V/H/S BEYOND (2024) – Close Encounters of the spooky kind captured on video!

I generally try to stay away from cheesy horror movies even though I am a fan of the genre. After all I need to be choosy and maintain some sort of standard right? Some people would classify the V/H/S franchise as falling under the category as cheesy, but I have to admit I am a sucker for horror anthology series, and it is a guilty pleasure. The V/H/S franchise first started way back in 2012 and since then it has spawned no less than 6 films after that (including this latest addition). Each film typically contains 4 or 5 standalone stories presented in the style of “found footage” captured on VHS tapes. As with many of such anthology horror movies, these short tales can come off great or swing to the opposite side and be terrible.

Which brings me to this latest entry to the VHS franchise. Subtitled Beyond, this time the stories revolve mainly around the theme of extraterrestrials. There are 5 stories in total, and I was pleasantly surprised by a number of these for their creativity in presenting a story that can resonant the horror within the brief runtime and budget. My favourite segment was “Live and Like Dive” (directed by Justin Martinez) which involved a group of sky divers whose expedition was rudely interrupted when their plane collided with an alien space craft! The aerial shots of the hapless victims as they fall off the plane were very original and I can say I have never seen before. The only drawback of this episode was that I got “motion sickness” from watching all the shaky camera action. The problem was I could not keep my eyes off the screen despite the nausea inducing effect. Another stand out was the segment set in India titled “Dream Girl” about an up and coming Bollywood sensation who turns out to be not quite what we expect. The film makers cleverly had time to insert a Bollywood style dance sequence here as a tribute to that industry. Another story “Stowaway” followed a woman who inadvertently got herself trapped inside an alien spaceship was interesting on that the story was written by non other than the great horror maestro Mike Flanagan! But sadly, its execution was not that impressive mainly because I could not make out half the things on screen!

V/H/S Beyond exceeded my expectations with some really good stories. I always admire how horror movies can work with the bare minimum of budget and even running time, and these anthology series provide the vehicle and opportunities for film makers to demonstrate their skills within these constraints. Beyond is not perfect because some of the segments admittedly did not come across that great, but when they worked it felt great and refreshing to see something different. V/H/S has proven that the horror anthology and found footage genre is still very much alive. Already, an eighth film in the franchise has been announced so we can all look out for V/H/S/8 (yet to be titled) targeted for as early as next year!