To mark the arrival of V/H/S/Beyond, we take a look at the anthology series’ 12-year history, and pick out the six best V/H/S short stories to date.
One of the more enduring horror franchises in just over the last decade is the V/H/S series, which just debuted the seventh entry (not including two spin-off films) in the series canon, V/H/S/Beyond, which squares the focus on sci-fi horror across its anthological array of stories.
Ever since the first film, simply titled V/H/S, debuted back in 2012, the series has proven a breeding ground for numerous emerging talents in the horror field. Luminaries who’ve cut their teeth on the Brad Miska-developed series including Adam Wingard (You’re Next), Ti West (the X trilogy) and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin/Tyler Gillett partnership (the recent Scream films), with the short horror film approach allowing for some fascinating and outlandish ideas.
Each V/H/S film concerns found footage via the eponymous tapes, in most instances, with a framing story running in and around the short films. Those framing stories are always loose and often feel like an afterthought, with the meat of the terror coming through the weird, scary and dark stories seen on the VHS tapes, ranging from supernatural to psychological to nightmarish sci-fi.
Inevitably, some work better than others, but, as V/H/S/Beyond emerges, let’s look back at each of the previous six entries and pick the essential anthology tale from each of those films, the one you simply cannot afford to miss.
V/H/S: Second Honeymoon (directed by Ti West)
Initially, my choice for the standout entry of the original movie was the first tale, ‘Amateur Night’. That one’s about a group of creepy guys looking to secretly film women while they have sex with them, only to be devoured by a vampire. The more I thought about Ti West’s ‘Second Honeymoon’, though, the more it got under my skin.
There’s something of the dark grunge West will later bring to his X trilogy in this short. It sees married couple Sam (Joe Swanberg) and Stephanie (Sophia Takal) travelling Route 66, where they’re watched by a strange girl who covertly breaks into their motel room at night and watches them sleep. That’s about as much as I’ll say, but West balances a prosaic home movie with something altogether more personal and distressing by the end.
This one eschews the overtly paranormal for something altogether more believable and twisted.
V/H/S 2: Safe Haven (directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans)
Even if filmmakers carry on making V/H/S entries annually for the next two or three decades, nobody will ever top ‘Safe Haven’. It is, by far, the greatest short film of this franchise and one of the best examples of pulp horror filmmaking out there.
From the Indonesia’s Timo Tjahjanto, who went on to direct the excellent ‘The Subject’ (more on that later), and emigrant Gareth Evans, best known for his tremendous The Raid action films, ‘Safe Haven’ sees a group of documentary filmmakers approach an intense cult leader called Father (Epy Kusnandar), asking to visit his community, called Paradise Gates. Once they do, well… just watch it. Just go and watch it right now.
To say anything specific about ‘Safe Haven’ wouldn’t be fair, but suffice to say, what Father is overseeing is a combination of genuinely terrifying, exhaustingly gory and utterly insane. It’s a tale that Tjahjanto and Evans masterfully escalate across one of the longest running times in the series to a climactic moment you will, I guarantee, never forget. It’s incredible.
V/H/S Viral: Parallel Monsters (directed by Nacho Vigalondo)
Cards on the table: V/H/S Viral is mostly rubbish. An attempt to Gen-Z the series, removing the grainy videotape aesthetic and replacing it with glossy Instagram vibes, it entirely pushed out what made the franchise so intriguing in the first place, despite the presence of some talented filmmakers.
The only effort worth anything was ‘Parallel Monsters’, a genuinely bizarre piece from Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo. It revolves around genius scientist Alfonso (Gustavo Salmeron), who invents a machine which allows him to step into parallel realities. He opens a door to an alternate version of himself who’s done exactly the same thing, and they decide to stop realities for 15 minutes just for the thrill of it.
What Alfonso soon comes to realise is that what appears to a normal reflection of his reality is anything but. He’s stepped into a strange, dark universe of religious… I’m going to stop there, because the reveal is worth the surprise, as Vigalondo enjoys taking the overused idea of the ‘multiverse’ and confronts a crucial truth: if we could enter alternate universes, some would very likely be as twisted and perverse as this one.
