From worst to best…
What is V/H/S? It’s a gnarly, terrifying horror anthology series that veers from the strange to the obscene to the mundane and back again. Here is every film in the franchise ranked…
6. V/H/S Viral (2014)
We come to horror films to be scared, excited, thrilled… disgusted maybe in some cases. V/H/S Viral fails in every possible remit. It’s barely a film at all. All the acting is appalling. Each segment is either non-sensical, incredibly tedious or both. Even the presence of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, a directing duo whose work I have enjoyed previously, does nothing to lift the gloom here. Indeed, their segment Bonestorm is arguably the weakest of all of them. I hated this movie. A real low point. Not just for this franchise but also for my life. And for horror cinema as a whole. Dogshit.
5. V/H/S 99 (2022)
Whereas V/H/S 94 did a good job in transposing this often grim franchise to a ’90s setting, this follow-up struggles to do the same. Contemporaneous references feel crowbarred in, and it doesn’t help that both the tone and the quality of actual segments themselves vary wildly. Best of the bunch is Johannes Roberts’ Suicide Bid, the story of a budding sorority member willing to do anything to join the club and placate the mean girls who bully her into an early grave – literally.
Other than that, all the entries here are pretty mixed. Ozzy’s Dungeon, in which a twisted game show host receives his comeuppance for a perceived slight many years early, is perhaps the best of the rest, but Shredding, the first entry in V/H/S 99 is dragged down by annoying characters and To Hell and Back suffers from cheap set design and a rushed ending.
All in all, after the success of 94, V/H/S 99 represents a step back for a now-established horror franchise. The lack of an overriding framing device harms the movie also.
4. V/H/S/2 (2013)
The second entry in the franchise sees the return of writer-directors Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, the introduction of horror royalty in the shape of The Blair Witch Project director Eduardo Sanchez and the introduction of Gareth Evans (The Raid), Timo Tjahjanto and Jason Eisener. As ever, the quality varies wildly. Wingard’s effort concerns a man who has a futuristic eye implant that allows him to see ghosts, Sanchez and Blair Witch producer Gregg Hale contribute a zombie attack from the point of view of the zombie, Evans and Tjahjanto present one of the best V/H/S segments ever about the infiltration of a creepy cult before Jason Eisener takes us home with a fairly rote alien abduction story (that was eventually adapted into the feature-length film Kids vs. Aliens). As mentioned, the cult story of Safe Haven to give it its proper title is the most successful segment here. The scenes of mass suicide are genuinely horrifying and the whole thing escalates into a cacophony of madness and violence. It’s great. The others all have good moments but struggle to match the intensity of Safe Haven.
3. V/H/S (2012)
The first entry in the now long-running V/H/S franchise is not the most accomplished entry but it is the grittiest and it has a rawness to it that the other movies in the franchise lack. Adam Wingard’s wraparound narrative is weak and superfluous but the actual short films themselves are mostly successful and they also boast some serious up-and-coming talent. Amateur Night is probably the weakest entry, it’s a tale of toxic masculinity gone wrong too familiar to be anything other than filler, but Ti West’s Second Honeymoon is worth watching for the jaw-dropping twist alone, Glenn McQuaid’s Tuesday the 17th, a good old fashioned monster in the woods story, and 10/31/98 from the directing collective Radio Silence is the best of the lot, perhaps justifying their current role as custodians of the Scream franchise. The other entry, The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger, contributed by mumblecore mainstay Joe Swanberg is a fun horror short and its video chat setting provides some welcome respite from the constant choppy handheld camera movements and poor video quality. All in all, this film perhaps didn’t suggest that it would launch a massive horror franchise but it is still a solid introduction to the twisted world of V/H/S.
2. V/H/S 85 (2023)
The most recent entry in the V/H/S franchise not only proves that there is plenty of life left in these movies, it also boasts perhaps its most famous participant in the shape of Scott Derrickson. The Doctor Strange and Sinister director returned to his horror roots with 2021’s The Black Phone and his segment here (Dreamkill) contains elements of both of those films whilst still being its own incredibly disturbing work. His entry features grimy DIY footage of a series of horrific home invasions and murders and while the overarching narrative surrounding the footage is only passable, the murders themselves are terrifying. Elsewhere, Mike P. Nelson (who also helmed 2021’s Wrong Turn reboot) contributes two segments that take place in the same universe, one about a bunch of kids that are picked off whilst trespassing near a mysterious lake and another about a death cult – both of which are great. As with most of the films in the V/H/S franchise, the wraparound story is unnecessary and dull, here manifesting as a derivative creature feature but overall V/H/S 85 does a fantastic job in capturing the mid-80s aesthetic, complete with adverts and TV show footage that is either authentically of the period or incredibly well made if not. A resounding success all round.
1. V/H/S 94 (2021)
Since the runaway success of Stranger Things, nostalgia has been big business in the world of pop culture, more than normal even. By borrowing heavily from the 80s/90s aesthetic of classic, crowd-pleasing cinema, the Duffer Brothers created a legacy that would change the landscape of both cinema and television. Unfortunately, too often this meant something aping that style without any actual substance to back it up. The V/H/S franchise has never been mainstream, but it has often reflected current trends and done so in a way that is original and suitably gruesome. V/H/S 94 leans into its 90s setting without ever allowing itself to fully succumb to self-parody (something that Fear Street did struggle with, for example).
As with all entries in pretty much every horror anthology ever, V/H/S 94 is inconsistent. It does boast probably the most cohesive overarching narrative of the whole franchise however, with the idea of a creepy cult forcing people to watch sinister and insidious videotapes devilishly exciting (even if it does feel a lot like the concept behind Robot Chicken).
By trimming the number of contributors down to three (Simon Barrett, Steven Kostanski and Chloe Okuno), V/H/S 94 creates possibly the best overall entry in what has been a topsy-turvy but ultimately thoroughly enjoyable franchise.