In my review of V/H/S/Beyond out of Fantastic Fest 2024, I described anthology horror as a box of chocolates (okay, Forrest Gump). It seems fitting to expand on that hackneyed metaphor for the latest installment in the long-running found footage franchise, V/H/S/Halloween, which celebrated its world premiere at this year’s festival. If most anthologies are a box of chocolates, V/H/S/Halloween is a trick-or-treat pail stuffed with mystery candy, some from familiar faces, others from creepy neighbors you barely know.
There might be a razor blade hidden in its sugary depths, but damn if that’s going to stop me from plunging my hand back in for another bite.
Aspartame Is the Least of Your Worries with “Diet Phantasma”
V/H/S/Halloween is made up of five segments and the obligatory wraparound story. There are a few entries that harken back to the franchise’s darker beginnings, but the tone this time around is overwhelmingly kooky, befitting of the seasonal theme.
This is established from the first appearance of the frame narrative, “Diet Phantasma.” From Scottish director Bryan M. Ferguson, best known for creating music videos for artists like Boy Harsher, “Diet Phantasma” is presented as internal documentation from a corporation attempting to perfect its new soda in time for a Halloween rollout. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting focus group, drinking the soda causes a few… side effects. Cue heads exploding and tentacles bursting from cans, all while the staff watching from behind the glass glance at the camera like they’re in The Office.
The V/H/S franchise has always struggled with its frame narratives, leading it to largely ditch any attempt to tie its segments together cohesively in later entries. While it does feel like the films have lost part of their identity as a result, “Diet Phantasma” serves as a welcome palate cleanser between the self-contained segments. It’s always a delight to revisit, and Ferguson turns up the dial on the madness every time we cut back, punctuated by the always-amusing punchline of the “For Internal Use Only” memo flashing up on screen. If Shudder doesn’t sell a promotional can around the film’s release, they’re really missing a trick.
There’s No Need to Only Take One from This Candy Bucket
After whetting the audience’s appetite with its frame narrative, V/H/S/Halloween unwraps its first treat-size candy bar: “Coochie Coochie Coo” from Anna Zlokovic, director of Hulu’s Appendage. With shades of Hansel and Gretel if it took place in the universe of Barbarian, the segment introduces us to two teens on the cusp of leaving for college who decide to have one last Halloween hurrah. Dressed as babies, they wreak a little gentle havoc trick-or-treating in their neighborhood before finding themselves drawn to an impossibly alluring house that all the other kids seem to be skipping. Of course, “Coochie Coochie Coo” quickly reveals this to be a house of horrors with something more disturbing (and disgusting) lurking around every corner.
It’s a stellar start, anchored by leads who are unusually likable for a story like this and some great gross-out effects, while also introducing a theme that will crop up repeatedly in the film: if you fuck around with the unofficial rules of Halloween, you’d better be prepared to find out.
Unpacking “Ut Supra Sic Infra”
Zlokovic’s segment is followed by “Ut Supra Sic Infra” from [REC] director Paco Plaza. A bunch of teens died horribly on Halloween night after breaking into the house of an infamous medium, and the police are grilling the only survivor to understand what happened—and why the bodies have no eyes. Plaza cuts back and forth between material recovered from the teens’ phones and present-day police cam footage, breaking the immediacy and immersion of the subgenre more than a little, but the conclusion he’s building to will make you forgive any found footage sins.
Speaking of the conventions of the subgenre, V/H/S/Halloween’s middle segment, “Fun Size,” pokes fun at them right off the bat by having two of its leads dressed as characters in a found footage horror movie, complete with cameras strapped to their faces. They’re out trick-or-treating with another couple, but the specter of an unwanted engagement is dampening the mood. Things take a turn for the weird when they discover a bowl of unusual candy outside a house, but when one of the guys disobeys the order to only “take one,” they discover exactly how the sausage gets made.
From Casper Kelly, co-creator of the hilarious Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell, “Fun Size” does everything you could possibly want it to do and more, introducing bizarre mascots, a killer conveyor belt, and more, all brought to candy-colored life through some impressively silly practical effects.
But Does V/H/S/Halloween Deliver On the Horror?
In fact, “Fun Size” is so much fun that the penultimate segment, Alex Ross Perry’s “Kidprint,” suffers slightly as a result. Sandwiched between two campy stories and equally unhinged wraparound interludes, “Kidprint” stands out starkly for its unflinching portrayal of true evil. The story concerns a company that makes videos of children in case they go missing. It’s almost Halloween and a lot of parents are understandably concerned about letting their kids go out after a spate of disappearances. Perry draws performances out of his young actors that feel uncomfortably real, giving the segment a gritty, snuff-like quality that we haven’t seen in the franchise for some time. It’s good, dark stuff, but the tonal whiplash will leave the taste of blood in your mouth.
Closing out V/H/S/Halloween is “Home Haunt” from Micheline Pitt-Norman & R.H. Norman. Centering on a dad desperately trying to reignite the passion as his son grows up and loses interest in the elaborate haunted houses they build together every year, “Home Haunt” feels the most classically Halloween of the bunch, filled to the brim with nostalgic imagery. That nostalgia is what gives the segment its heart: how many of us wish we could go back to the simpler Halloweens of days gone by, when it was still magical for our kids, or when we were kids ourselves?
But this is far from a melancholy story, and the fun begins in earnest when a cursed LP brings the haunt to life, slaying everyone in sight, including SFX legend Rick Baker in a pitch-perfect comedic cameo. If this segment is anything to go by, the directors’ upcoming feature, body horror flick Cosmetic, should be on everyone’s radar.
V/H/S/Halloween Is All Treats, with a Few Tricks up Its Sleeve
I’m conscious of how many times I’ve used the word “fun” already in this review, but it’s really the operative word to describe V/H/S/Halloween, a film that will make you wonder why it took the franchise so long to get to this theme—and what other holidays it could and perhaps should tackle next.
There’s truly something for everyone in entry, some sweet, some sour, but all immensely satisfying. It might rot your teeth, but V/H/S/Halloween is proof that this is one annual tradition that deserves to be revisited year after year. V/H/S/Halloween will be available to stream on Shudder starting October 3rd.
