This past month saw the return of the New York Comic-Con, the one pop culture event to rival its more established counterpart out in San Diego. Larger, bigger, and actually filling out the entirety of the Jacob Javits Center, being my first time attending the convention since 2019, the increased size seemed an apt development.
Coinciding with the start of spooky season, Comic-Con can sometimes — with its hordes of costumed visitors — feel like Halloween 1.0, a precursor of things to come later in the month. What better way to help usher in the seasons of scares than attending a panel featuring the producer and directors of the latest installment of the anthology horror series, V/H/S?
Being big fans of the first few installments, the series has become a regular Halloween watch. Producer Josh Goldbloom, after being introduced by curator and podcaster Rosie Knight, led the panel, speaking along with some of the directors of the new installment: Tyler MacIntyre, and the directing couple Joseph and Vanessa Winter. A preview of the new installment opened the panel, with the most spot-on musical choice to get viewers ready to return to 1999.
“This is the only time I will be okay using the Backstreet Boys.” Goldbloom confessed once the trailer had run. Falling into a relaxed tone, the group recalled the start of the collaboration, specifically the decision to continue in the decade of the 1990s, following the release and success of V/H/S/94. “1999, for those who were alive at the time, was a wild fucking time…there were Y2K fears…and there was the decision to stay within the decade after ’94.
Shudder is nothing but supportive, and we always had an internal list of people to work with.” Goldbloom continued. “1999 was terrifying culturally; [looking back] there are just motifs of people watching each other, like a precursor to where we are now,” MacIntyre recalled. The visual look of video from 1999 added an element of its own, “[My segment is] shot on Hi8, with the same camera I ever owned; it looked terrible, and it looked perfect.”
The directing couple of Vanessa and Joseph Winter recalled being pitched for their participation in the film. At the time, they were in Utah finishing up one of their recent projects, and, having been approached for the gig, found easy inspiration in their surroundings. “What can we do in Utah that we can’t do in LA? [We looked around the landscapes] we thought: Hell.” Vanessa Winter chimed in with a more specific source of inspiration: “Bosch. We wanted to go to a Hell that could be terrifying, but also have a funny, absurd element to it.”
As for the film itself? As with most of the entries in the V/H/S series, some segments are stronger than others. The first segments, “Shredding”, styles itself after the x-treem mid- to late-90s shows typical on MTV. A quartet of purposely obnoxious characters go by the collective name R.A.C.K (for Rachel, Ankur, Chris, and Kaleb) go to the site of a rock show tragedy (the late-80’s grrl band Bitch Cat were killed in a fire), and, after desecrating the site (and treating Ankur to some racist ribbing), find themselves stalked by the undead members of Bitch Cat.
Straightforward and to-the-point, “Shredding” gets in and gets out with little fuss, and although it features solid practical effects work, doesn’t lend itself to much that makes it distinctive. 2.5/5 Whiskeys.
“Suicide Bid” is the follow-up, focusing on Lily (Alexia Ioannides), a college freshman rushing for a sorority, and in a case of hazing-gone-wrong, winds up buried alive in a coffin in homage of a local legend, Giltine, who had died undergoing a similar haze some 20 years prior. Reminiscent of the Ryan Reynolds showcase Buried, “Suicide Bid” grows increasingly tense thanks in part to solid sound design and a claustrophobic setting. 3/5 Whiskeys.
“Ozzy’s Dungeon” pokes solid fun at the sort of game shows popular on Nickelodeon in the early 1990’s, like a combination of Double Dare and Legends Of The Hidden Temple. Beginning with what could be a lost episode of one of those shows, the opening segment follows a child contestant, Donna (Amelia Ann) — who is participating in the titular Ozzy’s Dungeon, in order to help her poverty-stricken family — before suffering a freak accident that leaves her crippled. The segment then jumps forward some years later — Ozzy’s Dungeon has since been cancelled, and the former host (Steven Ogg) finds himself kidnapped by Donna’s derange mother, who has recreated the Ozzy’s Dungeon set, only replacing the formerly harmless props and traps with knives, septic refuse, and sulfuric acid.
Of all the segments in this iteration of V/H/S, this is the most successful at recreating the actual feel of an early-90’s kid’s show; every detail has the right feel to it, right down to The Host’s obnoxious joviality (and his downplaying of Donna’s crippling injury legitimately made my laugh out loud). Suffice it to say, “Ozzy’s Dungeon” turns to some pretty bizarre places at the end…though the ending leaves a bit to be desired, as it just kind of…ends. 4/5 Whiskeys.
“The Gawkers” takes the conceit behind American Pie‘s creepy internet exposure of Shannon Elizabeth‘s Nadia, and takes it right down to its logical — -yet creepy — conclusion. A group of pubescent boys — led by Dylan (Luke Mullen) — spend their days goofing off with Dylan’s on-the-spectrum brother, Brady’s (Ethan Pogue), camera, and creeping on their new, nubile neighbor, Sandra (Emily Sweet).
Tricking Bryan into helping Sandra set up her new Apple desktop and upload spyware to spy on her, the boys make a frightening discovery when Sandra turns out to be much, much more than what she appeared to be. “The Gawkers” benefits from making Dylan and his friends utterly creepy and detestable, as most pubescent boys tend to be at one point or another, so seeing them react to Sandra in the segment’s last few moments is terrifyingly delightful. 3/5 bibles
Finally, “To Hell And Back” is one of the best, most hilarious segments in all of the V/H/S oeuvre. A pair of videographers (Archelaus Christano, and co-director Joseph Winter) hired to document a coven’s summoning of a demon are accidentally transported to Hell itself, and, with the aid of an impish demon named Mabel (Melanie Stone) must find a way back out. Utilizing the desert landscape perfectly, and shot all one continuous segment, “To Hell And Back” builds on the Boschian absurdity the directors had hoped to capture.
This is a Hell that is more silly and wacky than out-and-out creepy and terrifying, and it benefits from having most of its terrors hinted at rather than thrown up at the audience’s face. There is a manic energy to the segment as well, and a dark humor that was hinted at early with “Ozzy’s Dungeon”, but was lost in most of the other segments. This last segment also benefits from having likeable main characters, who banter and try to keep their wits about themselves while adjusting to to craziest of all possible scenarios. 5/5 bibles
While not as instantly classic as prior segments like “The Terror”, “Slumber Party Alien Abduction”, “A Ride In The Park”, the utterly bonkers “Safe Haven”, or even the now-classic “Storm Drain”, V/H/S 99 manages to scratch the itch of viral horror that the series has grown to be known for. Gone also is any overarching story to bookend the segments, which tended to distract from the segments themselves, and this entry definitely benefits from being set in such a distinct year (it helps having been in my formative years during that time as well).
One surprise bit of news that rounded out the NYCC panel was the reveal by Goldbloom that the series was not only continuing, but had actually already completed shooting the next entry, V/H/S’85, which should find itself premiering late in 2023. This is the series that keeps on giving, whether it is spooky season or not.
V/H/S 99 final score = 3.75/5 Whiskeys.
V/H/S 99 is streaming exclusively on Shudder.
