★★★
V/H/S returns with a Halloween anthology that swings between inspired mischief and depressing scuzz, lifted by a feral candy treat nightmare and a monster-haunt finale.
The V/H/S series has always thrived on unevenness, and the Halloween entry does not break that habit. This set of shorts has highs and lows in equal measure, sometimes inspired, sometimes exhausting. It belongs with the good ones (2, 99, and 94) rather than the ropey 1, Beyond, or 85. And the less said about Viral the better.
Bryan M. Ferguson’s wraparound, Diet Phantasma, sets off with slapstick flair: fizzy cans, pratfalls, bodies flying. It does not build into much more than a noisy prelude. Anna Zlokovic’s Coochie Coochie Coo drifts into the same cul-de-sac, characters running and screaming while horror imagery flashes without a narrative spine. Both segments underline the series’ recurring weakness, the way spectacle can crowd out structure. Paco Plaza’s Ut Supra Sic Infra is more finely crafted, carefully staged and polished, but it never quite cuts loose. It lacks the unhinged or unexpected energy that would lift it to the next level.
The stronger entries carry the anthology. Casper Kelly’s Fun Size spins a simple trick-or-treat setup into escalating chaos. The candy-bowl premise taps into petty childhood disobedience before veering into grotesque slapstick. It runs a little long, but it is easily one of the more memorable shorts here. Home Haunt, directed by Micheline Pitt-Norman and R. H. Norman, goes for broke with monsters, latex, and a perfectly nasty neighbour. That final segment finds the right balance of silliness and menace to end the film on a high.
The darkest note comes from Alex Ross Perry’s Kidprint. Shot in lo-fi video-store textures, it circles missing children and ends up in a grim place. Rather than deepening the anthology, it plays as bleak and depressing, a tonal rupture that jars against the mischief elsewhere.
This amounts to V/H/S/F/T/K (fuck them kids). When the anthology indulges in that cruelty it buckles, but when it sticks to October prankishness and creature-show fun, it works. Fun Size and Home Haunt make this one of the stronger entries, even if the rest only circle the promise.
V/H/S/Halloween is available to stream on Shudder from today.
Whitlock&Pope 