V/H/S/Beyond 2024

Cast
Phillip Andre Botello as Segura
Jolene Andersen as Bennet
Tyler Andrews as Ivy
Brian Baker as Self
Kevin Bohleber as Miles
Braedyn Bruner as Angela
Jerry Campisi as Noah
Dane DiLiegro as Stork
Mike Ferguson as Farmer
Sam Gorski as Self
Thom Hallum as Broome
Mitch Horowitz as Self
Skip Howland as Pilot Skip
Bix Krieger as Brittney
Cameron Krugman as Pat
Matthew Layton as Stuart
Libby Letlow as Becky
Phillip Lundquist as Bo
Vas Provatakis as E.T.

Writer
Ben Turner
Christian Long
Evan Dickson
Jordan Downey
Justin Long
Kevin Stewart
Mike Flanagan
Virat Pal

Director
Christian Long
Jay Cheel
Jordan Downey
Justin Long
Justin Martinez
Kate Siegel
Virat Pal

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“Beyond” bursts into action with “Stork,” a shoot-em-up action segment from Jordan Stewart that sometimes plays like a first-person POV shooter zombie game.

 

A group of officers are searching for some missing babies, including one of the cop’s own, and end up at an old house that’s been overrun by monstrous creations, one of whom is even wielding a chainsaw.

 

Until its WTF ending, it’s the most straightforward segment and enjoyable on its own wacky action terms. Get in, blow up some bad guys, drop some wicked makeup effects, get out.

A more ambitious segment unfolds in Virat Pal’s “Dream Girl,” which allows the first Bollywood dance number in a “V/H/S” movie. The first half of this one is stellar, proving that Pal has a filmmaker’s eye, even through the shaky cameras of a pair of paparazzi chasing an Indian star. 

 

When one sneaks into the icon’s trailer, he discovers something unimaginable, and, well, chaos unfolds. And by chaos, I mean shaking, screaming, flashing lights, and loud noises. The truth is that using shaky cam to disorient the audience takes more skill than it looks, and this one gets too confusing and nauseating.

I felt similarly about the shakiness of Justin Martinez’s “Live and Let Dive,” but it has SUCH a killer idea that it’s more forgivable. Not since the brilliance of “GoPro meets zombies” in “V/H/S/2” has this series found such a neat way to tell a horrifying story. 

 

In this one, a group of people are going skydiving for a 30th birthday when they, thousands of miles in the air, stumble upon an alien invasion. As their plane explodes, and half of them smash to the ground, the survivors are forced to race through an orange tree field to avoid the massive alien creatures now hunting them. It’s “District 9” with skydiving. Fun.

Less fun is Justin Long’s “Fur Babies,” which just proves that “Tusk” really messed up Mr. Long. A variation on that film’s deformation fetish, “Fur Babies” does feature some gnarly makeup effects, but, like many of these segments, it goes on too long. 

 

There’s no reason for “V/H/S/Beyond” to be almost two hours. I think the best thing future installments could do would be to tighten up the segments by about 15-20%. Almost every chapter in all six films could use a trim.

That’s true of even my favorite segment in this one, “Stowaway,” the directorial debut of the great Kate Siegel, from a script by her husband, Mike Flanagan.

 

I responded so strongly to this one because it doesn’t feel like other “V/H/S” segments. First, it’s truer to the title, actually looking like something found on a tape that’s been recorded over a dozen times. Second, it’s not reliant on disorientation, even if what Siegel chooses to hide gives it strength.

It’s the story of a woman investigating stories of lights in the sky, and what she discovers is closer to “Annihilation” than anything else. It’s weird but not merely in gross-out terms or disorienting ones. It’s evidence that the best of the “V/H/S” segments don’t just think outside the box; they prove that there should be no box for this kind of filmmaking in the first place.