A sci-fi through-line lets horror anthology V/H/S/Beyond probe deeper than its peers

The V/H/S series of horror anthology films are, by their nature, a mixed bag of tones, subgenres, and filmmaking styles all huddled under the same formal canopy. In any single installment of the series—which now runs to seven main films, two spinoffs, and some TV shorts in the span of just 12 years—you’ll get comedy, abject terror, existential dread, and weird blends of all three. It’s a great vehicle for some of horror’s finest directors to play out short-form nightmares in their own particular styles, but it also means that the installments sometimes struggle to hold together as complete cinematic experiences.

That is not the case with V/H/S/Beyond, which seeks to go beyond the bounds of earthly fears with sci-fi and alien horror stories from half a dozen directors, many of them coming to the franchise for the first time. While other V/H/S installments have sometimes been scattershot, united by format and time period more than anything else, V/H/S/Beyond holds together almost perfectly as a thematic exploration of the things lurking just beyond our understanding.

It kicks off with a frame story by Cursed Films mastermind Jay Cheel, presented so straight-faced and so packed with known faces from around the web that it basically functions as a documentary about alien encounters. This device, laced with videos of alleged UFOs, rings true to the subculture of UFOlogy and its devotees, but more importantly raises some key questions for the audience. In a world where videos can be faked, what does “proof” really mean?

Four of the ensuing five stories set out to answer that question, with dynamic and often jaw-dropping results. In “Stork,” filmmaker Jordan Downey takes us through a body cam-shot police raid of a house where something much stranger than a mere murderer is lurking. In Virat Pal’s “Dream Girl,” paparazzi sneak around the set of a Bollywood extravaganza to get intel on the film’s star, who’s something other than human. In V/H/S/Beyond‘s strongest segment, “Live And Let Dive,” franchise veteran Justin Martinez provides a harrowing view of what happens when your skydiving adventure is interrupted by an alien invasion. Christian and Justin Long’s “Fur Babies,” a bit of an outlier for the film, ventures inside a pet boarding house with a dark secret. And in the most beautiful and lyrical segment, “Stowaway,” first-time director Kate Siegel observes one woman’s search for proof, despite her family’s objections and no matter the cost.

There’s always the chance that an anthology film will have a weak link, but V/H/S/Beyond has no weak installments, just outliers that offer a different flavor of sci-fi/horror that separates them a bit from the alien stories. “Dream Girl” is more technological than flat-out alien, but in exploring stardom at a time when A-list likenesses are more and more likely to fall victim to AI, Pal and his collaborators tap into something primal and disturbing. “Fur Babies” is the most comedic of the segments, going as far as it possibly can with a lovingly twisted and hilarious premise, and while there’s not anything alien at work, there is a twisting of humanity that recalls everything from Frankenstein to Tusk. 

The brief detours outside of sci-fi are worth it, though, for the places V/H/S/Beyond is willing to go. Cheel’s frame story, “A Special Presentation,” cranks up the verisimilitude of the alien narratives, and ends with the single most disturbing image in a V/H/S movie (which Cheel claimed, during a Fantastic Fest Q&A, was just mysteriously sent to him). “Stork,” which takes its cues from the wild police raid at the beginning of George Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead, cleverly blends extrajudicial violence and cop cliches with some truly freaky creature design.

Then there’s “Live And Let Dive,” one of those perfect V/H/S distillations of a clever premise shifted into overdrive. “What if aliens invaded while you were skydiving?” is a great idea for a short film, but it’s where Martinez and his cast takes things next, with the help of a spindly monster, that makes the segment shine. Using an orchard as a kind of horror maze, packing screams into the sound design, and only using his monster in crucial moments of attack, Martinez crafts the perfect V/H/S segment to play for a midnight movie crowd.      

Stealthier, more meditative, and more likely to bear additional fruit upon repeat viewings, though, is Siegel’s “Stowaway,” conceived with her husband Mike Flanagan. “Stowaway” is a story of longing and desperation that just happens to have aliens in it. When the sci-fi elements kick in, they do so with precision and care (and some great design work), but it’s Siegel’s laser focus on the story of a woman seeking fulfillment that pushes this one into cosmic horror brilliance.

Taken together, these six segments work together not just as a great piece of popcorn cinema, but as variations on V/H/S/Beyond’s overarching theme. Even “Fur Babies” is roped into this film’s search for proof, for validation, for understanding—even if that understanding will make our brains melt out of our heads (sometimes literally). It’s that sense of focus, no matter how far into various subgenres the film strays, that makes V/H/S/Beyond one of the best films in the series, and an example of how much this franchise has left to explore.

Director: Jordan Downey, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kate Siegel, Jay Cheel
Writer: Jordan Downey, Kevin Stewart, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Ben Turner, Virat Pal, Evan Dickson, Mike Flanagan, Jay Cheel
Starring: Dane DiLiegro, Alanah Pearce, Dominique Star, Namrata Sheth, Rohan Joshi, Libby Letlow,
Release Date: October 4, 2024 (Shudder)