The V/H/S series has always been the oddball of horror anthologies: grainy, chaotic, and loud about its love for the genre’s dirtiest corners. V/H/S/Halloween, the newest entry, feels like both a return to roots and a wild Halloween night that gets out of hand in the best way possible. It trades the high-concept experiments of earlier sequels for pure chaos, old-school jump scares, static-laced imagery, and found-footage nightmares soaked in candy-colored lighting and VHS grime.

Each short in the lineup leans into the Halloween vibe differently. Some go for trick-or-treat mischief, others for full-on madness. What ties them together isn’t polish or perfection, but that shaky, electric feeling that made the first V/H/S such a cult hit. This is a movie made for the fans who still remember blowing into a VCR on a Halloween night to make sure the tape works.

The wraparound story, Diet Phantasma, sets the tone with a mix of corporate greed, the occult and ’80s-style scare factors. The Octagon Company, led by a headstrong COO, is planning to launch a new soda called “Diet Phantasma”. As they bring in multiple subjects to try the formula before the beverage is put on shelves, the subjects are unaware that the soda is made with an extra ingredient, and definitely not one they can get at the local Piggly-Wiggly. The hits come fast and strong with each interlude, but the climatic outcome of the story will have your jaw dropping to the floor.

There are so many features to highlight in this entry! Coochie Coochie Coo, directed and written by Anna Zlokovic, takes a suburban last hurrah of trick-or-treating to a nightmarish extreme, turning a deadly game of hide-and-seek into an adrenaline-fueled nightmare. Ut Supra Sic Infra has a bit more of a polished look than what we’re used to in this franchise, but it does not -in any way- take away from its scare factor that feels right at home. A first person POV of an police investigation that is wrapped in a ghost story steals the show, leading fans to other worldly results and unenticing appetites.

Fun Size fuses the aesthetic of the popular video game Poppy Playtime with the consequences of those who don’t follow the holy rules of Halloween goodies, blending visual effects and an antagonist that rivals Poppy, herself. One of the segments that creates immense discomfort is Kidprint, building tense anxiety and dread in a world of kidnapped children, and questioning who your children can -and should- really trust. The level this story goes to put fans right at the edge of offputting is absolute scientific, a true test of ones own constitution.

Finally, the last -and probably my favorite- segment is Home Haunt. Directed by Micheline Pitt-Norman, as well as written by her and her husband R.H. Norman, the amount of spooky love and care that was poured into this one, coupled with an incredible story of family and tradition, easily makes this segment a contender for best one of the series. Each segment feels like it’s trying to out-scare and out-weird the one before it, and although it can sometimes leads to uneven pacing, in this case it never feels like it looses momentum.

What makes V/H/S/Halloween stand out is how confidently it embraces its scrappy roots. While other anthology series chase sleek visuals and tight scripts, this one remembers what made found footage fun in the first place: unpredictability. You never know what’s coming next: a mommy psycho in a closed off haunted house, a bottomless -yet dangerous- bowl of candy, a snuff film studio hidden inside a electronics store. It’s messy, but the kind of messy that horror fans crave.

The direction across the shorts varies, but everyone involved clearly understands the assignment: make something that feels dangerous, playful, and raw. The filmmakers use practical effects whenever they can, which adds texture and physicality that digital horror often lacks. The sound design deserves a shoutout too; the muffled dialogue and screeching tape whine create a real sense of unease, like the ghosts are trapped in the magnetic film itself.

If there is a flaw, it’s that the film’s energy sometimes overpowers its coherence. The transitions between stories mixed with the wraparound arc sometimes can be jarring, and not every segment lands its twist. Still, the anthology’s biggest strength is how it turns that unpredictability into part of the fun. Like a haunted house, you know some rooms will make you laugh and others will make you scream, and that’s exactly the point.

By the time the credits roll, V/H/S/Halloween feels like a love letter to late-night horror marathons, where static lines and jumpy soundtracks made the scares hit harder. Rather than reinvent the wheel, it spins it faster and louder until sparks fly.

Rating: 4/5 Atoms

V/H/S/Halloween is available to stream on Shudder and AMC+.