Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

V/H/S/94 Blu-ray Movie Review

Tape over some of these.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III April 25, 2022

The horror anthology "found footage" series V/H/S (Video Horror Shorts) began with the eponymous 2012 film and has spawned a few sequels and spin-offs, all of which feature horror shorts by different directors and are framed by a bookending narrative. This most recent entry goes all-in with the throwback vibe by taking us back to 1994, where a SWAT team drug bust uncovers a collection of VHS tapes with disturbing contents. Four are featured prominently but are almost completely unrelated with different characters, cast members, and of course subject matter.

And damn, is this a mixed bag. Easily the worst entry in this 104-minute film is that SWAT team framing story (titled "Holy Hell" , dir. Jennifer Reeder), a slapdash and totally amateur effort with bland characters, abysmal acting, and a nonsensical plot. It's not a good sign when bookending segments are the least compelling part of any narrative, but they stop all momentum generated by the main shorts and the "twist ending" is a total mess. Rating: 0.5/5.

This makes the first proper short "Storm Drain" (dir. Chloe Okuno) better by default, but it's still OK at the most. We're introduced to alcoholic reporter Holly Marciano (Anna Hopkins) and her cameraman Jeff (Christian Potenza) as they investigate local sightings of a mysterious man in the sewers... which turns out to be something else entirely. It's got a a few decent scares and suspenseful atmospheric touches, a few lighter moments, and even a fun commercial break, but the actual reveal of what's lurking inside the storm drain isn't really worth the wait. 2.5/5.

Also bringing up the middle is "The Empty Wake" (dir. Simon Barrett), a claustrophobic little piece that follows rookie funeral home worker Hayley (Kyal Legend) a she's left to leave a very sparsely-attended wake during a particularly dark and stormy evening. Moderate tension is achieved thanks to at least one inevitable power outage and a few forceful sonic touches, but the conclusion is a little silly and there's not much to the story itself. 2.5/5.

"The Subject" (dir. Timo Tjahjanto) is clearly the best of the bunch, at least from a conceptual perspective. Shot with long takes and mostly in a first-person viewpoint -- which unavoidably feels like playing DOOM -- it features an unnamed Indonesian doctor (Budi Ross) as he experiments on victims including a girl identified as "S.A." (Shania Sree Maharani) who tries to escape after police discover the doctor's lab. Clever special effects -- including some pretty graphic body horror -- do most of the heavy lifting here, even if the whole video game-y atmosphere doesn't always work in its favor. This is still a largely enjoyable ride for the most part, so it's not surprising that the director (along with Simon Barrett from "The Empty Wake") was brought back in from previous V/H/S installments. 3.5/5.

Unfortunately, "Terror" (dir. Ryan Prows) deflates any remaining momentum, which drops further with the final conclusion of "Holy Hell" right after. In this mostly hard-to-follow short, we meet the QAnon-ish group "First Patriots Movement Militia" on their way to blow up a government building... but the real terror occurs back on their Detroit compound, where prisoners are routinely executed (some because of "vampire blood") before a creature finally breaks looks from captivity. I'm not sure if the end result could've been better with more spit and polish, but this ugly, heavy-handed production doesn't achieve much and will mostly leave you confused and vaguely depressed. 1/5.

All in all, V/H/S/94 is terribly uneven and, despite a few highlights, makes zero sense from a pure narrative standpoint; it's truly less than the sum of its parts, which might actually rate even lower than my lackluster score suggests. If the creative team wants to continue churning these things out, they'd do well to skip the framing story entirely and focus on what makes horror movies great: better characters and atmosphere instead of pure shock value.

But as always, your mileage may vary: our own Brian Orndorf was much more supportive of V/H/S/94 in his theatrical review, and even swapped out one of the highs and lows in his overall ranking of the included shorts.

V/H/S/94 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

It's difficult to evaluate V/H/S/94 from any kind of objective standpoint, because it looks terrible by design and that's no real fault of the Blu-ray. But even within expectational boundaries of its low-resolution title format (which it's most certainly not recorded in, but more on that very soon), this is exceptionally ugly work. Although I'm not 100% sure of the source material used, these films look to have been shot on various kinds of standard-quality digital equipment with additional noise, tracking lines, and video overlays added to make the image loosely resemble those beloved VHS tapes of yesteryear. The end result, unfortunately, gives us the worst of both worlds: you get neither the fuzzy analog charm of true VHS nor the crisp, pixel-perfect detail of high-end digital equipment and, combined with the mostly dark and dreary locales, this means there's a lot of visual rough road to tread through as the film lumbers on. Colors are drab, image detail and textures are virtually non-existent, and black levels are extremely poor.

Then of course, there's the matter of aspect ratio: the vast majority of this material is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen (save for a brief news broadcast segment), which again not only betrays the true nature of its analog subject matter but doesn't really lead to any great compositions anyway, since it's mostly jarring hand-held footage. All in all a very odd and unimpressive presentation indeed, but again that's no fault of the Blu-ray: I've no idea where source material shortcomings end and potential disc compression issues begin, and it really doesn't matter anyway.

V/H/S/94 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio presentation likewise makes no real attempts to replicate an authentic VHS experience, but we at least get a pretty convincing horror atmosphere so it's easier to forgive. Even so, there are some attempts to rein in the robustness: portions of dialogue are a little tinny and hollow by design and there's no real beefy, wide-open waves of sonic assault to speak of, but discrete effects are often put to good use for jump scares and atmospheric touches during several key moments and the track as a whole feels comfortably centered and well-balanced.

Optional English (SDH), French, and Spanish subtitles are offered during the main feature only.

V/H/S/94 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with reversible cover art and a matching slipcover. The extras are very well-rounded but, given my lack of enthusiasm for most of the main feature, it was tough to get too excited. One nice little side effect is that some extras include behind-the-scenes footage before the scuzzy VHS filters were added.

• Audio Commentary - Featuring several filmmakers and producers from various segments, this candid and chatty full-length audio commentary track is hosted by horror aficionados The Boo Crew.

• "The Empty Wake" Audio Commentary - Comments from director Simon Barrett during his segment.

• San Diego Comic Con Panel Interview (30:18) - This virtual roundtable might even have lower video quality than most of the included segments, and that's saying something.

• Behind-the-Scenes of V/H/S/94 (24:02) - A series of on-set clips and candid footage from all five segments with comments from cast and crew members.

• Deleted & Extended Scenes (5 clips, 13:58 total) - Scenes from "Holy Hell", "Storm Drain", and "Terror".

• V/H/S/94 Special FX (3 clips, 9:59 total) - Behind-the-scenes segments from "Storm Drain" and "Terror" with comments by lead creature creator Patrick Magee of Magee FX.

• "The Empty Wake" Visual FX Breakdown (1:11) - Layered composites of the corpse in action.

• Full-Length "Veggie Masher" Commercial (0:44) - The mock informercial seen during "Storm Drain".

• Behind-the-Scenes Images

V/H/S/94 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The horror anthology V/H/S/94 keeps this extremely hit-or-miss franchise sputtering along with another collection of shorts that, for the most part, disappoint. A few highs might keep you interested but most of this stuff is middle-of-the-road at best, and the less said about "Holy Hell" (the awful framing story) and penultimate dud "The Terror" the better. RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray at least offers a decent A/V presentation, considering the scuzzy source material, and the bonus features add a bit of value to the package. But V/H/S/94 is still definitely not a recommended blind buy unless you're a die-hard franchise fan or have a very high tolerance for mostly amateur-grade horror.