V/H/S/94

V/H/S franchise started during the found-footage phenomenon and has been noteworthy for offering new, up-n-coming horror filmmakers an avenue to demonstrate their creative talent. This anthology series has always been a mixed bag as a whole but there's no denying that it has a cult following. Having spawned a few sequels since its inception, V/H/S/94 is the latest entry in the saga.

The film features four short segments connected by a frame narrative that follows a police raid being conducted at an abandoned warehouse which contains remnants of a ritualistic cult mass suicide. It has a grittier, gorier & more unholy feel than its predecessors and also features shorts that are collectively in closer proximity in their tone n mood, which makes it better than its predecessors.

The first short is Storm Drain, written & directed by newcomer Chloe Okuno, and follows a news reporter & her cameraman as they investigate an urban legend. It has a grainy, dirty aesthetic that adds to its uneasy vibe, plus the film just takes its absurd premise and runs with it. The old-school creature effects are done well and it definitely evokes the early 90s feel while offering some splendid scares.

The second short The Empty Wake is written & directed by franchise returnee Simon Barrett and unfolds at a funeral home where a young woman is assigned to host a wake as a severe thunderstorm rages outside. It's a simple & straightforward segment with predictable scares that are routine and has got nothing new or refreshing to offer. But the interest doesn't fizzle out at least and that's the only good thing about it.

The third segment is hands down my favourite and single-handedly makes this sequel worth the price of admission. Written & directed by Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes For Us & May the Devil Take You), The Subject is a crazy blend of body horror, sci-fi & action that splatters the screen with blood, guts & metal and is crafted with glee & passion. Tjahjanto lets his love for excess take over and brings his short to life with brain & brutality.

The final short is Terror, written & directed by Ryan Prows, and concerns a white supremacist group plotting to blow up a government building and take back America. It aptly captures the brainwashed vision of such losers but is also unsettling when demonstrating their devotion to the cause. But once it escalates into a mayhem, it's just fun, hilarious & entertaining to watch and culminates on a bloody good note even if the scares are by the numbers.

Overall, V/H/S/94 makes for a better evolved & more fulfilling entry in the infamous franchise and features a better collection of short segments that keeps the entire ride tense & thrilling for the most part. The acting is all over the place but the 90s video culture vibe & aesthetics are carried out with finesse. It's the frame narrative actually that turns out to be the weakest of all but it doesn't derail the good portions. Worth viewing for madman Tjahjanto's segment alone.

Well I've waited for this for a very long time. I love the first one, second one was decent ("Safe Haven" the best of them all), Viral was not good, and by the trailer I expected more.

The first segment was ok, didn't really scare me, even though it was a bit creepy, so I'll give it a pass. The one with the doctor and robots was the best one of the whole movie!! So cool and futuristic! He's done it again.

The other segments were.. well.. boring and not good. The entire general plot was not good. Too bad, the vibe did remind me of the first one but the first VHS has so many good and scary stories, you just can't compare. Please - if you do another one, do BETTER stories, not just strange monsters.

Timo Tjajhanto's segment "The Subject" is the vivid standout in this messy found-footage sequel which heads back to its grainy-cassette-tape roots. After the last installment bombed, it needed franchise returnees Timo Tjajhanto and Simon Barett, plus a conceptualizer in David Bruckner to inject some interest back into this anthology series. Similar to the "Safe Haven" segment by Gareth Evans and Timo Tjajhanto in V/H/S 2, Timo pulls off yet another audio-visual showcase here that melds CGI and practical effects in an action-packed (but non-scary) thirty-minute stretch shot entirely in first-person. This segment towers over the rest in terms of its core idea, slick production design, and bucketfuls of gore. It's the only segment worth revisiting in the film altogether.

