V/H/S/Beyond (2024)
V/H/S/Beyond: A Wonderful Mess | 3/5 Stars
Written by Noah Dietz: 10/10/2024
As a franchise, V/H/S has been plagued by an inconsistency that is frustrating to experience. While I have fond memories of the original V/H/S from 2012, a revisit recently as a more mature adult has soured my feelings on it. The original trilogy peaked in the second entry, and unfortunately suffers from the abysmal low of V/H/S: Viral; an entry so poorly received it put the franchise to sleep for a full 7 years. Thankfully, 2021 brought us the beginning of the Decades trilogy and a new life to the franchise. It was clear that having everyone focus on a more thought out theme was better for the anthology, with each entry (94, 99, and 85) generally dialing into a clearer theme that brought more cohesion to the films at large.
Now we return, not skipping a step after V/H/S/85, with a fresh and exciting new premise: V/H/S Goes To Space.
V/H/S/Beyond brings us in with a similar wraparound segment to 85, a documentary style short telling us that this entry is going to be focusing in on aliens as the primary antagonist. This isn’t necessarily new for the franchise. V/H/S/2’s short “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” for example, the general sci-fi adventures of V/H/S: Viral’s “Parallel Monsters” or 94’s “The Subject” all dealt with science gone wrong without necessarily bringing in a supernatural element. That being said, a fully committed sci-fi entry from a V/H/S film has the potential for dizzying highs or abysmal lows. V/H/S/Beyond, for me, generally manages to make the whole project work.
Beyond this point, the plot and progression of the shorts will be discussed in varying levels of detail, proceed with that knowledge.
Beyond takes off strong with “Stork”, a short directed by Jordan Downey that revolves around a branch of the police called W.A.R.D.E.N. who specialize in the supernatural. This short sets a strong tone for the rest of things, with an incredibly alien looking monster and fantastic makeup effects. It stumbles slightly with elements on “Dream Girl” directed by Virat Pal, lightly breaking the immersion with the way it chooses to showcase certain scenes. This was an issue I’d had with V/H/S/94 in the past with “The Subject,” though I’ve since come around with it as one of my favorite shorts of the entry. That being said, “Dream Girl” has some very fun design choices that are hampered by the inclusion of stationary, crystal clear camera shots from the music video set the short is primarily based in.
A panicked frenzy, “Live And Let Dive” directed by Justin Martinez starts out incredibly well, but unfortunately doesn’t manage to stick the landing as it continues to maintain a consistent level of energy throughout. If we had gotten even a momentary respite from screaming and running it’s possible this would have been a more enjoyable short, but as it is there isn’t enough rise and fall to feel anything but exhausted by the end. Luckily this feeling doesn’t continue with Christian and Justin Long’s segment, “Fur Babies.” This short, much like “Dream Girl”, stays away from aliens and sticks with more of a sci-fi angle. Self righteous animal rights extremists decide to take on a doggy daycare because they find the owner's practice of having her dead dogs taxidermied disgusting. The segment ends up going off the rails in ways you might have seen coming, but it isn’t likely. In the words of the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association and Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com Brian Tallerico, “Tusk really fucked up Justin Long.”
“Stowaway,” directed by Kate Siegel, slams us back to a direct alien presence with a UFO hunter in the Mojave. This one is probably my favorite of the bunch, but I’ve always been a sucker for body horror. As the story goes on, the horror of the situation truly sets in as we see Halley (Alanah Pearce) enter an endless cycle of life and rebirth at the hands of the UFO’s healing nanites. The brief glimpses we get of Halley as she is healed again and again by a system with no knowledge of the human body are honestly chilling.
Regrettably, the wraparound for this entry is incredibly hit or miss. Some of it feels clean and professional, the documentary style pairing well with the emulated vhs tape recordings they promise to show us at the end of it all. Other points, after “Dream Girl,” you see a surprise visit from 2 members of the Corridor Digital YouTube channel who are brought on as experts in the field of falsified footage. Sometimes bringing the real world into a movie can cement the feeling of reality, but for me this took me right out of the whole segment. It’s a shame, because the end of the wraparound has the gut punch to put it in contention of being an all timer for the franchise if it hadn’t been shaky in the middle.
The strength of V/H/S has always been the diversity of its creative teams, and Beyond is no different. The wide array of stories brought in by this spread of writers and directors has the potential for this to be one of the stronger entries in the V/H/S canon. Unfortunately, most of the shorts don’t quite stick the landing. Three out of six segments are solid, but I don’t know that it’s enough to cement this as a top 3 contender for me. However, as the seventh entry to the franchise, even above 50% is a hell of a bar to clear. I look forward to seeing next year’s V/H/S, even with my mixed feelings on this one.
V/H/S/Beyond is currently available to stream on Shudder.