V/H/S ’94: Storm Drain (directed by Chloe Okuno)
Honestly, I was sorely tempted to place ‘The Subject’ here, Timo Tjahjanto’s second V/H/S effort. While not quite as pulse-pounding as ‘Safe Haven’, it works well as a follow up fusing that short’s vicious action alongside deranged technologies run amok.
For the sake of avoiding the easy choice, I’ve opted for the second best but possibly my favourite entry in V/H/S ’94 – ‘Storm Drain’. Written and directed by Chloe Okuno, this effort features a perky newscaster, Holly Marciano (Anna Hopkins) and her cameraman Jeff (Christian Potenza), on the hunt for a local Ohio legend called the ‘Rat Man’, a cryptid which reputedly lives in the storm drains below the town of Westerville.
Okuno’s effort is highly tongue in cheek, hinting at Blair Witch-style found footage elements, or X-Files-esque investigation, but using it as a side swipe against a media ecosystem willing to pillage anything for a good story. Though silly, Okuno’s presentation of the Rat Man is truly grotesque, and the ending is hilariously memorable in a way many other short films in this series aren’t. It’ll leave you with just two words: Hail Ratma!
V/H/S ’99: To Hell And Back (directed by Joseph and Vanessa Winter)
Again, for this entry, I almost chose a different short, ‘Ozzy’s Dungeon’, a rather disturbing take on popular game shows where The Walking Dead’s Steven Ogg is forced to eat his own medicine. Ultimately, I just had to stick with comedy again.
‘To Hell and Back’ is easily V/H/S’s most deliberate attempt at horror comedy across the entire franchise, as on New Year’s Eve 1999, nerdy videographers Nate (Archelaus Crisanto) and Troy (co-director Joseph Winter) after being hired by a witches coven, end up being sucked quite literally into Hell while videoing the summoning of dark demon Ukabon. They’re left to wander the rocky, deeply strange bowels of the underworld hoping to hitch a ride home.
Aside from its depiction of Hell, a combination of Lovecraftian beasts, weird creatures and rocky outcroppings borrowed from 60s Star Trek, the beauty of this one is how Nate and Troy spend most of it comically bickering over the meaning of their friendship, despite their desperate circumstances. It’s a great deal of fun, and a smooth palette cleanser for some of the darker short stories in the mix.
V/H/S ’85: Dreamkill (directed by Scott Derrickson)
Finally, from last year’s V/H/S ’85, I’ve gone for ‘Dreamkill’, an effort from Scott Derrickson and his regular writing partner C Robert Cargill – a genuinely haunting and memorably shot piece that lingers long after the rest of the pieces in the film.
It sees a detective, Wayne (Freddy Rodriguez), investigate the brutal murder of a woman in her home, which somehow he’s already seen in a first-person videotape by the killer sent a week earlier. What follows is a personal tale about a psychic family, dark deeds being recorded on tapes, and a visual palette which evokes 80s crime movies alongside distressing, grainy first-person stalker footage.
Though ‘Dreamkill’ is less showy than other entries, indeed less so than many in V/H/S ’85 that are more obviously colourful (such as the overarching plot concerning a strange being called Rory, which gives the film the best final shot in the series so far), Derrickson’s effort really works and left me feeling that he could have mined a 90 minute feature out of the concept if he’d wanted. One of the series’ creepier and more brutal tales.
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No doubt, there will be an entry from V/H/S Beyond that will fit in a similar canon very soon, as each effort in this series serves up at least one or two gems. But as this list demonstrates, we’re dealing with a wonderfully elastic anthology horror series that always knows how to use skilled filmmakers to deliver memorable, effective slices of modern horror.
V/H/S/Beyond is available on Shudder now.
You can find A J. on social media, including links to his Patreon and books, via Linktr.ee here. You can hear more on the V/H/S franchise on the Modern Horror Podcast, exclusively on the Film Stories Podcast Network.
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