TheV/H/Sfranchise may well be one of the longest-running horror anthology film series ever, as of now. With a total of six entries and a seventh on the way, the franchise doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. Starting back in 2012 with the eponymous title, the film opened to mixed critical reception, with five original horror short films by five different directors and a single wrap-around narrative tying them loosely together.
Each short was made on a low-enough budget that, with a total film budget of $242,000, the film was a roaring success commercially, making $1.9 million at the box office. And so, theV/H/Sempire began. The original film spawned five sequels, all produced by Bloody Disgusting, but the last three films, and their upcoming sequel are all co-produced and distributed byhorror streaming platform Shudder.
With this list, we will be ranking every single short and wrap-around narrative from the perspectives of concept, execution, and overall impact. We’re assuming you have already watched all the movies, and if not: spoiler alert!
30Holy Hell — V/H/S/94
Starting off withV/H/S94’s frame narrative,Holy Hellis a mixed bag of epic proportions. The film starts with an interesting enough idea: a satanic doomsday cult worships the TV as a kind of messianic figure, projecting horrible stories like evil versions of the Biblical books. By the midpoint of the movie, however, the narrative completely loses its steam and starts favoring the visuals over the concept entirely. At the end, we find out that two of the members of the SWAT team are part of the “drug bust” and are members of a snuff film group, who lay out their entire evil plan to the only remaining team member.
But For What Purpose?
The elaborate setup with the fake drug bust, the religious symbolism, and the fear of some unknown entity — in a franchise entry that is almost entirely devoted to creature-feature shorts,Holy Hellfalls entirely flat once the evil monologue begins, and you realize the story isn’t all that deep. It’s just kind of stupid.
29Shredding — V/H/S/99
The opening short fromV/H/S99,Shreddingcan’t seem to figure out what it wants to be. Is it a throwback to the ’90s post-punk/grunge scene? Is it about the latent racism that still lives in the American suburbia of the time? Is it just a shlocky ghost story? Somehow, it tries to be all of this, and achieves almost none of it.The ghostly band, Bitch Cat, seems closer to an all-girl punk group from the 2020s, than a hard-rocking 90s punk rock band. The prank videos definitely seem to aim for a Spike Jonze-styleJackassreference, but despite the strong opening, none of the band members of R.A.C.K seem particularly interesting or likable.
Too Long and Meandering with No Meaning
Considering their treatment of the only non-white band member, Ankur, the short seems like it wants to say something about racialized individuals having to assimilate into American whiteness, but even then it seems to flail. Not to mention the termbhutis inaccurate, both in its pronunciation (the word isbhoot, meaning ghost, spirit or apparition) and the means of expelling the entity — like a whitewashed version of an Indian concept that barely had any research done beyond the cursory Wikipedia search. The short is too long and too meandering to be of any significance.
28Ozzy’s Dungeon — V/H/S/99
Clearly a dig at Nickelodeon’s ’90s game showLegends of the Hidden Temple,V/H/S99’s shortOzzy’s Dungeonstarts out interestingly enough. Playing it like an entirely tongue-in-cheek reference, with the obvious hints of something more sinister lurking in the shadows (running through the titular Ozzy’s insides, and being granted a wish), the short takes a hard left turn when Donna breaks her leg in the last part of the challenge.
Unsatisfying and Inconsistent
What proceeds is a pretty shocking and disturbing mix of horror and black comedy, as her clearly psychotic mother subjects the host to a series of similar challenges, albeit much grosser, under the threat of burning his face off with acid. The torture seems to go on endlessly until the host relents and allows the family to meet Ozzy, but even when we’re faced with the horrors of this otherworldly entity, the film resorts to a kind of fuzzy shaky-cam ending, explaining very little and leaving us with an unsatisfying “everybody dies” ending that is inconsistent within its own internal logic.
27The Gawkers — V/H/S/99
The Gawkersacts as the wrap-around narrative and penultimate story fromV/H/S99, and unfortunately stumbles in both regards. Starting off as short clips about stories made up by the camera operator’s younger brother and his action figures, we eventually learn that the story is about a group of voyeuristic teenage boys, who use their video camera to spy on women in and around their neighborhood. Leaning into the casual sexism and sexual assault that was much more prevalent in the first three entries in the franchise,The Gawkersis pretty clearly a response to thekind of toxic masculinityand hyper-sexualization of girls that was rampant in the ’90s and early-2000s.
Awkward Execution of a Great Premise
Turning a story about perverts into a Medusa monster-narrative seems like a great idea on paper, but unfortunately the execution is awkward in its pacing to warrant any kind of positive response. The short does take an interesting look at the psyche of young men in the throes of manhood, and how impressionable boys can be pushed to commit sexual harrassment in order to become part of the “man club.”
26Second Honeymoon — V/H/S
Directed by Ti WestofXandPearlfame,Second Honeymoondefinitely plays into his ideas of murders happening in desolate, barren landscapes, unforgiving on the mind and body. Though unlike his two successful features, this short from the originalV/H/Sunfortunately falls into some pretty problematic tropes. Over the course of the film, we see a straight couple on their honeymoon to visit The Grand Canyon, when a strange woman propositions the husband for a clearly romantic rendezvous.
