V/H/S/BEYOND (2024)
Label: Acorn Media International
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Cert. 18
Duration: 114 Minutes 11 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen
Directors: Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Virat Pal, Justin Martinez, Christian Long, Justin Long, Siegel
Cast: Dane DiLiegro, Alanah Pearce, Mitch Horowitz, Thom Hallum as Broome, James C. Burns , Jolene Andersen, Tyler Joseph Andrews, Vas Provatakis, Phillip Andre, Namrata Sheth, Sayandeep Sangupta, Rohan Joshi, Ashwin Mushran, Bobby Slaski, Rhett Wellington, Jerry Campisi, Bix Krieger, Hannah McBride, Letlow, Matthew Layton, Braedyn Bruner, Kevin Bohleber, Phillip Lundquist
The seminal found-footage horror franchise V/H/S is back with it;s seventh entry V/H/S/Beyond (2024) offering new tales of terror from directors Jay Cheel (Cursed Films), Jordan Downey (ThanksKilling), Virat Pal (Night of the Bride), Justin Martinez (V/H/S), Christian Long and Justin Long (Drag Me To Hell), and Kate Siegel (Hush), with an array of the weird and grotesque.
The wraparound story "Abduction/Adduction" is directed by Jay Cheel, who I know as one of the co-hosts of the Film Junk Podcast, but who is a director in his own right, having directed the Cursed Films series. The wraparound which is a sort of an internet docu-series winds its way around each of these tales, exploring alien encounters happening at an infamous Canadian dwelling, the Farrington House, and a tape that supposedly shows an alien encounter of some kinds, the wraparound is woven interstitially between the main segments, as a documentary series hosted by Mitch Horowitz with contributions from the Corridor Digital crew.
The first segment proper is "Stork", directed by Jordan Downey, a secret special police unit W.A.R.DE.N. arrive at a derelict house to investigate a string of baby disappearances in the area, including the infant son of team member E.T. (Vas Provatakis). The events are captured by rookie team member Segura (Phillip Andre Botello, Model House) and through body-cam footage. What they find inside the house are sinister brain-drained zombies wielding chainsaws, a meteorite, and a creepy stork-like creature. This sort of plays like a fist person shooter video game, or something like [REC]. It's fast paced with lots of cop-energy machismo, gore-galore, and some pretty great practical and digital effects work.
Next, a detour to Bollywood with Virat Pal’s "Dream Girl", where amateur paparazzi Arnab (Sayandeep Sengupta) and Sonu (Rohan Joshi) are out to get candid footage of Bollywood newest sensation Tara (Namrata Sheth). We of course get a Bollywood musical number here, but fear not, the carnage is not far behind as the Sonu hides away inside the star's dressing room, only to discover the starlet is not human! Limbs are torn off, faces are peeled off, eyes are gouged out, and acid it spit. Not my favorite of the bunch, but pleasantly gory and not what I was expecting.
In "Live and Let Die", directed by V/H/S (2012) alum Justin Martinez; a man experiences a truly unforgettable 30th birthday as his friend's take him on a skydiving adventure, which takes a bizarre turn when they spot a UFO, which is in turn pursued by military fighter jets. The celebrations turns into a disaster when their prop plane smacks into the UFO, falling to pieces in mid-air, but luckily some of them are wearing parachutes and land safely on an orange orchard, where the alien encounter continues. This one is pretty well-staged, the mid-air carnage and descent to the ground was pretty exciting, once in the orchard there's a bit too much shaly-cam frantic running around, but the aliens are cool looking, and the way that they emit a light from their skulls is also cool. Plenty of carnage and alien abduction shenanigans ensue, not perfection by any means, but still an entertaining entry.
"Fur Babies" is directed by brothers Christian Long and Justin Long (Drag Me To Hell) and features an online channel animal rights group, Stuart, Angela, Miles, Pat, and Christina, investigating doggy daycare operation rub by the too-perky operator Becky (Libby Letlow, Big Little Lies) only to discover a torturous basement chockful of huma-to-canine transformative terror, very much along the lines of Kevin Smith's Tusk, which also starred co-director Justin long. This feels very much a Tusk retread, but thanks to the Kathy Bates in Misery-esque turn from Letow as the doggy-loving taxidermy/home surgery enthusiast I was really won over by it. A decent bit of gore here, lots of throat tearing, and of course the involuntary doggy cosplay.
Actress Kate Siegel (Hush) makes her directorial debut with "Stowaway", a slice of sci-fi found-footage terror which was written by her husband Mike Flannagan (Doctor Sleep). In it Hailey (Alanah Pearce) is in search for extra-terrestrial life in the Mojave Desert when she witnesses a series of lights in the sky, which she captures on her camcorder, and then goes to investigate when it appears one of the spacecraft has landed nearby in the desert. She finds a alien craft and enters, finding what appears to be specimens of Earthly creatures gathered by eth aliens, an arachnid and an octopus among them. However, when the alien occupants unexpectedly returns she finds herself a stowaway on a cosmic voyage, however, the trip is fraught with injury for her, but thankfully the alien ships automatically deploys nanites that repair her injuries, unfortunately they only have alien and animal DNA to draw from, leading to some truly mutations.
The anthology ends with culmination of the the "Abduction/Adduction" wraparound storyline, revealing the VHS footage of an encounter that occurred in the notorious "Farrington House", where a man disappeared from the house never to be seen again.
Like all the V/H/S entries this is a mixed bag, there's plenty familiar about it, but also a fair amount of thinking outside the box and genius kernels of idea that while not all executed to perfection are more hits than misses for me. I love how sci-fi heavy it is while still being chock full of gore and bloodshed, but I found the wraparound a bit of disappointment. Your milage may vary, but if you're a fan of the long-running found-footage anthropology series I have little doubt you will find plenty to love about this blood-soaked and alien-heavy seventh entry.
Audio/Video: V/H/S/Beyond (2024) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Acorn Media International, presented in 1080p HD widescreen with uncompressed DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio and optional English subtitles. It looks fine, the source by design is meant to at times mimic low-res VHS tape, and I think that it does that well, with an appropriate amount of smeary murkiness, scan lines, and video glitches added to what is all likelihood are digital captures. Some footage is more modern and caught on HD body-cam and recording equipment, and those show a much sharper and defined image. The uncompressed audio reflects the intentional source limitations of the recording equipment, of course sounding quite a bit better than actual footage would, but that's to be expected.
Extras include a brief 1-min Pre-visuals on Live and Let Dive; the 5-min Libby Letlow Fur Babies Audition Tape; 17-min Do You Want a Selfie: The Making of Dream Girl; 8-min Behind the Scenes of Stork with IGN; 5-min Stowaway Timelapse; and a series of Behind the Scenes Photo Galleries for Live and Let Dive, Dream Girl, Stork, Stowaway. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided wrap with the familiar key artwork.
Special Features:
- Pre-visuals on Live and Let Dive (1:08)
- Libby Letlow Fur Babies Audition Tape (4:47)
- Do You Want a Selfie: The Making of Dream Girl (16:55)
- Behind the Scenes of Stork with IGN (8:07)
- Stowaway Timelapse (5:01)
- Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery: Live and Let Dive, Dream Girl, Stork, Stowaway
Screenshots from the Acorn Media International Blu-ray:
