Bloody Disgusting’s latest offering of the V/H/S franchise, V/H/S/85, is the most terrifying installment yet.
Five gritty, gruesome tales of horror are punctuated with nightmarish imagery of the lost 1980s. These segments are the most visceral to date—especially Scott Derrickson’s DREAMKILL. Not for the faint of heart, these anthological shorts feel like a collection of snuff films found in the basement of an abandoned house. Backed by effective writing, effects, and shock value, they instill a deep sense of dread and twisted voyeurism, leaving the viewer haunted, shocked, and deeply disturbed.
V/H/S/85 begins with Mike P. Nelson’s politically influenced horror, NO WAKE/AMBROSIA. In a gritty, merciless opening segment, a group of happy-go-lucky college kids travel in an RV deep into the woods and set up camp at a desolate lake that warns its visitors against swimming. Ignoring the signs, the group goes out. While waterskiing, they’re brutally picked off by an unseen sniper. Gushing with gore, exposed tissue, and muscle, the group realize that the water from the lake has allowed them to reanimate when the ones who stayed ashore remain dead. In AMBROSIA, Nelson’s mini sequel set halfway through V/H/S, reveals our assailant as teenager Ruth. Ruth and her family celebrate coming of age by slaughtering seven people; however, the celebration doesn’t turn out as they planned.
Nelson creates an American nightmare in NO WAKE/AMBROSIA that is a reminder of our disturbing history of gun violence and homicide in the United States—and its notable rise in the 1980s. Nelson masterfully enhances this haunting truth with American symbolism in NO WAKE; characters wear blue, red, and American-flag patterned life vests that become smeared and splattered in gore. Additionally, Nelson distorts the classic American summer—taking an RV to the lake in the summer to drink beer and swim with friends and family. In AMBROSIA, we see similar symbolism; Ruth’s family shows no concern as she presents a video tape that shows her, armed with a large rifle, killing the kids at the lake. Mirroring the reaction to gun violence in everyday America, and the emotional numbness that begins to take hold of society when we are subjected to one news story after another without end—or intervention—in sight.
Gigi Saul Guerrero’s atmospheric GOD OF DEATH follows a fictionalized account of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which took the lives of 5,000 citizens. As a cameraman tries to escape the rubble and ruins of a skyscraper with a rescue team, they accidentally stumble upon ancient Aztec god Mictlantecuhtli, with bloody results. Guerrero’s take on historical horror is gripping and disturbing; not only in its reality of what may have happened that day, but in its twist ending that taps into Aztec religion and beliefs. This concoction creates an effective segment that feels influenced by great horrors like 2007’s REC. Guerrero’s creativity is highlighted here, and her cameo was a nice surprise.
The next segment, Natasha Kermani’s TKNOGD, is a strange, eerie take on virtual reality. Performance artist Ada tells her audience that the world killed God and that he’s been replaced by “the god of technology”. She puts on an entire body suit. What she sees in her VR headset is plugged into a screen for her audience to see. Soon, she awakens a god that appears on the screen, in the virtual world. It attacks her, and the brutal injuries she gets in the digital realm appear in the physical world.
While TKNOGD isn’t the strongest of V/H/S/85’s shorts, it’s certainly effective in its SFX and abrupt ferocity. The ending shot of Ada is one of the most haunting in 85, mirroring how we as a society have become numb, and by extension, braindead, by the obsessive use of the digital world.
Scott Derrickson’s DREAMKILL is 85’s gruesome masterpiece that, in an exciting twist, takes place in the same world as the director’s critically acclaimed 2021 film, THE BLACK PHONE. DREAMKILL follows two detectives, Wayne (Freddy Rodríguez) and Bobby (frequent Derrickson collaborator, James Ransone) on the hunt for a vicious serial killer. After receiving video tapes weeks prior that depict the murders perfectly, the duo become puzzled as to how the video tapes foresaw each slaying, and race to find who is sending them.
Much of this short takes place from the gritty perspective of the serial killer, who horrifically maims and slaughters his victims with a straight razor. Like his film SINISTER, Derrickson proves his deep understanding of atmospheric horror through the fake snuff films he includes in his movies. While the ones in SINISTER are memorable in their own right (BBQ and POOL PARTY still haunt fans years after its release), Derrickson goes to new heights in DREAMKILL. These snuff films make the viewer feel as though they’re watching the real thing—in their brutality, methodology, their harrowing sound design, and their visceral distortion. Tying in the Blake family from THE BLACK PHONE was understated and expertly placed, adding additional terror to the film’s world that Derrickson (hopefully) can explore further.
Derrickson doesn’t hold back here, and in doing so, he excels as the strongest contributor to 85.
85’s chilling wraparound story and its final segment, TOTAL COPY, is directed by David Bruckner (V/H/S, HELLRAISER, THE RITUAL). This science fiction-infused documentary presents like Deadline, Hard Copy, and other American investigative-tabloid shows of the 80s and 90s. In four interludes, scientists at Stamer University—led by Dr. Spratling (Jordan Belfi)—observe an alien whom they call “Rory”. The team try to educate the being on American culture by placing it in a small room and showing it non-stop television, namely 1980s exercise videos. As the being begins to shapeshift and exhibit its abilities, Spratling becomes blind to the study’s potential dangers, leading to a massacre.
Bruckner cleverly executes an effective critique of American consumption of media in TOTAL COPY and, by extension, the toxic diet and fitness culture of the 1980s. The final shot of Bruckner’s segment—in which Rory, fully formed as a tentacled alien, manipulates the corpses of the scientists to perform the exercises shown on the television screen—is a darkly humorous take on how American society becomes enslaved to their television sets and whatever our culture deems as “right”.
V/H/S/ goes back to its terrifying roots in 85 to create a formidable horror film. Each filmmaker gives their all. The gore, writing, authentic feel of this entire entry is something we haven’t seen in recent segments—making 85 the strongest of the franchise so far.
Tags: Ambrosia, Bloody Disgusting, David Bruckner, Dreamkill, Freddy Rodriguez, Gigi Saul Guerrero, God of Death, Hellraiser, James Ransone, Jordan Belfi, Mike P. Nelson, Natasha Kermani, No Wake, Scott Derrickson, Sinister, The Black Phone, The Ritual, TKNOGD, Total Copy, V/H/S, VHS85, [Rec]
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