V/H/S/Beyond

“Stowaway” is the crown jewel of the V/H/S series. Just so well done with actual thought put into it. So, so very good.

Really enjoyed this film! I think this is the horror film where I didn’t get annoyed with the characters. And also, it’s not that scary. It leans more on the sci-fi side. There are just a lot of jump scares, but in terms of the horror factor, there’s not much. My rating for the following shorts:

1. Dream Girl
2. Stork
3. Live and Let Dive
4. Stowaway
5. Furbabies

Beautiful franchise! Can’t wait to watch the others!

I think this is the first one with no duds. Abduction is a fun mockumentary that ties the whole thing together. Stork is a Resident Evil style action horror with all the entertainment that involves. Dream Girl is a Bollywood scare, with a winking satire of manufactured stars and the entertainment industry eager to exploit and hate them. Live and Let Die has its greatest horror in its beginning, with a great concept of crashing into a UFO segueing into the very relatable fear of falling out of a plane. The accidental decapitation, the metal springing out of the arm… The aliens picking them off is just the icing on the cake. Fur Babies is unabashed wildness, with an audacious commitment I admire. And Stowaway is an impersonal, mechanical horror that you just can’t fight against. Some great visuals there. All combined, it makes for the best one yet.

1- **Abduction/Adduction**⠀4/10
So this is the documentary that plays in parts in between each segment. By the time we got the next piece of it I had slightly forgotten what I saw before making it pointless. I wish they just removed this from the movie honestly. Didn't like the evidence tape at the end.

2- **Stork**⠀8/10
*"E.T. are you up there?"*
Bloody fun! *Evil Dead* meets *Doom*. The first five minutes weren't very interesting but after that it went crazy. Basically a SWAT team killing off zombie aliens (how freakin cool is that!) in video game style. The makeup and practical effects are cool and I dig the design with the white eyes. Action packed and those final few minutes had my jaw on the ground from all the crazyness it was one cool thing after the other.

3- **Dream Girl**⠀6/10
What if... Alpha from *The Walking Dead* was a *Terminator*? This was Bollywood gone terribly wrong. They broke the found footage rule by adding footage from so many cameras and it also removed some of the scare factor in the process. The closet scene with the face still creeped me out though and it has a bloody and comedic satisfying finale.

4- **Live and Let Dive**⠀7/10
Pretty unique actually, didn't see the initial twist coming and as soon as the alien showed up it was edge-of-your-seat stuff. On the ground it was more funny than anything else but that's a positive. Poor Logan. The clementine(?) trees are an odd location but it adds humor especially when he threw a fruit at that alien. The design is so weird it's what a kid would probably come up with if you asked them to draw a cool alien. Too much CGI for my liking but it looked ok and there's also some neat practical effects.

5- **Fur Babies**⠀8/10
*"Boop."*
Bark-tastic! This one was directed and written by Christian and Justin Long and ironically it's kinda similar to *Tusk*. I think it's my favorite segment. Both hilarious and twisted. The highlight is the over-the-top performance by Libby Letlow who drives this thing from beginning to end, her character Becky is what I can only describe as Annie Wilkes meets Norman Bates. Great twist that I kinda saw coming a few seconds before but totally worth it. Creepy taxidermy workshop. Nice prosthetics and costumes. Bloody satisfying fight sequence and funny ending with the mailman.

6- **Stowaway**⠀7/10
Directed by Kate Siegel and written by Mike Flanagan. *Contact* meets *The Fly*. For a short I kinda liked the character she kept her shit together most of the time and constantly said smart stuff. This was quite the adventure, the pod was so fascinating I didn't want the exploring to end. The set for it looked amazing. Makes you think by the end, it seemed to me like life support horror? It kept healing her infinitely but with alien DNA. Also, why were they fascinated by eight legged freaks? Always knew spiders and octopus were up to something.

Average Score: 6.6/10

Overall this is the best *V/H/S* entry sinse the first two (which I haven't seen in so long) i'm a sucker for sci-fi so I really enjoyed this.

