V/H/S Halloween

Five individual stories plus one frame story are guaranteed to give you the heebie-jeebies in this Shudder original, which is interspersed with the occasional pitch black humour. This really is a treat though why it has been released in February, when we’re heading towards Easter, as opposed to, eh…Halloween, is anyone’s guess!

As so often with nowadays horror-film-anthologies, this release is yet another ‘found footage affair’ albeit, as the title suggests, we are talking VHS tapes as opposed to digital cameras - remember those ones?

Bryan M. Ferguson wrote and directed the frame narrative, which kicks the film into action though we are revisiting it before / after each of the five individual stories. Well then, the prologue frame story is titled ‘Diet Phantasma’ and is set in 1982. It concerns a particularly ruthless individual called Dr. Rothchild (David Haydn), COO of the Oregon Company, who, together with his assistant Linda (Anna McKelvie) oversees an ‘experiment during which multiple human guinea pigs are brought into a room in order to taste a new soda drink called, well you guessed it, Diet Phantasma. The test room and the room in which Rothchild, Linda and two more assistants are is separated by a huge glass window. What the unfortunate test subjects don’t know is that the soda, which the company is planning to launch, is made with the extract of particularly vicious poltergeists, although the formula keeps on changing depending on the outcome of each test. Cue for utterly over the top gore and mayhem in this splatter prologue sequence. The ‘Diet Phantasma interludes alone were responsible for the releases 18 Certificate and no mistake!

The first actual story, titled ‘Coochie Coochie Coo’ (written and directed by Anna Zlokovic), is a mighty creepy one and concerns two high school student bimbos, Lacie (Samantha Cochran) and Kaleigh (Natalia Montgomery Fernandez) who, dressed in baby outfits, are having a good time trick-or-treating and stealing fellow trick-or-treaters their candy when they come across a group of boys who point out that they are too old for such childish Halloween games. One of the boys even tries to scare them by mentioning that “Mommy will get them”. As of yet, Lacie and Kaleigh have no idea that very soon, ‘Mommy’ will get them indeed… Kaleigh, the more sensible one, suggests that perhaps they should stop fooling about as far as Lacie is concerned, the last night of Halloween has just begun. Suddenly, a creepy looking house with a strange glow coming from its windows appears seemingly out of nowhere, with other passers-by oblivious to the fact that there even is a house. Of course, Lacie can’t wait to knock on the door whereas Kaleigh, mentioning that the previous year a female high school student, dressed as a cheerleader and of the same age as Lacie and Kaleigh, had vanished without a trace. Despite Kaleigh’s concerns, Lacie enters the house upon realising that the door is open. If only she hadn’t… What follows is utterly bizarre and nerve-wracking, as the ghost of a woman (‘Mommy’), who hanged herself after being raped and fell pregnant, is very much active… What happens next really is unsettling…

The second story, ‘Ut Supra Sic Infra’, is a Spanish contribution written by Alberto Marini and Paco Plaza (and also directed by the latter). Connoisseurs of horror are no doubt aware that Spain usually comes up with something rather original as far as the supernatural goes and it’s no different here. A long abandoned mansion in Madrid is the scene of a horrific mass murder which took place during a Halloween party for youngsters. Close-up shots of the victims depict that each of them had their eyeballs gouged out, but where are they? The only survivor is Enric (Teo Planell) who, during the police interrogation, insists that he killed his friends but the Inspector (Ismael Martinez) points out that this can not be so, due to various reasons - especially when a video recording of the party is being played during questioning Enric. The Inspector and his colleagues then take Enric along to the scene of the crime for a reconstruction. The abandoned mansion, rumoured to once have been the abode of a famous (and perhaps notorious) Italian medium sports walls covered in strange occult phrases, one phrase reads ‘Ut Supra Sic Infra’, which is Latin for ‘As Above, So Below’. Never mind the occult phrases on the wall, what’s even stranger is a little table in the middle of the room with an old-fashioned looking telephone on top. A telephone which is not connected. When points out that the telephone “made him do it after it rang”, one of the Inspector’s colleagues replies that it’s simply not possible, seeing how the phone isn’t connected and doesn’t even have cable connected to it. Suddenly, the phone rings… Be prepared for some serious terror - you have been warned!

Stories 3 and 4 are both spooktastic in their own right, and 3 (‘Fun Size’ - written and directed by Casper Kelly) offers a clever twist on the 1982 Sci-fi Horror ‘Halloween - Season of the Witch’. In ‘Fun Size’, a small group of youngsters in Halloween outfits (aren’t they always in those films) get more than they bargained for when they encounter a bowl filled with oddly named candies and a sign that says “One per person”. Well… this one really is stomach-churning and most certainly not for the squeamish!
The fourth story, ‘Kidprint’ (written and directed by Alex Rossi) is set in Smalltown America in 1992 and concerns a spate of child abductions and murders. The owner of the local video store, Tim Kaplan (Stephen Gurewitz) films some documentary-style videos called ‘Kidprints’ which aims to ID kids and help in the search for children that may go missing again. It’s a smart idea concocted with the best of intentions, but one twisted individual uses the video tapes for a much more sinister reason…

In terms of set designs, the fifth story, ‘Home Haunt’ (written and directed by Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman) is as elaborate as it gets - concerning Keith (Jeff Harms), a middle-aged who likes nothing better than to construct and set up a nifty haunted house on the ground of his home, which he shares with wife Nancy (Sarah Nicklin) and son Zack. This Halloween is different, however, because Zack (Noah Diamond) feels that as a teenager, he’s too old for such nonsense and thus no longer wishes to participate. Nonetheless, Daddy Keith convinces Zack not to be a spoilsport and get various items needed for constructing the spooky house. Instead, Keith steals a record from the store called Halloween Horrors, which Keith plays after having invited some neighbours to join in the fun on Halloween night. As they soon find out, the record playing is no ordinary record. Far from it, it causes supernatural mayhem when ghoulies from the decorations come to life, and with no friendly intentions at that… ‘Home Haunt’ is seriously savage in its gore factor, so better be prepared.

All in all, this is a worthy collection to anyone’s Halloween terrors DVD/Blu-ray collection although the hysterical screaming throughout tends to be a bit much at times. Bonus includes Filmmakers Commentaries / Behind the Scenes / Deleted Scene / Diet Phantasma Commercial and Gallery plus Uninterrupted Cut.