Nine entries into this found footage anthology series and the franchise finally usurped V/H/S/Viral as the worst yet. From the GWAR hosted wraparound segments, to entries that seemingly missed the memo for both the theme and as found footage, there’s little worth tuning in for.
None of these segments are great, and few qualify as good. The performances are substandard throughout, and the ‘best’ segments of this entry would easily rate the worst of any other year. ‘The Music of Mr. Sze’ is a decent adaptation of Lovecraft’s The Music of Erich Zann, undermined by poor production values, genuinely wretched acting and a last act that goes completely gonzo. ‘Dance Dance Dance Dance’ elicited a few laughs as Jim Henson’s Creature Shop delivered some felt-based hilarity and insanity, but there have been too many ‘puppet gone bad’ stories recently to make it feel fresh or original.
As for the found footage, two segments forget about it entirely. ‘Heartbeat’ seems to be the only one that understood the assignment, though its 360 camera will put some viewers off. RZA’s closing segment has some genuinely creative gore, but too slickly produced to pass as found footage. Then there’s a music video. And stop-motion animation. And the creeping dread of having wasted one’s precious moments on something unworthy.
And… I have to talk about GWAR again. There’s no throughline, no point, and the wraparound gets abandoned abruptly. It seems to exist only to be crude and edgelord, though it did send me into a brief existential spiral as I tried to remember what my 12-year-old self ever found amusing or appealing about GWAR in the first place.
After last year’s V/H/S/Halloween provided a series high, this failure doesn’t appear an issue of exhausted creativity. An audio-themed entry could have worked.
This simply doesn’t.