I thought for sure that I’d reviewed one of the entries into the V/H/S franchise before. I guess not. Well, not really. I did a microreview last October that essentially boiled down to “didn’t love it”. I’ve seen all eight of the main anthologies and both of the spin-off films. The only real review I’ve done is for SiREN (sic) and I wasn’t a huge fan despite liking the segment of the original V/H/S that it was adapted from. So what does all this rambling mean for you, dear reader? It means that my 7th film of 31 for October 2025 is going to be the subject of my first full review of a V/H/S. Lucky you! Let’s get into it, shall we?
[Synopses of each entry]
“Diet Phantasma” (wraparound) – A focus group is asked to taste the new Diet Phantasma soda. The ingredients include a mysterious “extract” that seems to turn the cans into deadly tiny portals to Eldritch horrors that the viewer doesn’t get a good look at. Just the carnage that results from popping the cans open.
“Coochie Coochie Coo” – Recent high school graduates set out for a night of trick-or-treating and mischief before heading off to college (that apparently starts after Oct. 31st?) and run afoul of the local legend, Mother, who punishes youths for trick-or-treating after they are 17-years-old.
“Ut Supra Sic Infra” – The sole survivor of a Halloween night massacre claims to be responsible for the carnage but police don’t believe him and ask him to recreate the events of that night. More carnage ensues.
“Fun Size” – Asshole adults go trick-or-treating and behave like assholes. When one of them takes more than one candy from a “take only one” bowl left out on a porch, they are all whisked away to a bizarre and terrifying dimension where a murderous mascot terrorizes them.
“Kid Print” – An electronics store offers clients a video service where children are recorded on VHS to give parents an up-to-date profile of their kids to use to help police in the event of their disappearance/kidnapping – a problem that is disturbingly common in their small town. The person behind the disappearances has a VHS production hobby of their own.
“Home Haunt” – Dad and son work together on their front yard haunted house maze every year until son is too old to care. Mom talks the kid into doing one more year. Their haunt becomes deadly with this year’s addition of a cursed object.
It is probably trite to mention that anthologies are almost universally hit or miss when critiqued segment-by-segment. (and that found footage has its own set of problems) That is certainly true of all of the previous entries in the V/H/S franchise. For every “Safe Haven” (V/H/S/2) and “Amateur Night” (V/H/S), there is a “Fur Babies” (V/H/S/Beyond) or “Dante the Great” (V/H/S/Viral) with plenty of “meh” in between. This entry, however, manages to stay on the decent end of the spectrum with no extremes to speak of. Well, no extremes on the great-terrible spectrum. There are definitely some extremes in the segments themselves. Half of the shorts depict explicit, gruesome harm to children. Judging by the comments on Reddit, this is rubbing some people the wrong way. So, it might be worth keeping that in mind when you decide if this one is for you. As for me, I had fun. It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it was far from the worst. And it might average out to the best entry in the franchise overall. If I were giving letter grades to each segment of each V/H/S, Halloween might just edge the others out with a 3.1 GPA.
The Final Cut:V/H/S/Halloween offers six solidly decent horror shorts. Some subject matter may cross the line for certain viewers, but overall it sits at the top of the franchise for effective scares.
No Real Danger 