The anthology is something that goes hand in hand with the horror genre, with titles like Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and the classic Tales From the Crypt offering bite-sized tales of terror to viewers across multiple generations. One of the most unique anthologies of the past few years is the V/H/S series, which offered a unique take on the format, with each film usually revolving around VHS tapes containing lurid and violent stories of monsters and the macabre. By using a found footage approach to the classic horror anthology, the V/H/S franchise is able to tell fun, fast-paced, and creative horror stories that stand apart from the typical anthology fare.
After the last film in the franchise, V/H/S Viral came out in 2014 to mixed reactions, the series took a bit of a sabbatical before returning with V/H/S 94, exclusive to the Shudder streaming service. This entry feels like a bit of a return to form for the V/H/S films, though, like many anthologies, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The wrap-around story for this one involves a SWAT team invading a building for what they believe to be a drug raid but is in fact home to what seems to be a cult obsessed with a strange collection of videotapes. There’s more to these tapes that meet the eye, and the SWAT team starts to disappear one by one as they find themselves subjected to the videos and the stories within.
The first story in this collection, “Storm Drain”, is no doubt one of the best and more memorable, following a reporter and her cameraman doing a story on a local cryptid called “The Rat- Man.” Seeing an opportunity to turn this into a human interest story on the homeless (and further her own career), the reporter descends into a storm drain in the hopes of getting to the bottom of what is really behind the Rat-Man sightings. Delving a bit into cosmic horror and creature features, this story feels like a classic entry in the V/H/S by balancing horror and dark humor quite effectively. Anthologies often ask the viewers to tag along with unlikable protagonists by promising them that these characters will get their deserved punishment in the end, and the V/H/S franchise knows that having a little bit of fun at their expense doesn’t hurt either.
The second story, “The Empty Wake” is more of a slow burn, classic horror tale...well as slow burn as a V/H/S segment can get. In this story, a young funeral home employee named Hailey is assigned to host a wake while a storm rages outside. As the night goes on, no mourners are showing up, and strange noises from the casket cause Hailey to suspect this whoever is inside may not be as dead as she was lead to believe. Though there are some macabre touches to this entry, this one is more about the atmosphere and letting the viewer’s imagination fill in the blanks of what’s going on. It may not be as bombastic as other stories until the final moments, but it’s still a solid little horror story.
The clear stand-out though of this anthology is the next story, “The Subject,” revolving around a mad scientist who is kidnapping people and turning them into cyborgs. Why is he doing this? Who knows, and who cares, just sit back and enjoy the mayhem. There are several twists and turns over the course of this story, and just when the viewer thinks they know where this story is heading, the rug gets pulled out from under them. “The Subject” also makes full use of the found footage format and switches POV a few times in order to tell a full narrative. It’s just as chaotic, violent, and darkly funny as the best of the V/H/S entries, and the final story, “Terror” feels downright anti-climatic after following such an insane short.
“Terror” takes a big swing by asking viewers to accept a group of religious extremist militia as the main focus. These folks, The First Patriots Movement, believe they have found a new secret weapon that they hope to use in a terrorist attack. At first, it feels timely to focus the story on a radicalized militia, but it’s a subject matter that deserves to be treaded on carefully. Unfortunately, this is the weakest story in the film, following a predictable arc to an obvious outcome. Given the events of the past year, maybe it was too soon to focus on telling a story with domestic terrorists as the main characters? The entire story seems to hinge on setting up the viewers to enjoy the militia’s eventual violent demise brought on by their own hubris, but the final moments of this story feel anti-climatic, ending the entire anthology with a whimper rather than a bang.
Overall though, to echo the popular sentiment, V/H/S 94 still feels like a return to form for the franchise. Most of the stories find a way to strike a perfect balance between dark comedy and horror while also embracing the technological slant of the films. Despite being a film about a long-dead format, this movie is timely in how it deals with our relationship with technology, how we can worship it, depend on it, and ultimately make it part of ourselves. There was a time when we recorded treasured memories and our most intimate moments on VHS tapes, and those moments are now lost, inaccessible thanks to the constant evolution of filmmaking. The hook of these movies is that there are some stories in this format that should stay lost. It’s a modern slant on the “ancient book of lost secrets” trope like The Necronomicon. Though as things change, the more they stay the same, and we still use technology to capture our lives as they happen, and the allure of the V/H/S franchise is that by highlighting the past, it allows us to face the present. Technology can be a wonderful thing that brings us all together, but in the wrong hands, it can be downright terrifying. Though many of these stories involve horror and the supernatural, the found footage format means that technology is always present, even as a passive observer. It brings us closer to the horrific, but there’s still the barrier of the camera between us and the monsters, but the wrap-around shows us just how flimsy that barrier can be. Anyone of us could end up being in one of these tapes one day, our stories lost and forgotten until an unsuspecting passerby stumbles upon it.
James Reinhardt