V/H/S/99 [Blu-Ray]

Directors: Maggie Levin, Johannes Roberts, Flying Lotus, Tyler MacIntyre, Vanessa Winter, Joseph Winter

Cast: Steven Ogg, Ally Ioannides, Keanush Tafreshi

Release Date: May 23, 2023

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

In V/H/S/99, a thirsty teenager’s home video leads to a series of horrifying revelations. Featuring five new stories from filmmakers Maggie Levin, Johannes Roberts, Flying Lotus, Tyler MacIntyre and Joseph & Vanessa Winter, V/H/S/99 harkens back to the final punk rock analog days of VHS, while taking one giant leap forward into the hellish new millennium.

Please Note: RLJE Films provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

The fan-favorite horror anthology franchise returns with ‘V/H/S/99’ which features a new collection of terrifying videocassette footage showcasing a handful of new horrifying tales that revolve around the end of the millennium. Follow a collection of desperate bandmates who investigate a deadly rumor of an old band’s demise and discover far more than they were prepared for, along with a game show that goes horribly wrong and leads to a deadly encounter for its charismatic host. We are also treated to a sorority initiation gone terribly wrong, plus a group of kids who uncover a dangerous truth when spying on their attractive new neighbor and a cult who tries to bring a demonic entity to earth but ends up sending a couple unsuspecting cameramen to hell.

The segments/installments or “tapes” this time around are directed by Maggie Levin (Into the Dark), Johannes Roberts (The Strangers: Prey at Night), Flying Lotus (Kuso), Tyler MacIntyre (Tragedy Girls), Vanessa Winter (Deadstream) and Joseph Winter (Deadstream) with many also serving as writers on their shorts; Zoe Cooper and Chris Lee Hill also serve as additional writers. The directors each do a solid job for the most part at the helm of their segments in ‘V/H/S/99’ and deliver eerie, graphic and entertaining stories within. The various cast members appearing in the film’s tapes include Steven Ogg (TV’s Westworld), Ally Ioannides (Synchronic), Keanush Tafreshi (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story), Emily Sweet (Castle Freak 2020), Archelaus Crisanto (A Crafty Christmas Romance), and many more.

‘V/H/S/99’ serves up another wild, blood-drenched and shocking collection of tales that take viewers into the darkest reaches of humanity and even the literal depths of hell this time around with more than enough creepy moments and carnage-laced insanity to keep genre fans engaged throughout its duration. The latest installment also utilizes a notably different kind of wrap around tale this time which instead of little tidbits of a story eventually concluding at the end of the film, it instead shows video footage of a teen simply playing with army men figures intercutting the first few stories before it opens up into the main story, and not as the climax this time but as more of a regular story entry that plays out sooner than most will expect.

The ‘V/H/S’ franchise has had some entries that were arguably superior to others and while ‘V/H/S/99’ certainly isn’t the best entry in the franchise, it might just be in the middle and edging up with some of the better installments which is no small feat for the fifth film in a series. It bothers to find a few clever ways to keep fans guessing including shaking up the formula slightly and almost every story this time around has something rewarding to offer including plenty of shocking and graphically nasty moments along the way. It’s an altogether solid new installment in the horror anthology series that fans will probably want to try and give a whirl whenever possible with some wild moments that are almost guaranteed to stand out.

Overall, ‘V/H/S/99’ is another crazy, gory and entertaining collection of found footage style horror shorts that deliver some wild new tales with plenty of twisted and notably bloody moments to offer up this time around. ‘V/H’S/99’ is definitely recommended for genre fans who are fond of all or even just some installments in this horror anthology franchise who should each find plenty to appreciate from this offering of new shorts and the gorehounds out there should also find themselves quite satisfied with some of the wild moments that this new entry has to offer. If you’re already at all interested in this one but haven’t yet the opportunity to check it out, it should certainly be worth doing so whenever possible. Subscribers to the Shudder streaming service can also watch the film at no additional cost (at least as of the time of this writing).

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘V/H/S/99’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation offers a fairly typical viewing experience for this franchise and delivers a clean, sharp and well detailed presentation when it’s not intentionally distorting the picture or tracking on the tapes to better replicate what the footage would look like if recorded by a random individual on a videocassette (at least aside from the fact that it’s in widescreen). Everything looks solid and sharp when it’s supposed to and the intentional distortion and other intended negative elements are captured nicely; always staying true to what we can only assume is the appearance intended by the filmmakers. Overall, this is a solid high definition video presentation that holds up well and keeps things looking adequately vhs-ish throughout and fans should be quite pleased with the end result.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack delivers a clean, sharp and often fairly aggressive audio presentation throughout. Even while perhaps not a very VHS thing to do, it does utilize all five available channels regularly in order to send some creepy and action related effects, along with rain pouring and other various elements throughout the various speakers quite consistently, while never allowing any dialogue or other simultaneously occurring audio elements to become distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, this is a fully capable 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that does its job well and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘V/H/S/99’ features a nice collection of bonus content that franchise fans should appreciate. Included on the release is an ‘Audio Commentary with the Filmmakers’, along with the film’s ‘Exclusive Panel from Reedpop’s New York Comic Con’ (running approximately 51 minutes in length), plus a ‘Gag Reel’ for the movie (running approximately 2 minutes) and ‘Deleted Scene(s)’ from three segments within (approximately 2 minutes combined). Also included is the ‘Bitchcat Music Video’ (2 minutes) from “Shredding”, ‘Camera Tests’ (2 minutes), ‘Bloopers’ (1 minute) and ‘The Making of Medusa’ Featurette (1 minute) from “The Gawkers” and ‘Raw Footage’ (7 minutes), ‘Location Scouting’ (2 minutes), and ‘Storyboards and Blocking Rehearsals’ (5 minutes) from “To Hell and Back”.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

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‘V/H/S/99’ Arrives Home on Blu-ray, DVD & Blu-ray/DVD Steelbook May 23, 2023 from SHUDDER – RLJE Films

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