V/H/S BEYOND
**
Directed by Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Virat Pal, Justin Martinez, Christian & Justin Long, Kate Siegel.
Horror, US, 114 minutes.
Released in the UK on 4th October by SHUDDER
Another year, another V/H/S anthology and yet another bag of mixed results. Becoming an annual event since the release of 2021’s inventive V/H/S 94, probably the most consistent entry since the release of 2013’s V/H/S 2, which contained Gareth Evan’s still unmatched “Safe Haven” every subsequent entry have seemed to become more and more uneven. The mixture of established directors and writers alongside up and coming talent is a neat idea but the balance has struggled to produce anything truly memorable with the likes of heavy hitters David Bruckner and Scott Derrickson blotting their CV’s with half baked results in last year's V/H/S 85.
The wraparound segment delivering the central conceit this time around is helmed by Scott Cheel and looks into the discovery of two video tapes that purportedly contain proof of a horrifying alien abduction. Shot in the manner of a paranormal show, it contains such real life investigators as Mitch Horowitz and the FX experts of Corridor Digital discussing how UFO culture and investigations have been shaped by popular culture and amateur footage. It’s a promising start that provides a neat gateway for the preceding stories to explore so it comes across as a disappointment that out of the five entries here, two of them completely ignore it, leaving only the final entry to really get to grips with it in a satisfying manner.
Jordan Downey, who made such an impressive debut with his ultra low-budget old-school fantasy flick THE HEAD HUNTER, kicks things off with STORK, which follows a squad of foul mouthed New York cops raiding a house in search of missing children only to find an band of zombies controlled by an unearthly creature. Through the use of body cam we are treated to an impressively mounted piece of action that is populated by cliched characters that feels like we’re watching someone else play a video game. Things change up completely with Virat Pal’s Bollywood set DREAM GIRL, which despite its setting comes across as little more than a monotonous exploration of the unforgiving star system of the Bollywood film industry.
LIVE AND LET DIVE, directed by Justin Martinez, steers things back into alien country with a bunch of annoying skydivers finding themselves caught in a close encounter with an alien spacecraft. This inventive and fun sequence soon gives way to the tired old found footage crutch of an unseen protagonist running and screaming through the woods as he is chased by a monstrous creature. Although overlong and repetitive it has the benefit of playing before Justin and Christian Long’s FUR BABIES, an unfunny riff on Justin Long’s own risible collaboration with Kevin Smith, TUSK. What exactly does this tale of a cheery pet grooming expert messing with some over eager animal rights activists have to do with UFO’s and aliens? Nothing!
Thankfully things end on a somewhat high note with STOWAWAY. Actress Katie Siegel makes her directorial debut with this tale written by her husband Mike Flanagan. There is no doubt that these two are the biggest talents on offer here on the strength of their previous collaborations. Siegel is the only one here to fully embrace the grainy aesthetic of found UFO footage here with the sad and haunting tale of a UFO chaser finding exactly what she is looking for in the high desert of America. It easily stands as the strongest and most consistent entry here and one of the best of the whole franchise with its unforgiving story and increasingly unearthly and grisly visuals that pull no punches. It makes you eager to see what Siegel is capable of when given the opportunity to helm her own project.
On the whole this is a skippable entry. The impatient and curious among you can fast forward to STOWAWAY while found footage completists can do their duty with the rest of these shorts that fail to push and stretch the genre in any new or interesting directions.
Iain MacLeod
