New Blood and Familiar Charms or; The V/H/S/85 Review

It was 11:15 p.m. on Day 2 of Fantastic Fest and I was sweating my ass off. To be fair, as a lifelong Texas resident and firm believer of climate change, my ass should’ve known that wearing jeans and a denim long sleeve would be a high-risk, high reward fashion move. But as the greats say, drip or drown. That night, 15 minutes before watching the newest entry in the lovable V/H/S series, I decided to drown. Nevertheless, in my small adventures so far with the fest, I've rediscovered a  feeling I hadn't't realized I missed; that feeling of watching movies both early in the morning and late at night in theater. It’s a small thing in the grand scheme, but for someone who hasn’t seen a near-midnight movie in ages, getting the chance to do it a room full of other horror hounds was a lovely feeling to tap into once again (even with my back drenched in sweat). What made it even better was the fact that I was sharing the theater with the masterminds behind V/H/S/85! Gigi Saul Guerrero, Mike P. Nelson, Natasha Kermani, David Bruckner, and Scott Derrickson were all in attendance to see their film and talk about their experiences dipping into the V/H/S-verse. How did they fare as the newest blood in the series? Pretty damn well, I would say!

First things first: I’m a sucker for found footage horror movies and especially the V/H/S franchise that started about 10 years ago. I’ve seen most of them except for V/H/S/99, and for the most part I’ve always found one or two things to love in each entry (well, V/H/S Viral might be a tough sell, but I digress). The one thought nagging at the back of my head as I walked my sweaty self into Theater 5 at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse was “Wait, they haven’t done an '80s themed one of these yet?” Somewhat surprisingly, this is the first entry in the series to be set entirely in that era of neon decadence and questionable fashion choices (music still kicks ass though). Nevertheless, I was pretty excited to see how this entry would approach the era and its own cinematic past. 

As Bruckner noted in the post Q&A session, every V/H/S short should strive to become a “Fuck you movie." The only thing the filmmakers should be holding back on is the budget. During the Q&A, Derrickson and his short’s writer, C. Robert Cargill noted that they found a lot of value in this stripped-back-let-loose approach, as they both agreed that having tight parameters in moviemaking is both a blessing and a curse. Of course, the low budget can cause problems and make things stressful, but stress can lead to bursts of creativity to find solutions. That idea of finding creativity in a tight budget shines through in each of the filmmaker’s works here, resulting in the long-awaited V/H/S entry that doesn’t really have a noticeable miss.

Bruckner also noted that V/H/S films have slowly morphed from slightly interconnected anthology pieces to something more like a “mixtape.” V/H/S/85 runs with that idea. In earlier entries, the wraparound short would usually try to connect each short together, but the newest entry provides five shorts that all exist in their own space. There is still somewhat of wraparound short (here directed by Bruckner), but it doesn’t try to connect any of the other shorts together. His tale sets itself up as a sort of off-brand Unsolved Mysteries program focusing on a strange discovery found in the desert. As with any wraparound, this one doesn’t benefit from jumping in and out at different parts of the story, but Bruckner and his team still craft an effective (and slyly humorous) tale of scientists getting in over their head. Come for the weird soap boy, stay for the practical tentacles.

After the first part of the wraparound story comes Mike P. Nelson’s depiction of a lake day gone brutally wrong. A group of friends' day at the lake gets shattered with moments of brutal violence that is equal parts disturbing and funny. The kicker with this short is that Nelson and the V/H/S/85 team take a pretty unique approach to this short’s structure, breaking it into two parts across the film. Initially, when you see the first half, you find yourself with a lot of questions about what Nelson has set up so far. However, the latter half of Nelson’s tale appears about two shorts later, introducing new characters and more lore before amping up the craziness from the short’s first half and climaxing in a shower of bullets. While there is a few little plot things that feel like they still could’ve been expanded on more, the fact that this short leaves you thinking about its possibilities is a testament to its power.

Following that up is Gigi Saul Guerrero’s “based on true events” short. The story is based on the destructive 1985 Mexico City earthquake and, particularly, a real video of an anchorwoman that day who died on camera when the cataclysmic event happened. Guerrero works from this tragic event to concoct a pretty effective found footage disaster movie, but it's hard to get past him essentially recreating a real woman’s death and use it as set up for, on paper, a pretty ludicrous story. Thankfully, the third act of this piece amps up the disaster from natural to something more supernatural, pushing it away from that real-life discomfort. While it does, for a moment, feel a bit like “The Descent," Guerrero throws in some Mexican history and unique lore to really send things to hell. There’s a moment near the end where it seems like the filmmakers didn't have time to explore the ramifications of their third act twists, but as with the last short, if you got me begging for more, that’s a good thing!

Next is Natasha Kermani’s exploration of the '80s digital space, Lawnmower Man style. Inspired by her own mother’s background in performance art, we follow the taping of an artist’s  performance piece that looks to find, in the artist’s own words, “technology’s god.” In front of a live studio audience, the artist uses a proto-Oculus style set-up to enter a digital world to discover if this space has a god. With equal amounts of respect and incredulousness toward her lead character, Kermani gets to have fun with the clunkiness of '80s technology. Part slow burn and part kooky gorefest, this is a small short that sets the scene for terror and delivers. While I wasn’t too blown away by the short's final reveal, the  violent aftermath (paired with some delightful practical gore effects) really brings everything together.

Finally, V/H/S/85 brings in Scott Derrickson, MCU filmmaker by day and pretty solid horror filmmaker by night to handle the final short. He and writer, Cargill, go back to the well they love to get their juices from: spooky violent murders involving kids. As an idea, it feels a lot like Derrickson and Cargill went straight to the hits in this tale of detectives watching home footage movies of murder, particularly creating moments that feel very similar to Sinister and The Black Phone. Still, there's no doubt that Derrickson seems to have fun in his newest variation on the form. The film’s most violent short (and that's saying something), Derrickson fully dives into body mutilation and explosive shootouts. The former is certainly effective, especially in the short's early moments where Derrickson and his practical effects team don’t hold back on the gore. Like seriously, some of the violent acts here are pretty gut-wrenching as we see an unseen serial killer off a couple of people. However, when the short enters its final act, Derrickson decides to go in a more goofy direction with the violence. There’s still bodies being torn apart, but the initial dramatic weight of the violence in this short is muted as we go from claustrophobic home invasions to police station shootouts. 

Overall, V/H/S/85 emerges as a pretty strong entry in the series. While Derrickson’s might be the weakest of the batch, his short still stands pretty tall in the face of the series’ other lows (and baby, could they get low!). There’s a bit of something here for everyone to enjoy. Best of all, it’s great to see this franchise recapture that simultaneous feeling of terror and entertainment found in its first two entries. It's a return to form for the franchise that feels like a warm, viscera covered hug from an old friend.