Stream It Or Skip It: ‘V/H/S/94’ on Shudder, the Wonderfully Gross (and Funny) “Reboot” of the Horror Anthology Series

Shudder exclusive V/H/S/94 marks the return of the mostly dormant V/H/S horror anthology series, which championed the found-footage subgenre. Consisting of three films released between 2012-14, the series fizzled as shaky-cam creepfests waned in popularity, much to the chagrin of Dramamine execs. V/H/S/94 — billed as a “reboot” for reasons that elude me — seeks to invoke nostalgia for fuzzy imagery, tracking judder and muffle-wuffle audio, which will stoke the nostalgia zones of people of a certain vintage. These four shorts certainly channel the gleeful winging-it-in-the-woods-out-back vibe of 17-year-olds who, having burned through the horror sections of every local Blockbuster, decided to pick up a camera and make their own splatterfests. Here’s hoping that vibe is contagious.

V/H/S/94: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Director Jennifer Reeder’s wraparound story begins as a SWAT team busts into a cruddy warehouse expecting to find drugs and such. They’re confused and shocked to find rooms and rooms of bric-a-brac that looks like your local Halloween-season haunted-barn creepout attraction crossed with quasi-edgy art installations replete with dismembered mannequins, very inverted crosses and video screens flickering with demented imagery. Oh, and some corpses, as well as some eyeballs that used to be in the skulls of some of the corpses. This is all shot like an episode of Cops circa the era referenced in the movie title, but without the rampant shirtlessness.

We zoom in on one of the video screens for our first turgid episode: Director Chloe Okuno’s “Storm Drain.” A TV news reporter is stuck doing a story on the legend of Ratman, a humanoid rodent creature which supposedly lurks in the sewer drain of her bullshit Ohio town. She’s one deep sigh away from GTFOing when she and her cameraman find what appears to be evidence of homeless people living in the dark tunnel. So she ventures in like a true journalist, questing for a human interest story, but finds… well, whaddaya expect her to find? A hipster chocolatier selling delectable Swiss sweets?

The rest of the shorts build up to similarly bonkers reveals. Simon Barrett’s “The Empty Wake” sets up three cameras in a funeral parlor for an overnight wake, leaving a young woman alone to run the program that nobody shows up to because a severe storm is brewing and flickering the lights — and is the coffin making bumpity-thump noises, or is she just imagining things? Timo Tjahjanto’s “The Subject” finds a madman science guy in a cellar lab having tons o’ fun with bonesaws on two pitiful abductees, in a quest to create some cyborgs — cyborgs who capture the POV with their shiny new camera eyeballs. And the final segment, Ryan Prows’ “Terror,” tells the story of a white-supremacist Michigan militia who aim to start a race war in the name of Jesus, using diabolical weaponry, and boy do they sure seem like the type of idiots who were ID’ed in their high school yearbooks as Most Likely To Blow Themselves Up.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I picked up on nods to Scanners, RoboCop and, erm, Paranormal Activity vibes.

Performance Worth Watching: As the “Storm Drain” TV reporter who shifts from put-upon to fascinated to terrified to (SPOILER DELETED), Anna Hopkins shows some delightful comedic nuance. And she truly sells her final shot.

Memorable Dialogue: The undertaker in “The Empty Wake” assesses his craftsmanship: “The family wanted him put back together, and aside from that top part, I’d say it’s pretty good work!”

Sex and Skin: None. TBFWTTTF: Too Busy Futzing With The Tracking To F—.

Our Take: ’Twas a time when many of us were worn down to nubs by claustrophobic handheld POVs and the suspension-of-disbelief-busting contrivances found-footage horror flicks must accommodate in order to keep the narrative afloat (why don’t they drop the camera and run, Bart? WHY DON’T THEY DROP THE CAMERA AND RUN?). I’m happy to report that the four films comprising V/H/S/94 boast enough out-there nutty twists and cuckoo visual gags to make us forget that we’re supposed to be annoyed by this filmmaking technique. Crucially, the directors apparently came to consensus that nobody is going to take this project too seriously, and the result is a tonally consistent collection of shorts, each inspiring a big laugh or three. (Even the SWAT team segments keep tongues in cheeks — “We don’t need more tech, we need a GRRAAAAVE digger!” exclaims one of the agents, as if he were intro-ing a grade-Z horror flick on public access TV.)

“Storm Drain” and “The Empty Wake” feature the best punch-in-the-nose comedy, frequently the result of some delectably gross practical effects; they’re simple and effective. “The Subject” commits a faux-pas by deploying CGI blood, but engages us with an emotional story; we haven’t felt this much empathy for a cyborg since RoboCop. “Terror” sets its sights on satire, its easy, yet satisfying potshots at oafish racists — and amusingly amateur filmmakers — making up for its so-so twist. None of the directors skimp on the splatter, the comic timing is crisp and the films are all gleefully depraved. That’s a good thing, of course.

Our Call: STREAM IT. V/H/S/94 defies expectations and serves up some nasty fun.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream V/H/S/94 on Shudder