The Wasteland Reviewer

V/H/S/Halloween (2025) Written Review

What is the best way to start the Halloween season? Head over to Shudder because there is a new edition of the beloved anthology, found footage horror franchise…V/H/S/Halloween. This franchise has gotten a lot more legs out of it than anyone would have suspected back when the original film came out. This is a franchise that has been a vehicle for up-and-coming horror filmmakers to cut their teeth on themed horror short films. This is quite surprising that they are tackling Halloween directly for the first time, but it is a welcomed direction for this crafty and spooky franchise. 

How does V/H/S/Halloween capture the spirit of this horror anthology franchise? This franchise knows itself to be a dark and twisted series with some pretty messed up stories included. For Halloween, things get a bit more playful. Don’t think that there aren’t some messed up dark tales to be had too but this outing has more of a playful vibe to it too. Even with more humor injected in, Halloween still drives the audience into the muck with some disgusting body horror, bloody guts, and dark themes as well. The pacing is great for this anthology that also tops in at two hours as well. The framing story of an evil beverage being tasted tested has plenty of crazed energy which keeps things moving in between short films. There is a decent mix of horror elements as well as an overall vibe that captures the spirit of Halloween so well. 

How do all these different tales stack up with each other? The framing device of the films is a barrage of demon eyes, torn limbs, and exploding bursts of blood and guts. This micro tale focuses on a drink marketed for Halloween and director Bryan M. Ferguson crafts “Diet Phantasma” in the style of old taste test footage which matches well with the found footage style of the anthology. Some of the common threads included unknown and amateurish actors throughout all the shorts with a variety of results. There are some performances that stand out fine but most of the actors rise to the tone that their respective stories are going for. The general found footage stylings work with a few moments where the logic doesn’t quite match the story needs (a common struggle for found footage films). Some of the stories are full blown horror comedies as they play around with the campy nature of the Halloween season and others are darkly twisted and messed up. The most consistent element throughout V/H/S/Halloween is the down and dirty approach to gore that each story commits too. 

What is the range in quality for each of the stories? The ones that stand out the most are the fun ones that lean in horror comedy. Adult Swim alum Casper Kelly is the director of “Fun Size” which boasts a hilarious and terrifying masked entity who is both playful and dangerous. Some of the best scares of the whole anthology occur thanks to one candy bowl. There are a few hilarious moments with some physical comedy and subversions of expectations. “Home Haunt” from Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman is an excellent capper for the film that features a playful and campy haunted house turned into a bloody, gory, and murderous experience with a top-notch climax. The opening tale, “Coochie Coochie Coo” from Anna Zlokovic, starts with some mean-spirited teen shenanigans on Halloween that gives way to a demented, disgusting, and dirty haunted house tale that has some of the most disturbing imagery in the whole film. The other two tales, “Ut Supra Sic Infra” by Pablo Plaza and “Kidprint” by Alex Ross Perry (the most high-profile director on the rise), are much darker with little humor in them. They are not as fun or match the Halloween theme as well but they both are strong efforts. Perry delivers some excellent direction and delivers quite the disturbing tale about child violence and the warped nature of public opinion.

Is V/H/S/Halloween a strong edition in this beloved found-footage anthology franchise? Halloween does not quite reach the heights of the series best, but this delivers such consistently strong stories that it is hard to ignore. The more humorous approach makes this a much more “Halloween” oriented collection and a perfect release on Shudder for this time of year. Seeing what Kelly and Perry especially have coming next is obvious after they deliver excellent outings here. Halloween certainly feels like it can become a staple of the Halloween horror season for years to come.