Acorn Media International 

In 1994 a mysterious VHS tape is found, containing a creepy compendium of horrors.

Following its release in late 2021, Shudder announced that V/H/S/ 94 was the platform’s biggest movie premiere ever. The fifth in the series of found footage compendium horror movies has a wraparound story of a police SWAT team that stumbles on a sinister cult compound and its collection of VHS tapes.

In Storm Drain, a news anchor and her cameraman get more than they bargained for when looking for the legendary ‘Rat Man’ in a storm drain, while the sole attendee of a wake is suspicious of noises from within a coffin. There’s a mad doctor performing experiments in Jakarta (the goriest of the tales) in The Subject, while in Terror a white supremacist militia group exploit a vampire’s blood as a weapon.

Written by David Bruckner and Brad Miska, the stories are presented as grainy, crackly VHS footage, and you must resist the urge to find your VCR’s tracking button! The Blu-ray contains behind-the-scenes content, a Comic-Con panel, commentaries, deleted and extended scenes.

Verdict: Reassuringly familiar in its format, with a wide range of gory tales that all boast a mix of fun and invention. 7/10

Nick Joy