V/H/S/Beyond review
The V/H/S series continues with a top-notch installment and no signs of slowing down.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
V/H/S/Beyond
Directed by Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal and Kate Siegal
Written by Jordan Downey, Kevin Stewart, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Ben Turner, Virat Pal, Evan Dickson, Mike Flanagan and Jay Cheel
V/H/S/Beyond Review
The secret to V/H/S’s continued success is the influx of new talent that signs up to work on it every year. You’d think by the seventh film any franchise would be running out of steam. On the contrary, V/H/S/Beyond is arguably the best complete film in the entire series. It doesn’t have a segment that hits the extreme heights of, say, Safe Haven from V/H/S/2…but it lacks the pits that each installment inevitably contains as well.
The framing story (Abduction/Adduction) revolves around a documentary about two found VHS tapes purported to contain proof of alien life. Talking heads from both the believer and skeptic camps talk about dealing with this kind of supposed proof. It wraps up with a viewing of a brief video. As far as framing devices go…Abduction/Adduction isn’t the worst in the series. It is the least interesting aspect of V/H/S/Beyond, however. Framing stories almost always are.
This installment in the series shifts focus away from specific years and instead concerns itself with a sci-fi aesthetic. The change pays off with several fun shorts that keep momentum flowing in the right direction.
As always, we’ll be turning this review into a ranking of the five main shorts that comprise the bulk of V/H/S/Beyond. We’ll leave the framing story out of it, as usual. It would come in last…but there’s not much more to say about it that can’t be found above. It will be included in the updated franchise rankings if you need to compare it that badly.
Without further ado…here are the five segments of V/H/S/Beyond ranked from worst to first…as we do.
5. Fur Babies (segment 4)
When I mentioned that V/H/S/Beyond is the strongest package in the history of the franchise…Fur Babies proves the point. It comes in last…and it’s really good. Featuring an outstanding lead performance and a suitably bonkers climax, Fur Babies would rank in the upper half of most of the first six movies. Here, it comes in a close 5th.
Written and directed by Justin and Chris Long, Fur Babies tells the story of animal rights activists investigating a strange taxidermy operation. Needless to say, they find more than they expected. The final moments of Fur Babies are the kind of weird, wild stuff that V/H/S does at its best. It feels crazy to rank it at the bottom. Such is the strength of Beyond as a whole. The segment does make you wonder how anyone could have possibly gotten hold of this tape, however.
4. Stow Away (segment 5)
Written by Mike Flanagan and directed by Kate Siegel, the final segment of V/H/S/Beyond boasts a strong horror pedigree. It tells the story of a documentary filmmaker (Alannah Pearce) tracking down reports of bright lights in the Mojave Desert. Think of it as a truncated Horror in the High Desert except it actually ends up somewhere. …ok that’s a cheap shot. Just get to the next stage of the story already, High Desert.
Anyway, her investigation leads her to an honest to God spaceship. This is where Stow Away really takes off. Literally. An excellent ship design and fun effects highlight another exciting short inside V/H/S/Beyond. It’s also another story that feels impossible to have acquired the footage from…but these movies aren’t about how they found the footage, right?
3. Dream Girl (segment 2)
Directed by Vital Pal and written by Pal and Evan Dickson, Dream Girl is the tale of two paparazzi who stumble into something unexpected while following a new pop star. As mentioned in the blurb for Fur Babies…segments that build to weird, wild finishes are a hallmark of the V/H/S series. No segment in Beyond goes wilder in the end than Dream Girl.
Before the story gets there…we’re treated to a lavishly produced music video shoot that is way better than it has any right to be. It’s also a clever way to break the found footage standard of keeping things contained to running cameras. There’s camera’s shooting the music video…so we get to see those instead. Then…the wild part happens. Dream Girl turns into a nightmare bloodbath. I will not apologize for that sloppy wordplay.
2. Live and Let Dive (segment 3)
The truth is that segments 2-4 of V/H/S/Beyond can be ranked in any order. They’re all strong entries. Live and Let Die, directed by Justin Martinez and written by Martinez and Ben Turner, gets the nod for a couple of reasons. First…it maintains an incredibly high energy from start to finish. Second…it has an excellent jump scare (if you’re into that sort of thing).
The story centers on a group of skydiving friends whose plane collides with a UFO. Those who survive the landing are in for something even worse. A high energy, survival story with an insanely good first-person abduction scene. Though, again, no idea how anyone possibly could have found the footage we are watching.
1. Stork (segment 1)
V/H/S/Beyond kicks off with an absolute classic. When I said that no segment reached the heights of Safe Haven…I meant it. Stork is about as good as any other segment in series history, however. It’s bananas. Zombie with a chainsaw bananas. Yeah…that happens. It cleverly utilizes police body cams to show the exploits of a raiding party tracking down a suspect they believe has abducted several babies.
Directed by James Downey and written by Downey and Kevin Stewart, Stork is the best possible way to kick off V/H/S/Beyond. The officers find a house full of zombie-like creatures. They have the same head wounds, the same bandage over them, and the same missing brains inside. Oh…and there’s a meteor upstairs that crashed through the roof that something has clearly crawled out of. What they find when they reach the attic is V/H/S style bananas at its finest. Stork is a non-stop thrill ride that is part first person shooter, part excellent makeup and gore effects, and all zombie with a chainsaw.
Scare Value
The V/H/S series is notable for having several strong shorts strewn throughout several entries. As an overall package, V/H/S/Beyond may be the best of the lot. It lacks the rough spots that have plagued the quality of previous entries. Beginning with a bang and keeping a solid level of quality throughout…the seventh time is the charm for the unstoppable V/H/S franchise.
3.5/5
V/H/S/Beyond Link
Streaming on Shudder
