V/H/S/99 (2022)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Splotch Tape

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

While less ambitious than its predecessor V/H/S/94, this uneven, but decent fifth entry in the shot-on-video, found-footage anthology horror series, V/H/S/99, offers enough shocks and brutal creativity to make it well worth a look.

The stories: a rock band descends into an underground club destroyed by fire to learn more about a girl band that perished there. Then, a young woman pledges a sorority, but must face a ghoulish initiation prank: to spend the night in a coffin and possibly summoning a ghost. The host of a disgusting and impossible game show faces the wrath of the family of a girl who became permanently injured while playing.

In a wraparound sequence, a boy makes bloody home videos with his army men, until his older brother snatches it back and uses it to spy on a pretty neighbor woman. Needless to say, he goes too far. Finally, two filmmakers capturing a demonic ritual find themselves transported to the underworld. They only have until the stroke of midnight, the year 2000, to make it home again.

V/H/S/99 starts with its weakest entry, "Shredding"; the rock band are almost asking for trouble by playing pranks and disrespecting the memories of the people who died in the fire. It's a foregone conclusion, and there's not much surprise here. Directed by Johannes Roberts, the sorority tale ("Suicide Bid") effectively preys on two of our deepest fears, not only being buried alive, but drowning, as a torrential rainstorm descends upon poor trapped Lily (Alexia Ioannides), and it's a tense ride. The game show sequence ("Ozzy's Dungeon") is mostly just brutal revenge, and pretty disgusting besides.

Simply put, the wraparound videos with the army men and the narration by young Brady (Ethan Pogue) are delightfully hilarious, and the way it transitions into the story of the voyeurs ("The Gawkers"), directed by Tyler MacIntyre, is very clever. This is the most powerful story, showing the teen boys disrespecting their neighbor not only by spying on her, but by objectifying her, and the payoff is swift and satisfying.

Directed by Joseph and Vanessa Winter, the final segment in the underworld ("To Hell and Back"), with our bickering filmmakers and a helpful demon called Mabel (Melanie Stone), is the most impressive, getting a vivid, visceral, otherworldly feel with just a few resources. That's three out of five, which ain't bad, but even the other two have their spooky, or icky, moments.