Movie Review: V/H/S HALLOWEEN

It wouldn’t be Halloween without another installment in the V/H/S found-footage anthology series, so it’s only appropriate that this latest entry (the ninth!) is themed around the holiday. As usual for this kind of film the entries can be hit or miss, though as has recently been the case for this franchise, the hits once again outweigh the misses even if nothing here quite rises to the level of the most memorable segments found in previous titles.

There is of course a wraparound segment, ostensibly to tie the disparate stories together, though this time there is no attempt to do so and instead these moments, written and directed by Bryan M. Ferguson, follow some employees of the Octagon Company as they test their latest soda, Diet Phantasma, on a group of potential consumers. The formula is in dire need of work however, as each of their test subjects quickly meet increasingly outrageous and gruesome fates. There is an enjoyable dark humor to these, but they don’t really amount to much and have literally nothing to do with the rest of the movie aside from perhaps setting the general tone.

The first full segment is “Coochie Coochie Coo” by Anna Zlokovic (Appendage), which follows a pair of high school seniors who decide to go out for one more night of trick-or-treating before college breaks them apart. A group of children mock them as being too old for the activity and tell them that a local urban legend known as “The Mommy” will get them but they laugh it off and continue with their fun. This being a horror movie, you can probably guess what happens next. There are some genuinely creepy visuals in this segment, but it feels a little too derivative of other better movies and shorts, including from the V/H/S series.

This is followed up by “Ut Supra Sic Infra” by Paco Plaza ([•REC]) and Alberto Marini (Sleep Tight). After opening up with grisly crime scene photos, we see Spanish Police interviewing Enric, the lone survivor of whatever transpired in those images. For some reason, it is decided that having him reenact the events of the night in question will help provide answers and so he is dragged back to the isolated crime scene and made to go through the motions, which include repeating the title Latin phrase, an obviously bad idea. Bloody chaos ensues. Plaza knows how to generate suspense and does so capably here, even if the story is a little weak. The grisly finish leaves a strong impression however.

Third up is “Fun Size” by Casper Kelly, who is best known for his outré Adult Swim projects like the sitcom Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell and the viral short “Too Many Cooks”. He brings his over-the-top sense of humor and penchant for violent imagery to this segment that sees a group of friends magically transported to a strange factory after one of the group takes a second piece of candy from an unwatched bowl that warns to only “take one”. It’s a Halloween-specific lesson that’s hardly new to horror (it’s not even the first time it appears in this movie) and it’s played too much for laughs to be frightening despite some very graphic violence and a frenetic pace. Still, it features a memorably odd villain and understands its cheesiness enough to be entertaining regardless.

Alex Ross Perry’s (Her Smell) segment “Kidprint” comes the closest to eliciting the eerie sense that you are watching something that you shouldn’t be that V/H/S and V/H/S/2 trafficked in as it follows a town reeling from the recent murders of several children. When local video store owner Tim uncovers the truth about what is happening it’s genuinely disquieting in a way that nothing else here is. Perry is not afraid to push the limits of what a movie can show us and the end result will likely be too much for some viewers, occasionally calling to mind Japan’s notorious Guinea Pig movies. The dark subject matter makes it feel more than a little out of place with the more “fun” focused shorts that surround it, but it’s certainly the most traditionally scary and unsettling part of the entire project.

Things come to a close with Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman’s “Home Haunt”, that sees a backyard haunted house come violently to life after the host plays a cursed record. Of every entry here this is the one that most feels like it would work as a full-length feature, with an interesting emotional core about a son outgrowing the hobbies he once shared with his father leading up to an absolutely bonkers payoff. The Normans revel in the insanity their set-up has afforded them which allows them to deliver the most purely enjoyable tale here.

There is a bit more focus on humor at the expense of scares this time around and the pacing is so universally frenzied that one can’t help but wish at least one segment had been a little more subdued, but as per usual for the series the end mix adds up to what will likely be the wildest movie of the year. If your friend group is suitably “messed up” this will make for some great Halloween party viewing. ★★★