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| Images courtesy Shudder |
‘90s pastiche is back yet again in pop culture, and this time it’s in the form of a new V/H/S movie made exclusively for Shudder. Disappointment followed the franchise’s previous installment V/H/S Viral, but this one is a return to form for the anthology film series, capturing all of the nostalgia that makes the concept memorable, but not without its flaws.
While each of the five stories we watch are mostly unrelated to each other outside of them being supposed “found footage” from the ‘90s, one story is unravelled throughout the other four shorts. Directed by Jennifer Reeder, “Holy Hell” depicts a S.W.A.T. team on a drug raid gone wrong, where they enter a warehouse filled with dead bodies and mysterious video tapes — their content being presumably the remaining four shorts.
The other shorts range dramatically in tone, but are each effective in their own way. The tightest piece is the first one: Chloe Okuno’s “Storm Drain,” which captures the seedy, exploitative essence of ‘90s news tabloid culture. Simon Barrett’s “Empty Wake” is a simple but suspenseful story that takes place in a funeral home during a particularly unattended wake, where things head south once a mysterious visitor comes to pay his respects.
V/H/S franchise veteran Timo Tjahjanto impresses with his body horror-heavy short “The Subject,” wherein a mad scientist who performs gruesome experiments to innocent people is discovered, and we witness through the mechanical eyes of one of his subjects the gory aftermath of his work. While the video looks far too high-definition for something that’s supposedly emulating VHS quality, it has the essence of a first-person shooter game of the 90s, which keeps it in the right era.
Most of the shorts are well-paced, but Ryan Prows’ “Terror” meanders a bit. Heavy in its message but loose in its execution, we watch a white supremicist militia attempt to develop a superweapon capable of terrorist attacks aimed at ethnically cleansing the nation. It starts off strong, and the concept itself is upsetting, but it is unfocused and underwhelming for the most part.
Whether it’s intentional or not, these shorts seem to pay homage to the “found footage” television craze in the late-'80s/early ‘90s, which depicted allegedly “real'' paranormal occurrences like The McPherson Tape in 1989 or BBC’s Ghostwatch in 1992. While many viewers might not remember them, they set the stage for The Blair Witch Project in 1999, igniting this trend in film that still lives on today — a perfect example of which is, of course, the V/H/S franchise.
Much like its predecessors, V/H/S/94 brings some interesting concepts to the table, but these concepts vary in how well they’re executed. The five shorts don’t feel like a cohesive world for the most part, which oftentimes makes the anthology feel uneven. Nevertheless, it’s a fun watch for those who long for ‘90s nostalgia and can see past its messiness.
-Andrea Riley
