Horror franchises are often well known for having too many sequels, of stumbling across a formula that works and milking it for all its worth; even if the results may not be the best (once you send your slasher villain into space things may have gone off the rails a little). The V/H/S/ series is entering into it's eighth instalment, and whilst it's certainly not as bad as other long running franchises get by this point I can't help but feel that perhaps the cracks are finally starting to show.
As with previous films in the series V/H/S/Halloween has several short found footage films, with another that's broken up between them acting as an addition film. In the original few films this framing narrative was often part of those other stories in some way, such as in the first film a gang breaks into a house and finds a strange collection of tapes that contain the short films, or in the second film having a private investigator going through strange tapes looking for answers. These stories made the collection of shorts feel like one larger narrative; but with V/H/S/Halloween the framing narrative is as stand alone as the other films, and there's no real reason for it to be split up into pieces and scattered across the runtime. The choice to continue with a framing narrative that wasn't actually filling that role only resulted in me questioning if the series was trying to hold onto a structure that wasn't really working for it anymore, and that perhaps it would be better to try something different in future versions.
This framing narrative, 'Diet Phantasma' features the efforts of the Octagon Company to infuse supernatural energies into a soft drink in the 1980's. Over the course of these segments we watch as they test various versions of the drink on a series of taste tester volunteers, with awful results as people lose their skin, get attacked by tentacles inside the cans, and explode. It leans into the 80's aesthetic, and some of the practical effects feel right out of the era, but I can't help but feel some of this charm is lost by the constant cutting away to other segments. Luckily, one of the special features on the Blu-ray is the ability to watch it uninterrupted.
The first short story is 'Coochie Coochie Coo', which follows a pair of older teens out to make the most of their final Halloween before going off the college and entering the world of adult life. Dressed as babies, and being far too old for trick or treat, the two of them manage to act like complete jerks as they go from house to house stealing bowls of candy, insulting people, and even grabbing candy out of the hands of children. Their antics put them in the crosshairs of The Mommy, a local legend about a creepy woman. The two of them soon find themselves trapped inside Mommy's house, where they discover her other victims, and the fate that awaits them if they fail to find a way out. This segment starts out pretty strongly, but loses a little bit of quality as it trades creepy tension for gross-out horror. It's got some decent ideas, but ultimately feels like it goes on a little too long, and maybe makes a few missteps.
'Ut Supra Sic Infra' was the story I was most looking forward to seeing thanks to it being directed by Paco Plaza, who created the [Rec] franchise (which I really enjoy). 'Ut Supra Sic Infra' almost feels out of place compared to the other stories on offer here. Where the others have a visual quality that screams found footage (near total darkness, excessive film grain, and shaky cameras), Plaza bucks the trend by having a decent amount of his story take place both in the day, and on very high quality cameras.
The story follows police investigators who are trying to discover what happened inside an old building on Halloween night that led to all but one of a group of friends dead with their eyes missing. The police take him back to the scene of the crime to reconstruct what happens, and the terrors of that night begin to repeat itself. 'Ut Supra Sic Infra' jumps between traditional found footage from the night in question to the brightly light, slick looking police footage, and creates a short that has a very different feel to it, and one that ends up being the best of the bunch on offer.
'Fun Size' is easily the most bizarre story on offer here (yes, more bizarre than haunted soda), and follows four friends as they go trick or treating on Halloween night. The four adults, way too old to be doing it, stumble across a bowl outside a house filled with strange candy and the note 'one per person'. When one of the group takes a second piece he's dragged into the bowl. The bowl then flies around, swallowing up the others, who then all wake up inside a strange factory. They're chased around the building by a candy man (not that one), who tries to cut them into pieces and turn them into more of the candy that was on offer in the bowl.
