Movie Review: V/H/S/BEYOND

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: October 10th, 2024 / 10:08 PM

V/H/S/BEYOND movie poster | ©2024 Shudder

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Mitch Horowitz, Brian Baker, Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer, Wren Weichman, Thom Hallum, Jolene Andersen, Vas Provatakis, Namrata Sheth, Sayandeep Sengupta, Rohan Joshi, Bobby Slaski, Hannah McBride, Libby Letlow, Alanah Pearce
Writers: Jordan Downey (“Stork”), Kevin Stewart (“Stork”), based on artwork by Oleg Vdovenko, Virat Pal (“Dream Girl”), Evan Dickson (“Dream Girl”), Ben Turner (“Live and Let Dive”), Justin Martinez (“Live and Let Dive”), Christian Long (“Fur Babies”), Justin Long (“Fur Babies”), Mike Flanagan (“Stowaway”)
Directors: Jay Cheel (“Abduction/Adduction”), Jordan Downey (“Stork”), Virat Pal (“Dream Girl”), Justin Martinez (“Live and Let Dive”), Christian Long (“Fur Babies”), Justin Long (“Fur Babies”), Kate Siegel (“Stowaway”)
Distributor: Shudder
Release Date: October 4, 2024 (Shudder)

V/H/S/BEYOND is the newest entry in the horror anthology franchise that began in 2012 with V/H/S.

The basic premise of the V/H/S films is that everything we’re seeing has been shot on videotape. In previous editions, the idea was that the segments were shot back when VHS was a much more popular format (thus V/H/S/85, V/H/S/99 and others).

In V/H/S/BEYOND, at least some of what we’re watching is meant to have been recorded recently. Mitch Horowitz, who is the real-world host of Discovery Channel’s ALIEN ENCOUNTERS: FACT OR FICTION, heads up the wraparound “Abduction/Adduction” sequences, directed by Jay Cheel.

In voiceover, Horowitz tells us that someone purchased a pair of videotapes at a flea market in 2021. The tapes purport to contain video evidence of an extraterrestrial visitation.

Horowitz, with a straight face, calls the tapes we’re about to see in V/H/S/BEYOND “the Holy Grail” for people who are interested in alien encounters. As possible insulation against our reaction to this statement, he also discusses how hardened skeptics and extremely credulous people are similar to one another in strenuously disbelieving or believing pretty much everything.

During the interstitials, Horowitz consults with some guests, including VFX artists Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer, and Wren Weichman from YouTube’s CORRIDOR CREW. They explain that videotape, as opposed to digital, is the preferred recording medium of those who are attempting to prove alien and/or supernatural encounters. This is because it’s harder to fake special effects on tape, as opposed to digital.

Two of the five segments don’t deal with extraterrestrials at all, and the other three don’t persuade us that there are no effects involved, but they are a lively group of shorts nonetheless.

The first up, “Stork,” directed by Jordan Downey and written by Downey & Kevin Stewart, based on artwork by Oleg Vdovenko, follows a police team following up on a lead involving the kidnapping of seventeen infants in a three-month period. The visuals are cool and disturbing enough for us to understand how artwork could be the basis for the short. It’s also jam-packed with bloody action.

Next is “Dream Girl,” set and shot in Mumbai’s Bollywood. Directed by Virat Pal and scripted by Pal & Evan Dickson, “Dream Girl” introduces us to a pair of local paparazzi, embittered Arnab (Sayandeep Sengupta) and his assistant Sonu (Rohan Joshi), trying to capture candid footage of superstar Tara (Namrata Sheth).

On the upside, we get an actual Bollywood musical number, in both a “straight” and a slimmed-down horror version. The acting and effects are very good. However, the Bollywood song-and-dance video is edited, with camera angles that couldn’t be shot by our protagonists. This isn’t bad in itself, but it does go against the V/H/S “found footage” ethos. It also doesn’t have anything to do with aliens (which, again, wouldn’t be an issue if the wraparound weren’t so insistent on it).

“Live and Let Dive,” directed by Justin Martinez and written by Martinez & Ben Turner, take us along on a skydiving expedition with thirtieth-birthday boy Zach (Bobby Slaski), his wife Jess (Hannah McBride), and a bunch of their friends. Unfortunately, their plane gets caught in a shooting match between an alien spacecraft and the U.S. military, crashing into an orange grove.

Director Martinez makes a solid case for brightly-lit terror and gives us some cool alien designs. Slaski is convincing as he goes from garden-variety nerves about skydiving to primal fear for his life.

“Fur Babies,” directed and written by Christian Long & Justin Long, starts with an online ad by overly-cheerful dog board and care operator Becky. (Libby Letlow). A small group of animal activists wonder what’s up with the badly-taxidermied canines in her online ads. We wonder about this, too. Just for starters, why would anyone trust their pets to this woman?

A suburban version of a certain often-adapted H.G. Wells novel has possibilities as a black comedy, but the broad tone doesn’t elicit either hilarity or dread. (And again, this has nothing to do with the alien wraparound.)

Finally, Kate Siegel directed and Mike Flanagan wrote “Stowaway,” in which solo documentarian Halley (Alanah Pearce) is determined to find the source of the lights in the sky above the Mojave Desert. This is the most thoughtful of the segments. The short asks big questions about the nature of life and the nature of assistance. There is mutation, but less actual gore than in the other pieces, and Pearce persuades us that Halley has an authentically inquiring spirit.

Horowitz and the CORRIDOR CREW folks are fun company and are agreeably naturalistic

V/H/S/BEYOND is presented in the old 4:3 aspect ratio, moving to more modern widescreen only for the end credits. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but on the whole, it’s got more merits than flaws.

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