearly impossible to understand what's happening on screen. I didn't expect it to be shot in IMAX, but the extreme commitment to realism ended up hurting the visual clarity of the narrative. In the end, it was frustrating because I felt there was a good story there, but the way it was presented made it confusing and hard to follow.

Overall, V/H/S/ Beyond fails to take full advantage of the potential that the sci-fi genre could have brought to the found footage format. Even though there are some interesting ideas and moments that grab attention, the execution of most of the shorts is too basic, predictable, or just unremarkable. This anthology could have been a great opportunity to explore new approaches within the genre, but it ultimately fell short of expectations.

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.

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!