V/H/S/BEYOND (2024)

New streaming on Shudder!
Directed by Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Virat Pal, Justin Martinez, Justin Long, Christian Long, Kate Segal.
Written by Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Kevin Stewart, Virat Pal, Evan Dickson, Ben Turner, Justin Martinez, Christian Long, Mike Flanagan.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/h1zNXVG6zTw

V/H/S has become a yearly tradition and with the last few films being pretty solid focusing on specific years, they tried something new and different this year and leaned further into sci fi horror. It’s a subgenre full of potential and I was looking forward to seeing what this new crop of filmmakers could do with it, even though in entries past, the concept of sci fi horror was often played with.

This time with V/H/S/BEYOND, they also tried a new format for a wraparound leaning more towards a mockumentary style with director Jay Cheel’s “Abduction/Adduction.” While this connective tissue to the film serves as a perfectly reasonable way to tie all of the stories together, it is by far the weakest part of the whole thing. Cheel previously did the Cursed Film series for Shudder and sticks with the documentary format for this wraparound. It’s just that the lead up to the big reveal where we see the video tapes of an apparent abduction in the last minutes of the film where a four eyed grey alien appears felt anti-climactic compared to the rest of the film. Less of a story and more of a way to tie these tales together, I found the wraparound to be lacking.

Now the film really gets rolling started with Jordan Downey and Kevin Stewart’s truly ballistic “Stork” about a team of rogue cops who search out strange and unexplained cases. This one moves extremely fast and plunges the team into a house of horrors as they investigate a spree of child abductions. I liked the way the story was explained on the fly, keeping the pace brisk and punchy. Once the guns start blazing, it plays out like a first person shooter game as the film comes from police body cams. While there are some scenes that feel staged, like when the cops’ line up in front of the house dramatically, the story evolves into a gleeful blood spattered descent into hell. Cool designs for the aliens and wanton carnage ensues. This is from the maniacs behind the truly awesome THE HEAD HUNTER and the absolutely ludicrous THANKSKILLING, and even pays homage to the killer bird with a disturbing and wonderfully designed bird-like alien creature. Good stuff.

Next up is “Dream Girl” by Virat Pal and Evan Dickson. Evanston Dickson from V/H/S/85 returns to write and Pal directs bringing a Bollywood feel to the segment about a popular actress whose beauty is too good to be true. While this one didn’t rock my world, I do appreciate it that the V/H/S series is giving some international filmmakers a chance. Still, this segment left me wanting more.

“Live and Let Dive” by Justin Martinez and Ben Turner is probably my favorite of the bunch. A group of skydivers are hit by a UFO in the air and are forced to jump for their lives. Along with the panicking parachuters follows a few alien creatures out to do…something involving brain draining. This one gets points for the unique location as the survivors land in the middle of an orange tree plantation. It’s wonderfully chaotic as the survivors scamper around the rows and rows of trees, searching for their friends and running into aliens instead. Justin Martinez and Ben Turner who did segments for SOUTHBOUND and the original V/H/S are the ones responsible for this gory adrenaline rush of a segment.

“Fur Babies” is by actor Justin Long and his brother Christian Long and it seems the Longs were inspired by Justin’s work on Kevin Smith’s TUSK as basically, it’s the same premise as that body horror shocker. It’s about a dog sitter who has a penchant for taxidermy and body modification who is infiltrated by animal rights activists. But the activists don’t know how twisted this doggie daycare truly is. I loved the effects and premise of “Fur Babies” and the dog things are quite disturbing. This has Justin Long’s warped sense of humor written all over it and while it is one of the lighter segments, it definitely is one of the more gruesome. Still, “Fur Babies” feels out of place compared to the rest of the more sci fi leaning entries.

“Stowaway” is made from a story by Mike Flanagan and the first-time directing effort from his partner/actress Kate Segal. It follows a plucky reporter investigating the Phoenix Lights and happening upon some kind of vessel in the middle of the desert. Upon entering the vessel, she finds all sorts of otherworldly tech that is beyond understanding. This is a wonderful little story with a lot of gory creativity going on. It’s by far the most complete story of the bunch as most of the entries simply come to an abrupt ending. “Stowaway” has a tragic and EC comics style poetic ending that wraps up the film strongly.

V/H/S/BEYOND shows how versatile this series truly is. While adding the mockumentary style isn’t new—they did it in the last one, the wraparound did work well to tie the stories together despite not really offering a payoff. I think one thing this series needs is to focus more on telling a complete story rather than relying on the tried and true “the tape just stopped” ending. “Stowaway” proved a solid, resonant ending is possible and more attention to narrative would make these installments so much better. As is, this is another strong installment and I’m already wondering for what this ongoing series has in store for us next year.

Like, Share, and Subscribe already!!!

Help me out at my Patreon page here – https://www.patreon.com/MLMiller
Read written reviews and my comics news at https://mlmillerwrites.com/
Follow me on Twitter @Mark_L_Miller

Want some spooky comics? My two new trade paperback collections of PIROUETTE and GRAVETRANCERS are out now! Please show your support and let your comic shop know you NEED a copy! If they’re out, tell them to order more!

You can find your local comic shop on the Comic Shop Locator. https://www.comicshoplocator.com/

Music Written by Tim Heidecker
Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
(I do not own this music)