V/H/S/85 Review: The Horror Series Goes Retro With Ambitious, Gory Results [Fantastic Fest 2023]

The most exciting thing about the "V/H/S" films is that, six entries in, the found footage horror anthology series still has the capacity to truly surprise. Less of a cohesive universe and more of a sandbox for various directors to throw their wildest, silliest, gnarliest, and scariest ideas at the wall to see what sticks, the franchise has proven consistent in its inconsistency. An entry that is chock-full of bangers from filmmakers firing on all cylinders will be followed by a film where a few too many segments feels a bit half-assed — the dip in quality from the largely stellar "V/H/S/94" to the largely undercooked "V/H/S/99" comes to mind.

But as long-suffering horror fans know, there's a joy in watching a long-running series bounce back. And "V/H/S/85" is one of the franchise's strongest bouncebacks yet: there's not a single bad segment to be found, and each story feels fueled by ambition, serving as a showcase for bona fide craft from a director actually trying to do something fresh with epistolary horror. The best "V/H/S" movies can't help but feel like friendly competitions where a collective of filmmakers try to outdo each other, and whether by accident or design, that lends "V/H/S/85" a real "series of dares escalating across 90-odd gruesome minutes" vibe.

Even in its weakest moments, you can't call any of these segments phoned-in. Everyone showed up. Everyone brought the goods.

"V/H/S/85" is a chaotic experience, but that's always been the fun of this series. The tonal whiplash is a feature, not a bug, and each filmmaker brings a very different flavor of horror. The uniting factor, as the title implies, is that each little horror story takes place in 1985, and is depicted as found footage cobbled together on a grainy VHS tape by ... someone. But that's where the uniformity ends.

Of the bunch, I found myself partial to Mike P. Nelson's structurally unique segment about a rowdy group of campers who find themselves terrorized on a lake, but to say more would betray the surprising direction it takes, and how it plays with the franchise's format in a compelling way. But the rest aren't slouches: Scott Derrickson's segment is perhaps ambitious to a fault, trying to shatter the mold of the found footage format (It largely succeeds, even if you can feel it begging for feature length treatment). Gigi Saul Guerrero's segment is a bit more traditional in its structure, but its setting (a Mexican TV studio in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake) lends a flavor we haven't seen before in one of these movies. Natasha Kermani and David Bruckner contributions are slow-burns with huge payoffs, and offer easily the biggest laughs of the film. Kermani's in particular does the best job of the bunch of actually capturing the feeling of watching someone's odd home movie and stumbling across something deeply troubling.

All-in-all: a classic "V/H/S" grab bag, one full of scares and laughs and, yes, lots of gore. As always, the squeamish need not apply.

While none of the segments in "V/H/S 85" reach the truly gonzo heights of "Safe Haven" from "V/H/S 2" — how could they? — this is the first film in the series where it feels like every director is actively shooting for the moon. In previous films, the occasional entry would stand out like sore thumbs, feeling weirdly uninspired compared to the rest of the line-up. "V/H/S" fans know that a dud, a momentum killer, is just part and parcel with the experience. We've learned to shrug it off, because something fresh and exciting could be coming in 15 minutes.

That's not the case with this one, where quality control has never been higher. The beauty of the "V/H/S" series is that it continues to showcase the infinite flexibility of found footage horror, giving thrilling collections of genre filmmakers a chance to strut their stuff and test the boundaries. And with "V/H/S 85," everyone means business. Everyone is clearly determined to make the most formally daring and exciting segment in the film. Every future film in the series (because this series can and probably will run for another dozen entries) should point to this one as the goal: if you're going to contribute, bring your A-game. These folks did.

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10