I also enjoyed Chloe Okuno's Storm Drain in bits & pieces, especially for its typical found-footage claustrophobia, wacky effects, and an unexpected tinge of dark humor. Simon Barett's "The Empty Wake" initially gets its mood and atmosphere right before squandering all of it for something unintentionally laughable. The exciting bits in Ryan Prows' "Terror" are far too less to really mean anything other than its authentic '90s touches. Jennifer Reeder's wraparound segment "Holy Hell" suffers from poor performances and frequent breaks - the tension is wholly lacking. What's uniformly remarkable all through is the film's aesthetics. The news reports actually resemble the ones from the 90s; there's also retro CGI and even a fake infomercial that looks too darn legit. Add some grunge music, CRT televisions, and shades of the early internet into the mix, and we get a pretty decent throwback of sorts.

The V/H/S series has always been incredibly hit or miss. The first one, V/H/S, was interesting in that a lot of the shorts challenged (at the time) what the idea of found footage could be and used unconventional cameras (glasses cam, webcam, etc) to provide a different perspective on what a horror film was. While interesting, it didn't always work in practice as those segments had myriad issues (too slow, too much filler, too much obnoxious camera glitching, etc) which kept them from being all that good or entertaining. Thankfully V/H/S 2 significantly improved the formula, and it is still imo the best of the bunch. Things sadly took a nosedive in the highly forgettable V/H/S: Viral, but I'm happy to say that they've rebounded in the 4th offering and V/H/S94 is more or less good all around.

Wraparound story - "Holy Hell" - the idea of this one is really cool, with a SWAT team going into the abandoned compound of a death cult. Unfortunately this is one of the weakest segments due to the extremely poor film quality, cheap effects, and some of the worst acting I've ever seen committed to film which manages to get worse the longer the segment goes on. I would've liked to see a more expanded story as it definitely had potential, but I feel like I never had any idea what they were supposed to be doing.

"Storm Drain" - this one starts off kind of slow and between that and the lame wraparound intro, I was thinking this whole anthology would be a bust. However, this one gets significantly better as it goes along and ends up being pretty good. The sewers provide interesting, dark, and very creepy atmosphere-- vaguely reminiscent of As Above, So Below. This very much feels like what you'd expect from a found footage vhs horror film and I think nails what the series is all about.

"The Empty Wake" - this one also starts off slow as well, most of it is a lady sitting around at a somewhat unsettling wake, but it gets pretty good when it picks up. It's rather short and you get almost nothing in the way of story or development, but there are some cool visuals & gore, and it's suitably creepy.

"The Subject" - holy crap, this one is absolutely INCREDIBLE. This is by far the longest and most detailed of any of the segments, and the film quality is a lot better than everything else. The Subject is on par with "Safe Haven" from v/h/s 2 (the indonesian death cult one) as undoubtedly the best of the entire series...which makes sense as it turns out that the writer/director Timo Tjahjanto also wrote Safe Haven (along with The Raid's Gareth Evans). You get a mad scientist turning people into robots whose secret lab gets raided by the police - lots of really good body horror, violence, and gore. This one gets a little cheesy and video game-y at times, but overall it's incredible - very engaging and well made. Also, by far the least likely to have ever been transferred to a vhs tape lol.

"Terror" - this one had potential, but never fully realized it. You have a group of extremist militia guys who have some kind of secret weapon and are going to attack a federal building. I found this to be entertaining; it was realistic enough while also being suitably tongue-in-cheek. It had a decent build up, but it kind of fizzled out before ever hitting a satisfying crescendo. I think this one needed more time to develop the story and it could have been significantly better; once the "action" starts, it feels like they kind of rushed to end it which leaves you feeling like "oh...that's it?". I will say that this one felt very "vhs-y" and definitely nailed the vibe of what this whole series is about, however it's still the weakest segment other than the wraparound.

Overall, this is an enjoyable anthology. It offers one of, if not the, best segments of the entire film series, and 3 other segments ranging from decent to pretty good. And while the wraparound was quite weak (and generally they always are), it had a couple redeeming qualities. These found footage films aren't for every horror fan, but if that's your thing than it's definitely worth a watch and it's definitely better than VHS: Viral.

This is easily the weakest instalment in the franchise with no single standout part to pull it through. This entry also has the single highest use of fake grain overlay of any of the movies making it almost unwatchable.

It's like tales from the crypt, only worse, much worse.