V/H/S/Beyond (2024) is arguably the best the V/H/S series has produced in years, offering a fresh blend of cosmic horror and sci-fi while retaining the gritty found footage style that fans expect. The anthology kicks off with A Special Presentation, a mockumentary about a family experiencing paranormal occurrences, which sets the eerie tone for the rest of the film. While the wraparound story isn’t as strong as the individual segments, it does an effective job of framing the chaos that follows.

One of the best segments is Live and Let Dive, where a skydiving adventure turns into a nightmare when aliens invade mid-air. The practical effects here are stunning, and the intense, fast-paced horror feels fresh for the franchise. Another standout is Fur Babies, which pushes the boundaries of grotesque body horror in a disturbing yet captivating way. The taxidermy theme adds a grim uniqueness to the segment, making it one of the most unsettling parts of the film.

Dream Girl, set in Bollywood, offers a clever critique of the film industry while delivering some of the film’s most brutal and imaginative scenes. This mix of satire and horror works exceptionally well, contributing to the anthology’s diverse tonal shifts, from gory to satirical to pure cosmic terror.

While not every segment hits the mark, V/H/S/Beyond consistently pushes the envelope, offering a wide range of horror and sci-fi elements. It stands out as one of the strongest entries in the V/H/S franchise in recent memory, offering more cohesive scares and better production value than some of its predecessors. This is a must-watch for fans of the series and those who enjoy innovative found footage with a sci-fi twist.

This film will be popular with fans of cosmic horror, body horror, and anyone looking for a creative spin on the V/H/S formula.

the Chinese guy and his house was not so bad...
the duck or whatever that extraterrestrial thing is, I didn't dislike it at all, but it could have been better...
the alien/cyborg singer or actress or whatever was weird, I mean it was decent...
but I think she was wasted the character....
the paratroopers wasn't too bad,the alien was ok...
I liked the way they killed him....
The crazy dog lady didn't really appeal to me, they could have put in something else...
now the stupid one that gets into the ship....
There are so many redflags that I liked what happened to her, but I think it could have been used more...
and the end of the chinese guy, well...
I thought it was bland...
in general I think the script should have been worked on more and take advantage of the alien theme as it should have been...
in a tierlist this one would be very low compared to its predecessors...

Beautiful "B" movie. Never boring and sometimes funny as hell :D

Watched V/H/S/Beyond with Christian, Matt, Emily, and Mario at Matt’s house. First story felt like a haunted house video game. Kinda cool. Second one was way too much shaky cam and lame with the rough acting. Third one was kinda silly. Rough acting, alien anatomy, and CGI. I liked the concept of seeing an invasion while skydiving though. Fourth was the dog version of Tusk. I liked that one. Cringe unsettling feeling. Fifth was probably the worst. Blurry as fuck. Sixth was real quick. Gross but it looked good. I’d say only the first, fourth, part of the third, and sixth are worth watching. Connor 5, normal 6. 📼

OK, now that's more like it.

V/H/S/Beyond is a much better entry than V/H/S/ 85, as it's in the same vein as 1 & 2 regarding the creative set pieces for the different segments and how enjoyable the experience was.

My favourite segments in ranking order are Live and Let Dive, Stowaway, and Stork.

Live and Let Dive has an exciting hook in which aliens attack a group of skydivers as they are about to jump. While some land in an orange Grove, either injured or dead, they are suddenly attacked by the aliens one by one.

Stowaway is a lucid segment where a woman named Halley documents and investigates the possible existence of Extraterrestrial life in the Mojave Desert. She interviews the locals who claim to have seen strange glowing lights at night. She eventually finds what she is looking for, but her findings come at a cost that will change her for life. Either for better or worse.

Stork is an entertaining shoot-'em-up, where a police unit goes into a dilapidated house late at night and fights off different supernatural creatures not from planet Earth.

The rest of the segments were equally enjoyable; there are just some that are better than most.

Most of the segments were fun, but I kinda feel like the VHS people just gave up on the concept of making it all feel cool and "one story" - there's absolutely nothing binding these stories together, they just have one baseline "documentary" style story which just gets interrupted with random segments.

_(As a future Funhaus fan it was amazing seeing Alanah show up, had no idea she was doing this.)_