V/H/S/Beyond

As a documentary detailing a popular alien abduction site in Toronto plays, the footage is interrupted by various vignettes showing supernatural (though mainly extraterrestrial) encounters.

V/H/S/Beyond is the seventh entry in the V/H/S franchise that starting with soft reboot V/H/S/94 has become a regular staple of horror streaming service Shudder. The producers opted to have this installment being sci-fi based (as a sort of in-joke on horror franchises such as Hellraiser and Friday the 13th going into space in certain entries) and what results is something that's not without charm, but is in my opinion one of the lesser entries in the series.

The main narrative thread, Jay Cheel's Abduction/Adduction, following a documentary involving investigating a popular alien abduction spot in Toronto and anonymous alien proof tapes from a Redditor is nicely produced I guess and feels like something you'd see on one of those "Aliens: Fact or Fiction?" type shows, but while it's well produced with some humorous moments it doesn't really have a big payoff nor is it all that scary even with its ending stinger that was kind of disappointing.

The next segment, the Jordan Downey directed Stork written by Downey with Kevin Stewart, follows a group of cops who are part of a unit called W. A. R. D. E. N. investigating a rash of kidnapped infants (one of whom is a team member's child) and the raid reveals the abductors are not of this Earth. Essentially a police ride-along where the perps are monsters, it's an idea that's certainly been done before such as the short lived series Death Valley or the standalone X-Files episode X-Cops, but for what it is it delivers even if the monsters sometimes veer into silliness.

The second segment, the Virat Pal directed Dream Girl which Pal writes with Evan Dickson, follows two Paparazzi in Mumbai seeking to get footage of Bollywood star Tara only to discover beneath Tara's delicate beauty lurks something colder and deadly. The short covers very familiar territory satirizing the cult of celebrity and impossible beauty standards albeit transplanting it outside the usual Hollywood setting and into the Indian entertainment industry through a western lens. It goes through the motions well enough, though the reveal as to what Tara is goes into territory so ridiculous and prompting further questions that its brutal finale is more funny than scary.

The third segment, The Justin Martinez directed Live and Let Dive which Martinez writes with Ben Turner, follows a group of characters celebrating the birthday of one of their own by taking him skydiving only for the celebration to be cut short with the arrival of a UFO, some military fighter jets, and a mid air collision that sends the survivors hurtling downward. The segment has some good buildup and an excellent middle portion where we follow the POV through a go-pro struggling to open his chute in mid-air, but once on the ground it goes into very standard territory with characters rushing around an orange grove with an alien monster that's not all that unique or special. In short: excellent setup, standard payoff.

The penultimate short, Fur Babies written and directed by brothers Christian and Justin Long, follows a group of animal rights activists investigating a dog daycare run by Becky (Libby Letlow) by going undercover as dog boarders only to discover Becky's professed love of dogs manifests as a violent hatred of humans. Largely throwing away "sci-fi" theme of this short, Fur Babies instead goes into more bodily mutilation territory similar to Human Centipede or Tusk (rather funny because Justin Long was in Tusk). The biggest asset to the short is definitely Libby Letlow as Becky who's just fantastic in the role playing someone cloyingly sweet who can turn on a dime and reveal an ugly darkness within. I'd honestly compare it to something like Kathy Bates' performance as Annie Wilkes from Misery she's that good. Even as someone who didn't like Human Centipede or Tusk, I actually did kind of like this one for how insane it got with the directions it takes.

The final short, Stowaway directed by Kate Siegel and written by her husband Mike Flanagan, follows a woman named Halley (Alanah Pearce) who having left her family behind travels to the Mojave Desert to investigate alien sightings and finds and boards an alien ship where she uses technology that's not "user friendly" when it comes to humans. This is probably the best realized take on the whole sci-fi concept as Siegel and Flanagan create something truly memorable and alien without even having a traditional antagonist as the aliens seem largely unaware or indifferent to Halley's presence on board. The ship features some excellent creepy production design and a healing technology leads to some solid body horror that's reminiscent of something like Croneberg's The Fly.

As with many anthologies V/H/S/Beyond is a mixture of peaks and valleys, but ultimately I felt the peaks were outnumbered by the valleys. While I liked Stowaway, the frame story and other sci-fi based shorts were very underwhelming in my opinion. And while I respected the insane turns taken by Justin and Christian Long's Fur Babies as a spiritual sequel to Tusk of all things with a great performance by Libby Letlow, I do have to question its placement here when it strays so far from what's supposed to be the core theme of this installment. Some good things to appreciate, but definitely the lesser of the Shudder era franchise entries while being better than V/H/S and Viral.

The anthology V/H/S/ Beyond tries again with the found footage format, this time with a sci-fi approach. However, what seemed like an opportunity to revitalize the genre ended up limiting the creativity of the invited directors, resulting in a series of shorts that, overall, failed to surprise or leave a lasting impression.

Here's my take on each of the short films:

Stork: This short is quite simplistic. The plot is about 15 or 20 minutes of police officers killing strange creatures that look like zombies. There's an attempt at shock value in the end, with a bizarre moment, but honestly, it doesn't go beyond that. It felt like watching someone play a hyper-violent first-person shooter, where violence is the only focus. The final result is a short that doesn't challenge the viewer and sticks to the basics.

Dream Girl: Among all the shorts in the anthology, this was the most eccentric. We follow two paparazzi trying to sneak into the set of an Indian artist, but, as expected, the plan goes wrong. This segment stands out for its extreme level of violence, which may shock more sensitive viewers. Although it's not an easy watch, the unpredictability of not knowing the next move and the subtle reflection on AI kept me mildly interested. However, in terms of innovation or impact, Dream Girl wasn't strong enough to leave a lasting impression.

