V/H/S/99 Is Uneven, But the Horrifying Highs Are So Worth It

The apocalyptic dread of Y2K, captured by the final period of camcorder customers, looms massive in V/H/S/99, the fifth within the V/H/S found-footage horror anthology sequence. Unlike final yr’s V/H/S/94, this installment gathers 5 unconnected tales, mashed collectively by an unseen editor who has an excellent intuition for saving one of the best for final.

That’s to not say there’s lifeless weight right here—it’s simply that not each section is outstandingly memorable, and the wildest one occurs to be on the finish. Though there’s no framing story, we do get a number of interspersed vignettes of toy troopers assembly ugly stop-motion ends, a darkly comedian contact that displays the “haha/eww” vibe of the complete enterprise. As for the entries themselves, Maggie Levin’s “Shredding” kicks issues off by following a quartet of teenagers, a band that retains a video diary of their wacky pranks—one thing that will’ve made them darlings of YouTube if solely YouTube existed in 1999. “Shredding” oozes main ‘90s nostalgia and that’s actually its finest component; the youngsters’ newest stunt is to interrupt right into a live performance venue that’s been shuttered since a crowd stampede killed the final band (additionally a quartet of teenagers) that carried out there, and the fake promo video for the doomed musicians expertly evokes the popular culture of the period like MTV’s 120 Minutes.

You can most likely guess the way it goes for the obnoxious younger rockers as soon as they carry their goofballery to a probably-haunted venue; you may additionally guess the ending of Johannes Roberts’ “Suicide Bid,” a few faculty pupil so determined to get into her most well-liked sorority that she agrees to a merciless hazing stunt that includes spending the night time in a coffin. But you’ll completely not be capable of see the place Flying Lotus’ “Ozzy’s Dungeon” goes, which begins off with a kiddie sport present that’s like a grosser, extra harmful mash-up of Double Dare and Legends of the Hidden Temple, with a number (Snowpiercer’s Steven Ogg) who’s equal elements smarmy and sinister. Where it turns subsequent we won’t spoil, however excessive ranges of WTF are achieved, commendably so.

After that, we get Tyler MacIntyre’s “The Gawkers,” a cautionary story for younger Peeping Toms in every single place that actually captures that last technology of bored suburban youngsters who didn’t have cellular phone cameras and social media at their fingertips to maximise their stalking. But the pièce de résistance of V/H/S/99 is “To Hell and Back” from Vanessa and Joseph Winter, the identical duo who made the current Shudder addition Deadstream, an entertaining found-footage Evil Dead homage. Joseph Winter and his Deadstream co-star Melanie Stone (who is very incredible right here) reunite for this saga of documentarians who get manner greater than they bargained for whereas shadowing a doomsday cult on New Year’s Eve. Without spoiling something, let’s simply say the creature design alone would make this entry the standout of the movie, however its intelligent story helps make it a standout of the complete V/H/S sequence.

What does it say about V/H/S/99 that one of the best segments (“Ozzy’s Dungeon” and “To Hell and Back”) are the one two that don’t give attention to young-adult protagonists? Maybe that the sequence is attempting too laborious to focus its efforts on who it hopes will watch the film, or perhaps that’s only a byproduct of setting your movie in 1999. As know-how was beginning to improve, many youngsters nonetheless had quick access to camcorders, to not point out probably the most pressing must doc themselves appearing like idiots for an imagined viewers. In V/H/S/99‘s case, after all, the viewers is actual, and we get to see comeuppance rain down as every mini-morality story—the tagline of V/H/S as a franchise could possibly be “Do not fuck with the supernatural!”—reaches its grainy, static-filled conclusion.

V/H/S/99 hits Shudder on October 20.

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