This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, V/H/S/85 being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Anthology horror films are a tradition within the genre, and horror fans have been treated to a number of treasures in the anthology horror format or subgenre in the past ten years. No small part of this trend has been the reemergence and creative exploration of the V/H/S series after an inactive period of a few years and the mindblowing creative success of V/H/S 2.

I have watched each year since 2021 as the series has continued to grow and change the very format and what found footage anthologies and found footage horror can be. The producers, writers, and directors seek not to top themselves, in my opinion, but to expand the idea of what this kind of film can be with each installment. It works so great, and it’s the purest kind of anthology terror while still creating its own space.  The latest addition, V/H/S 85, is actively expanding the subgenre and creating new ways to tell these kinds of stories while scaring the hell out of you.

With V/H/S 85, the series has shifted yet again. What it has in common with the two previous segments is that there are five stories with five writers and directors. It is the standard V/H/S structure, but even that structure is something that the filmmakers play with. This entry has returned to the main vein of horror and is much more sinister and full of murder and gore.

For anyone who didn’t like some of the surreal aspects of the previous movie, it’s more focused on hardcore horror, but that exploration isn’t entirely gone; it’s just shifted. It wants to terrify you, and it does. The synopsis is brief and to the point: An ominous mixtape blends never-before-seen snuff footage with nightmarish newscasts and disturbing home video to create a surreal, analog mashup of the forgotten 80s.

V/H/S/85 is comprised of five segments:

Total Copy, directed by David Bruckner (Hellraiser, The Night House, V/H/S) and written by Evan Dickson, is a segment that is a news show documenting a curious discovery made by college teachers that leads to a dangerous pursuit of truth.

No Wake/Ambrosia, written and directed by Mike P. Nelson (Wrong Turn (2021), The Domestics). It follows a group of young, fun party people who make the traditional horror movie mistake of going to a lake to camp and are greeted by what they don’t expect. Okay, so they “get more than they bargained for,” for sure.

God of Death, written and directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero (Satanic Hispanics, Bingo Hell). I’m trying not to give too much away here, so let’s just say that it takes place in Mexico and involves real-life horror that morphs into wild blood spray.

TKNOGD, directed by Natasha Kermani (Imitation Girl, Lucky), and written by Zoe Cooper, this segment focuses on the worst nightmare of black box theater actors who put on one-person shows. Aside from not getting any applause.

Dreamkill, directed by Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone, Sinister) and written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill: Oh man, Cargill said on Twitter that they went hard on this segment, and it’s true. It’s possibly one of the more overtly bloodthirsty creations from this duo, and it’s really for the sickos. I’m one of the sickos. Man, that ending. Holy ghosts.

A film that may challenge fans

I think for a lot of fans of the series, you have to sit down after V/H/S/85 and ask yourself what you think of the film. That’s how challenging each new V/H/S film has been to its own audience, which is a very risky thing to do. Studios love franchises because they are easy money. They are formulaic. They usually have large fanbases who know exactly what to expect with each new movie.

What the producers of the V/H/S franchise are doing is creatively exciting, and it gets you to question your own taste, which is keyed and conditioned to want more of the same. It’s not just that they aren’t willing to rest on their laurels; they aren’t willing to let the audience do so either. In doing so, they give the finger to the idea of stagnation once again. While they have changed the idea of what the dreaded wraparound segment means and its function in an anthology movie, which is a wonderful idea, this year’s edition has a unifying theme but one that came out of each individual writer, director, and writer/director team’s own creativity.

They want you to be scared, and they want you to have fun, and they realize, correctly, that disruption of the familiar is one of the things that makes great art. Just like when the audience is confronted with something hilarious during a scary sequence. It just makes the humor funnier and deepens the horror. The producers, Joshua Goldbloom, Brad Miska, David Bruckner, Radio Silence, James Harris, Michael Schrieber, and Adam Boorstin, do that thing that great producers do. They hire the best and most promising people and let them do their thing.

How are gods made?

To me, it seems like V/H/S/85 ’s unifying concept is our perception of God. What makes a god? Can we be our own gods? Like the idea voiced in Michael Mann’s Manhunter and the novel it is based on, Red Dragon, if you do what God does, or you have that kind of power, does that make you a God? I can’t really get into it more without doing spoilers, so I will stop there.

V/H/S/85 is a gift that was given to the filmmakers and producers of the film that theme emerged through the creative urges given to each filmmaker. One thing about creativity is that many of the greatest artists don’t know where the creative urge comes from; it is a gift they accept from the ether, and they are tapping into something that they don’t entirely understand. They are creating instinctively because they trust their gifts. I believe that the producers, directors, and writers of V/H/S/85 have tapped into that same fountain.

Yes, it’s that great. Even if you don’t care about any of the things that I am talking about in this review and you just want to see violence and be terrorized, you’re still going to get what you want out of this film. It’s crafted to be enjoyed and appreciated on multiple levels. Also, the film has the most creative use of the sources of VHS footage that has been used yet in the series. Yes, they found more and different ways to explain how they got the footage. There’s even a running argument about the superiority of the Beta format. So good. For the people who want to nitpick about how they don’t think the VHS footage is accurate, I ask, have you ever owned a VHS camera, VHS player, or even a VHS tape?

V/H/S/85 is a killer entry in the franchise that howls with rebellious abandon and challenges the very nature of the format of found footage, anthologies, and audience expectations. Fearless and reckless in a way that invites either the collaboration of the artistic muse or total destruction, it runs straight at you down a dark hallway, eyes blazing and mouth open. This approach is true to the original concept of the film and the frame story. Here’s the tape. Do you dare press play?

V/H/S/85 played as part of Beyond Fest. It will premiere on Shudder on October 6, 2023.

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Dolores Quintana

Dolores Quintana is an actor and writer living in Los Angeles. She has written for blogs as diverse as Buddyhead, Pocho.com, and The Theatre @ Boston Court. She works as an actor in independent film and both immersive and traditional theatre with Alone: an Existential Haunting, Screenshot Productions, and Native Voices at The Autry.

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