Black Phone Director Scott Derrickson Goes Found Footage Horror In VHS 85 Trailer

The "V/H/S" franchise is back once again with another installment this year, bringing more found footage spooky goodness to 2023's Halloween season. This time around, "V/H/S/85" will bring the long-running anthology series to the 1980s when slasher movies reigned supreme and the home video market was just beginning to explode. And the folks at Shudder have put together an absolute murderer's row of directing talent to handle the various segments, including "The Black Phone" and "Sinister" filmmaker Scott Derrickson, among others.

Dating back to 2012, the "V/H/S" films have been a bit of a mixed bag (as anthologies often are) with extremely high highs to disappointingly low lows. But after taking a pretty long break they have become something of an annual tradition again, with "V/H/S/94" arriving in 2021, and "V/H/S/99" following in 2022. Now, it's all aboard the '80s nostalgia train. Let's see what that looks like, shall we?

This is, admittedly, very much just a teaser trailer. It's hard to get a grip on where one segment begins and another ends. One thing that is crystal clear is that this looks like found footage in a truer sense, as the tapes are grainy and low-quality, making them feel of the era. There are some pretty compelling shots mixed in amongst the quick cuts, just enough to pique one's interest. We also get a synth soundtrack befitting the era, and some fun little '80s Easter eggs to be on the lookout for. It looks like a logical and fun place for the franchise to go. The brief synopsis for the sixth installment reads as follows:

An ominous mixtape blends never before seen snuff footage with nightmarish newscasts and disturbing home video to create a surreal, analog mashup of the forgotten 80s.

Derrickson is just one of the talented filmmakers who signed on to bring this latest anthology collection to life. The lineup for this movie also includes David Bruckner ("Hellraiser," "The Night House"), Gigi Saul Guerrero ("Bingo Hell," "Culture Shock"), Natasha Kermani ("Lucky"), and Mike Nelson ("Wrong Turn"). It's particularly nice to see Nelson getting some love here, as his "Wrong Turn" reboot from 2021 was tragically overlooked, in no small part thanks to the pandemic. It's a ridiculously good lineup that should make for one heck of a watch.

"V/H/S/85" is set to arrive on Shudder on October 6, 2023.