The found footage anthology series V/H/S has returned for its annual delivery of sick, twisted, and often criminally underseen horror tales. Shudder and Bloody Disgusting rounded up more voices in the horror space to produce arguably one of the better franchise entries, V/H/S/Halloween. The boundaries of where horror should and can go are pushed in an evenly toned set of Halloween themed tales. This series just gets better and better with each story exploring core holiday tropes (haunted houses, candy bowls) within their brief runtimes.

 

In true V/H/S form, this installment includes a connecting story shown between the shorts. The story here exhibits a focus group trying out and reviewing the drink “Diet Phantasma.” After each main segment, we return to the subjects tasting the product and dealing with zany side effects that increase each time. The corporate stooge pushing the product is hilarious as he bosses around the scientists and staff, while continuously rotating through the poor test subjects to facilitate the company’s bottom line. 

 

The first segment, “Coochie Coochie Coo,” follows two older teenagers trick or treating one last time before the perils of adulthood stop their fun. Ignoring the Halloween urban legend of “mommy” who makes teenagers vanish, the two girls naturally wind up at her house. This first segment is a great tone-setter for what is to come later, featuring creepy set pieces and gross visuals. A dynamic start.

 

The next story has the lone survivor of a massacre walk the police through the crime scene, ostensibly to explain why his friends died with their eyes missing. The story “Ut Supra Sic Infra,” was directed by Paco Plaza (REC). Plaza uses footage from the police bodycams interspersed with footage from the party the night before. This story ends brilliantly with its visuals. If you happen to have taken that Latin class in high school, you probably know where this story is headed.

 

One of the funnier segments is the third installment, “Take One.” Two couples dressed for Halloween visit a house with a sign on its candy bowl saying, you guessed it, take one. There was an opportunity here for director Casper Kelly to sidestep traditional found footage models of dread and shaky cam and craft a smarter, more engaging story, and he completely did that. The two couples get sucked through the candy bowl and find themselves in a candy factory where one by one they have their body parts removed and folded into candy wrapping. This segment was visually impressive and brought levity into a horrifying situation.

 

“Kid Print,” the fourth segment, returns to old V/H/S form with grainy camcorder footage. The story from writer/director Alex Ross Perry will likely drag up some memories of people growing up in the 80s and 90s. This story features the crew who work at a photo shop store that video records kids during the Halloween season, a tactic used to help identify missing kids. In fact, in this story a lot of kids have gone missing. This story serves as a cautionary tale where danger is never where you can expect to find it, as an employee of this photo shop is the responsible party for all the missing kids. Be advised, this story (and the next one as well) showcase violence towards children. As off-putting as that premise is, there is something to be said about depicting this type of evil and its possible proximity.

 

The final segment “Home Haunt” is an absolute blast. Directed by Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman, starts off sweet and wholesome, showing a father and son’s tradition of setting up their annual neighborhood haunted house attraction. As the boy gets into his teenage years, he is tired of doing this. This story hits home as my own family had this tradition for years, where the neighbors came to expect the annual attraction. The dad finally gets the son on board one last time and everything runs smooth. However, a cursed record thought to be a prop for mood and ambience actual creates terror. This installment was easily my favorite, incorporating the haunted house theme like the first story. 

 

V/H/S/Halloween is not interested in elevated horror, and it is all the better for it. I can appreciate the franchise delay for exploring Halloween. Other good anthology films like Trick ‘r Treat draw comparison, but enough time has lapsed where this entry stands independently.