After an intruder breaks into their hotel room and steals some money (also implying violence towards the wife), Sam, the husband, accuses her of stealing the money the next day. Finally, the intruder returns and kills Sam while he’s asleep, and the camera reveals the same stranger, now making out with Stephanie, the wife, implying they are lovers, and have planned this from the get-go.
Worn Out Tropes
Vacation murder aside, the evil bisexual trope is so worn by now, that the concept itself is laughable. If the ball drop moment is supposed to be Stephanie’s queerness, then the short doesn’t do a very good job of justifying why she married Sam in the first place. It’s a confused and tired attempt at shock, and overall pretty disappointing.
25The God of Death — V/H/S/85
FromV/H/S85,The God of Deathis mostly kind of a muddled story that doesn’t seem to know where it’s going. Starting off with the newscaster segment, the short sets up an interesting idea with the rapport between the talk show host and her crew before the earthquake hits, but then immediately kills her off. For the rest of the film, we’re left with one of the camera operators, who trudges through the rubble as the area is rocked by multiple earthquakes. This sequence is both realistic and scary, but it takes a long time to hit its stride, and by the time we find ourselves in the cave of the titular God of Death, the resolution is neither scary nor satisfying.
Less Than the Sum of Its Parts
The God of Death himself is clearly a reference to an existing Mesoamerican deity, but his presence is minimal and ineffective, leaving the audience alone with a stuttering camera guy, spending his last moments in the cave. There’s also the matter of the unnecessary nudity, only because a woman character exists among the firefighters, so, all in all, this short is definitely less than the sum of its parts.
Related:Best V/H/S Segments Across The FIlm Franchise, Ranked
24TKNOGD — V/H/S/85
Another sort of filler story fromV/H/S85,TKNOGDplays with an interesting idea of blending mysticism with early technology, especially at a time when we didn’t understand the digital world too well, but the film can’t seem to figure out where to go with it. Taking place over about 10 to 15 minutes during some sort of technological sermon for a digital God, the short spends most of its time meandering between low-resolution cubes in a pre-internet liminal space. The design of the Digital God is also a little underwhelming.
Too Much of a Slow-Burn
Taking some notes from the monster inV/H/S’sTuesday the 17th, there isn’t much to be afraid of this low-poly entity until it finally kills the digital priest in the last few minutes of the short. The main character’s death is memorable, and the people thinking it’s part of the presentation is funny, but it takes too long to get there, and the film doesn’t seem to have much of a point beyond that.
23Suicide Bid — V/H/S/99
We’re a bit torn about placingSuicide Bidso low on the list, when it is clearly the most effective one of the lot fromV/H/S99. Taking placeover a single night, the story is about a young girl who gets locked in a coffin overnight as part of a sadistic sorority hazing ritual, but ends up getting trapped in a shallow grave as it fills with rainwater during a thunderstorm. The horror works best when the story focuses on the claustrophobia inside the coffin: somehow the terror seems very real, and both personal and impersonal in a very ugly way.
Loses Steam Part-Way Through
Getting minors drunk and torturing them for fun is, unfortunately, part of the American University experience, and the story seems to lean into the tropes of rich mean girls who seem to have done this enough times for it to become some sort of game for them. Unfortunately, once the film introduces the ghost of Giltine into the story, the karmic ending loses a bit of steam, as the final nail-in-the-coffin ending for the four sorority girls can be easily read as Lily’s final revenge.
22The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger — V/H/S
In terms of execution,The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Youngeris definitely interesting, being one of the earliest examples of stories that take place entirely over video call — akin to theUnfriendedmovies — but the concept itself is a little hard to swallow for a couple of reasons. Stories that use women’s bodies as a way to turn the concept of pregnancy into horror have been done to death, and pairing that with the gaslighting Emily experiences from her boyfriend over the course of the film feels neither fun nor rewarding.
Women as Objects
In short, Emily video calls her boyfriend every day, and tells him about a strange bump in her arm that reminded her of an injury from when she was younger. Over the course of the story, she believes her apartment is haunted by ghostly children, but the audience later learns that they are aliens, and are using her body as an incubator for human-alien hybrids with the help of Emily’s boyfriend. The story only plays into tropes of seeing women as objects with little autonomy, and overall feels too mean-spirited to be enjoyable.
21Tuesday the 17th — V/H/S
Tuesday the 17thplays itself out like a genericfound footage horror storyfor the most part. A couple of teens/20-somethings go to the woods to indulge in some revelry and are picked off one-by-one by some faceless killer that wants them dead. Despite the normal concept, the short does something interesting with the VHS format, by introducing a killer/monster that cannot be recorded on tape.
Cool Kills, but a Typical Slasher Concept
“The Glitch,” as it is called, then becomes a sort of invisible, unstoppable force that makes its way through our young protagonists, leading to some innovative kills with speed more akin toCall of Dutyplayers with a high ping rate, than a slow Michael Myers type. That said, the story isn’t much different from your usual slasher fare outside the monster concept, and does little to tell itself apart from other slashers of its kind.