'Fun Size' is very silly, and leans into the silliness with some wild effects and cheesy creature design. It's not clear if the dialogue is a part of this, as there are some very clunky moments and delivery that could perhaps be part of the film trying to come across as bad. An example of this is how one character insists on calling another 'fiancé' repeatedly at times where it feels clunky and out of place, just so that audiences as absolutely clear they're engaged for one gag at the end to make sense. It does feel like perhaps 'Fun Size' is treating the audience like they're not smart enough to remember this engagement, and seems to want to hold your hand like a child. Whilst there are some creatively silly moments in this segment I couldn't help but feel that it didn't try anything too new or interesting to actually wow me at any point.
'Kidprint' takes viewers to 1990's smalltown America, where a local community is being plagued with a rash of missing children and teens in the lead-up to Halloween. The film follows the owner of the local video and tech store who's created a service where kids can come in and be given a short interview in front of a height chart so that if they go missing it can be given to police to try and help find them. Taking place on Halloween night, the local community seems to still be allowing kids out to take part in some festivities, despite around a dozen kids being brutally murdered. It's during this event that the video shop owner learns of a new victim, one that he recently filmed. Heading back to the store at night to collect her tape to give to police, he stumbles across videos in the back room of several children being brutalised, leading him to discover that one of his workers in the mysterious killer. Unfortunately, this is only the start of the terrors he's in for.
'Kidprint' is the segment where I found my interest in the film beginning to wane the most. The plot isn't bad by any means, but 'Kidprint' felt the most slow, and overly long part of the film, and I came away thinking that it could have been improved with some tighter pacing and editing. To be fair, it's not the only segment of the film that had this issue, but it's the one where it's the most glaring an issue, and led me to check the time more than once to see how close I was to the end of the film.
'Home Haunt' is the final segment, and follows a father and his teenage son as they build a haunted house for Halloween. Footage shows us that the two of them used to do it each year, but as the son has grown older he's become less interested in the annual event, and so this year the dad goes out of his way to make it the biggest and best haunted house yet. The two of them visit an old store looking for supplies and decorations for the haunted house, and the father comes across a strange old Halloween record that he decides to take to use for their event. That Halloween night local residents enter the haunted house, but when the record is played supernatural forces trap the people inside and bring the decorations to life. Now people will have to try to survive ghosts, zombies, executioners, and a twisted witch if they're to get out alive. 'Home Haunt' is perhaps the most enjoyable piece in the whole film as I can't help but feel that it sums up what I imagine when I think of the V/H/S/ franchise. It has a fun, simple idea at its core, it's got some great visual moments, decent effects work, is acted well, and is both funny and horrifying in places.
Overall, V/H/S/Halloween has been my least favourite of the series so far. The framing narrative structure felt completely misused, most of the segments felt overly long and even at times boring thanks to some pacing issues, and the quality varied more wildly than I can really remember from other entries in the series. The film clocks in at just shy of two hours long yet feels much longer than that. I watched it alongside people who had seen the other films in the series and enjoyed them, and all of us came away feeling like this was the weakest entry yet. Whilst there are still some great moments here, and the franchise is far from being ran dry I think that perhaps for V/H/S/ to continue on some changes will be needed to prevent a decline in quality.
Alongside the film the Blu-ray also comes with an audio commentary track that features the various filmmakers, some short behind the scenes films for 'Coochie Coochie Coo' and 'Diet Phantasma', a deleted scene for 'Kidprint', and an uninterrupted cut, image gallery, and commercial for the 'Diet Phantasma' segment. Outside of the commentary track the extras do feel a little light, and are definitely skewed towards the Phantasma segment over the others, and some viewers might come away a little disappointed that other segments feel underserved.
Overall, V/H/S/Halloween continues much in the same vein as other entries in the series, but thanks largely to some pacing issues left me feeling like it was the least rewarding one yet. However, as each of these shorts cater to different tastes I'm sure that there'll be viewers who absolutely love this entry in the series.
V/H/S/Halloween is available on Blu-ray and DVD now.
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