V/H/S/Beyond

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.

Once again the V/H/S franchise proves its consistency is in its inconsistency of quality. From the framing tape you would expect that every one of these shorts would be about aliens, but even that isn't consistent as 2 out of the 6 tapes don't follow that theme. I personally don't like whenever the V/H/S franchise focuses on aliens, because due to the microbudget nature of these films, they almost always have to use CGI in order to create aliens/UFOs, which end up looking like trash. Not surprisingly, most of the aliens in this film have that exact same problem where the practical gore effects end up being pretty gnarly and nice, but nearly every time they use CGI it instantly takes me out of the film.

That being said the short "Stowaway", written by Mike Flanagan, actually makes great use out of the alien gimmick, as it is actually shot with a VHS camcorder (something that the V/H/S films are ironically using less and less of), which hides a lot of how amateurish the CGI effects usually can be. It also uses really clever cinematography to never fully reveal what the aliens in the short look like, making great use out of the fear of the unknown.

"Dream Girl" also showcases another major theme of the V/H/S films that foreign filmmakers always outclass their American counterparts. This one isn't about aliens at all, rather a couple of Mumbai native paparazzi who are assigned to get candids of a Bollywood sensation named Tara, who holds a dark secret. It's one of the shorter segments, but it goes pretty hard with some of the best gore in this film.

"Fur Babies" is the other segment that doesn't have any aliens at all, and while it starts off pretty weak, it ends up being pretty middle of the road due to how hilariously they push the concept. "Stork" is also fine, as while the creature design for the alien is pretty gnarly, being based off of the art of Oleg Vdovenko by the same name, it feels more like a video game than an actual horror movie. The gore and action just feel way too floaty and doesn't have the impact that it should.

"Live and Let Dive" is the worst one of the bunch, as it relies too much on the alien gimmick and I quite frankly could not take any of the CGI creatures seriously whenever they come on screen.

The framing tape is ultimately the most frustrating out of the bunch, as throughout we get spoonfed info about how 2 recently discovered video tapes about a missing man might finally prove the existence of aliens. We never really get enough context to actually be excited about what's on the tapes, and when it finally gets revealed at the very end of the movie, it ends up being extremely underwhelming. Yeah, the gore's cool and all, but I've been strung along for nearly 2 hours and this reveal was not worth the wait at all.

If you're already a fan of the V/H/S franchise you'll probably get a kick out of this, and it might provide some amusement if this is your first V/H/S film and you're bored looking for something to watch.

I have always been a huge fan of the V/H/S/-franchise and I enjoy Anthology-Horror-Movies in general. With the new V/H/S/Beyond having space as the overall theme I was really excited because Space-Horror is another favorite of mine. I personally didn't enjoy V/H/S/85 that much and I was hoping that this movie would bring the franchise back on track.

"Abduction/Adduction" is the Prologue of the movie and is this time made like a documentary-style with short additions coming in between each segment. It's an interesting idea and especially the last bit was quite terrifying, however it still doesn't come close to the first two movies that had really great prologue segments. [5,7/10]

"Stork" is the first real segment and it's about a police raid taking place in the house, where supposedly abducted babies have been brought. Shortly after arriving, chaos ensues and the police unit has to fight for their lives. The segment keeps introducing new little twists and towards the end I sat in front of my TV with my mouth wide open. This segment does what V/H/S/ can do best. It creates absolute carnage and gory footage with an absolute bonkers twist at the end. I really enjoyed it and it definitely is one of my favorite segments in the V/H/S/-franchise. (Safe Haven is the best). However this segment really was a great entry and I thoroughly enjoyed it. [8,3/10]

"Dream Girl" is about a Mumbai native paparazzi that hides in the trailer of the latest Bollywood Sensation "Tara". After he is caught hiding by her, he starts making her compliments which doesn't end well. This segment started off rather slow but once it got going it was an entertaining watch. Like the previous segment this one is equipped with brutal carnage and a gory finale which was enjoyable. [6,4/10]

"Live and Let Dive" it's about multiple people wanting to skydive from a plane, however they spot a UFO which the plane collides with, sending the passengers falling towards the ground. Once our main protagonist is on the ground the real terror begins because the remaining survivors of the plane crash are not alone. It was an amazing segment and the plane crash looked really great on camera. This one was right up my alley and I had great enjoyment watching it unfold. Some of the effects looked a little cheap however that didn't bother me too much with this being another unique and well-made segment. [8,2/10]

"Fur Babies" was directed by Justin Long and his brother Christian, which was definitely interesting. It's about an animal rights activist group that wants to investigate the home of a supposed dog daycare center but what they find won't make them too happy. The idea was definitely fun but I felt like this segment needed a little bit more money because even though it was enjoyable, it looked cheap and unconvincing at times. However it was a nice idea and had a similar approach to another movie Justin Long starred in... [5,9/10]

"Stowaway" was directed by Kate Siegel, which also got me really excited. It's about a woman documenting her findings of possible extraterrestrial encounters in the Mojave desert. One day she sees something falling from the sky and goes to investigate. The segment had a really great approach and I would have loved to see more of it. Sadly I think that the viewer is not shown enough to really enjoy the segment. There are only vague hints at what is going on exactly and it left me feeling a little empty and unsatisfied. [6,1/10]

Overall it's a pretty decent entry in the V/H/S/-franchise with two absolute banger segments which definitely stand out. None of the segments are boring or bad. Obviously the movie has flaws and you could tell there were budgetary limits at points, however I really enjoyed the watch and I think that V/H/S/-Beyond is a good entry for the franchise. Can't wait for the next one. [7,0/10]

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 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.