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What’s the secret ingredient in the new soda?

The eighth entry in the V/H/S series is far darker, and stronger than its predecessor. Where Beyond had almost no through line and a couple of actively bad segments, Halloween has some strong visuals, a great arc and a couple of standout segments. The problems are still there, and they’re joined by a staggeringly ill-advised use of AI and the fact the movie was funded by a Saudi Arabian fund. The first is annoying, deeply lazy and the most tone deaf possible move in 2026 that isn’t asking people to stop being mean to fascists. The second is directly tied to that, given several recent purchases by Saudi and American business concerns in the entertainment industry. Along with the horrific murder of Jamal Kashoggi in 2018, that will give a lot of people pause, as it should be. There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, that’s a given. But as a result, it’s our responsibility to empower you to make your choice.

If you do decide to go with V/H/S Halloween there’s a lot to enjoy. ‘Diet Phantasma’ is the framework narrative this time. Written and directed by Bryan M. Ferguson it follows a 1980s drinks company marketing a new drink made with the essence of poltergeists. It’s a spectacular, pulpy idea and Ferguson has a blast with it as test subjects are killed in increasingly weird can-related ways. It’s in no wait whatsoever subtle, but the 1980s setting helps that. David Haydyn and Anna McKelvie as the CEO and his increasingly annoyed scientist are especially good fun.

‘Coochie Coochi Coo’, written and directed by Anna Ziokovic is up next. Samantha Cochran and Natalia Montgomery Fernandez are excellent as a pair of high school students who decide to go trick or treating one last time, ironically. When they’re warned about ‘Mommy’ by a group of kids they sneer. And then a house appears out of nowhere…

Gooey horror is hard for a lot of people, and this pulls no punches. That’s one of the best elements of it too, as the horrific exploration of curdled (in every sense) motherhood mounts and mounts and mounts. Ziokovic has a great eye and the scares here feel like an American haunted house on fire and running down the hill towards you with murder in its eyes and milk on its face. The monsters, and there are plenty, are right there all the time and the adrenalin sharp edge of ‘safe for now’ is where the story lives. It’s a slow burn, but it’s also one that has tangible horror and a surprising emotional depth. It’s also horrific, brutal and for no reason I can understand, uses an AI image at one point. It’s crap, because of course it is, throws you out of the movie and damages the story. Not to destruction, but it’s an unforced error.

Paco Plaza and Alberto Marni’s ‘Ut Supra Sic Infra’ is next and the best entry in the movie. Teo Planell stars as Enric, the only survivor of a massacre at an abandoned mansion that was home to a famous medium. Enric and his friends broke in one Halloween and were found, the following day, with their eyes removed.

Cutting between the investigation and the catastrophic party, Plaza builds menace wonderfully and makes great use of a tiny budget and location. An old school phone becomes a vital component of the story, and the ending is a beautifully paced double hit of gore and otherworldly horror. The second most unpleasant shot in the movie is here, and it buttons the story with a moment of abject terror. It’s strong stuff but if you can take it, it’s a great entry in an uneven anthology.

Casper Kelly’s ‘Fun Size’ is up next and embodies the best and worst of the movie. The best is in the increasingly demented blood-soaked cartoon logic of the story. Four adult trick or treaters are sucked into a bowl of treats and pursued through a Backrooms-esque warehouse by Fun Size, a demonic candy mascot. Visually it’s great. The writing and acting is not. The inevitable reveal on what the candy Fun Size harvests is inventively nasty but the escalating second act shifts over into near parody. It’s not helped by the thinnest characters in the movie. Lauren, Josh, Haley and Austin are single attributes with names and their job here is just to be destroyed in increasingly chaotic ways. It’s fun, and it bounces along, but there was a much, much better version of this story that for some reason they couldn’t get to.

‘Kidprint’, written and directed by Alex Ross Perry, is another highlight and the most horrific movie I’ve seen since Possession. It’s 1992 and a small American town is under siege from a series of teenager disappearances and murder. Tim Kaplan (Stephen Gurewitz) runs a local video store where he makes ‘Kidprints’ documentary videos that can be used to ID missing children. Building from that grim premise, the story dives into the search for the killer, Tim’s own offhand arrogance and what happens when he discovers he is not the hero of his, or this, story.

The payoff here is extended and brutal. Like ‘Ut Supra Sic Infra’ it does not look away when terrible things happen and again, is brave enough to show you the consequences of that. It’s unbearably dark, horrifically bloody and the final twist is predicated on human nature in a way I’ve never seen before. It’s incredibly upsetting, in the best way and is almost a textbook example of how to do splatterpunk horror perfectly.

The problem here is a mirage, one you’ll either see or you won’t. If you don’t, this is a brilliantly realised and horrific story that impresses as it repulses. If you do, then the racial politics of this story and its time period are wired so weirdly, and so unpleasantly, they’re the sour note that will stay with. Mileage will vary. But this one bothered me.

‘Home Haunt’ written and directed by Micheline Pitt-Norman & R.H. Norman closes the movie out with a series of really interesting surprises. Keith (Jeff Harms) is a dad who loves arranging haunted houses for the neighbourhood. Zack (Noah Diamond), his teenage son, wants no part of it but is bribed into helping. Then Keith shoplifts a mysterious record…

Two things work very well here. The first is the emotional life of the characters, which actually exist here. I’m not criticising horror as a whole at all, but a lot of the characters in this movie are aspects of the plot rather than individuals. Diamond and Harms are both playing people who feel real, and familiar. Diamond especially is great, presenting a lot like a teenage Jacob Wysocki in his delivery and presence.

The other is the format. The VHS camera makes the impossible, yet still terrifying and otherworldly, environment even more uncanny. You know it’s a set dressed in dry ice. But you also know that it’s something awful pretending to be a set dressed in dry ice. It’s a neat approach. It also, like ‘Coochie Coochie Coo’, benefits from a longer running time as the situation just builds and builds. The ending itself is a very slight bum not but that’s due to the tonal shift more than the actual script. It makes sense, it’s just jarring.

Verdict: With one standout segment, and a lot that just didn’t land for me, I was very disappointed by V/H/S Beyond. Halloween is a far stronger entry in the series but still takes damage from paper thin characters and the continuing belief that gore and shock are plot. Coupled with the AI usage and the financing, that’s enough to give a lot of folks pause, including me. Good fun, and worth your time, but the gap between how good this franchise is and what it should be is still miles wide. Cross it at your own risk. 7/10

Alasdair Stuart