Live and Let Dive: This short film starts with an interesting premise: a group of friends goes skydiving but crashes into a spaceship. The possibilities for this narrative were vast, and it had the potential to be much more intriguing. Unfortunately, it ended up taking a lazy, cliché-filled path. I admit the scene where the protagonist falls through the open sky was visually interesting, but the rest of the short is let down by a weak narrative and, above all, terrible visual effects that looked like they came straight out of a PS2 game. I felt the segment didn't explore the originality of its premise, and it was a missed opportunity.

Fur Babies: This segment left me genuinely confused about how it fits within the sci-fi theme. The plot follows a group of young people investigating a strange and eccentric dog breeder, but aside from this odd premise, the short doesn't go much further. There are bizarre moments that suggest the story could have gone deeper, but it felt like everything was only halfway developed. The potential was there, but it lacked the ambition to really explore its ideas. Despite being weird and eccentric, it wasn't memorable either.

Stowaway: This was the short I was most looking forward to, mainly because it was directed by Kate Siegel, who I'm a fan of. The premise is interesting: a woman in the desert filming a documentary about aliens ends up entering a spaceship. The idea has a lot of potential, and you can tell the director had a vision for the project. However, the execution failed badly. The big issue is the cinematography: at a certain point, it becomes nearly impossible to understand what's happening on screen. I didn't expect it to be shot in IMAX, but the extreme commitment to realism ended up hurting the visual clarity of the narrative. In the end, it was frustrating because I felt there was a good story there, but the way it was presented made it confusing and hard to follow.

Overall, V/H/S/ Beyond fails to take full advantage of the potential that the sci-fi genre could have brought to the found footage format. Even though there are some interesting ideas and moments that grab attention, the execution of most of the shorts is too basic, predictable, or just unremarkable. This anthology could have been a great opportunity to explore new approaches within the genre, but it ultimately fell short of expectations.

Once again the V/H/S franchise proves its consistency is in its inconsistency of quality. From the framing tape you would expect that every one of these shorts would be about aliens, but even that isn't consistent as 2 out of the 6 tapes don't follow that theme. I personally don't like whenever the V/H/S franchise focuses on aliens, because due to the microbudget nature of these films, they almost always have to use CGI in order to create aliens/UFOs, which end up looking like trash. Not surprisingly, most of the aliens in this film have that exact same problem where the practical gore effects end up being pretty gnarly and nice, but nearly every time they use CGI it instantly takes me out of the film.

That being said the short "Stowaway", written by Mike Flanagan, actually makes great use out of the alien gimmick, as it is actually shot with a VHS camcorder (something that the V/H/S films are ironically using less and less of), which hides a lot of how amateurish the CGI effects usually can be. It also uses really clever cinematography to never fully reveal what the aliens in the short look like, making great use out of the fear of the unknown.

"Dream Girl" also showcases another major theme of the V/H/S films that foreign filmmakers always outclass their American counterparts. This one isn't about aliens at all, rather a couple of Mumbai native paparazzi who are assigned to get candids of a Bollywood sensation named Tara, who holds a dark secret. It's one of the shorter segments, but it goes pretty hard with some of the best gore in this film.

"Fur Babies" is the other segment that doesn't have any aliens at all, and while it starts off pretty weak, it ends up being pretty middle of the road due to how hilariously they push the concept. "Stork" is also fine, as while the creature design for the alien is pretty gnarly, being based off of the art of Oleg Vdovenko by the same name, it feels more like a video game than an actual horror movie. The gore and action just feel way too floaty and doesn't have the impact that it should.

"Live and Let Dive" is the worst one of the bunch, as it relies too much on the alien gimmick and I quite frankly could not take any of the CGI creatures seriously whenever they come on screen.

The framing tape is ultimately the most frustrating out of the bunch, as throughout we get spoonfed info about how 2 recently discovered video tapes about a missing man might finally prove the existence of aliens. We never really get enough context to actually be excited about what's on the tapes, and when it finally gets revealed at the very end of the movie, it ends up being extremely underwhelming. Yeah, the gore's cool and all, but I've been strung along for nearly 2 hours and this reveal was not worth the wait at all.

If you're already a fan of the V/H/S franchise you'll probably get a kick out of this, and it might provide some amusement if this is your first V/H/S film and you're bored looking for something to watch.

I was really looking forward to Beyond, V/H/S series have been sort of my guilty pleasure and having learned that Beyond was gonna focus on stories about aliens, I was really excited, as I'm really fond of the subject. And, well, it was alright. Most of the segments here are pretty enjoyable, although I have an issue with the last one. The premise of it was probably the most interesting to me but it was almost unwatchable because of the actress. I know these movies don't exactly have the best acting, but hers was the newest low. In fact, I don't think it can get worse than that.

Either way. I had a nice evening watching this and you will too, if you embrace the campiness and just enjoy the silly fun.

I am a simple man, if I see found footage horror, I watch... Even though is hard to maintain good quality after so many movies the V/H/S cinematic universe keep driving me there, getting me back and excited to watch them, to see what they are coming up with this time. Maybe its the nostalgia as a 90s kid speaking or how amazed l got the first time l watched The Blair Witch Project (which definetly started my love for the found footage genre) I dont know.

I have to say though, not as good as the last one in the VFX department, and the first "tape" especially the creature looks like an inflatable costume more than a monster and the babies there is no way you can take your mind off of how doll-like they look, but l liked the "Resident Evil-esque" approach. The camera shots were great, I loved them.

The cameo from "VFX artist react" was a quite a surprise really been following their channel for years.

The acting was good enough in general, maybe some over acting sometimes but nothing too "cringe" imo.

The ending was weird and anti-climatic but whatever, you are not watching a Martin Scorsese film anyways.