'V/H/S/Halloween' Review: A Surprisingly Hilarious Horror Movie Stuck in a Franchise That's Completely Out of Ideas

When the first V/H/S film, produced by Bloody Disgusting, came out in 2012, it was a fresh take on horror, combining the anthology and found footage subgenres into realistic, bite-sized terror. The film created some of the most terrifying moments in recent horror, and its success led to a franchise that built itself on aspiring filmmakers and established names. Some of the sequels were rather good, while others fell flat (we’re looking at you V/H/S: Viral), but the past few efforts, such as last year’s V/H/S/Beyond, were a return to form. So how does the eighth film in the franchise, V/H/S/Halloween, stack up? Well, it’s definitely the funniest of the franchise, but while it’s filled with gore, the derivative segments of shaky cameras, incessant screaming, and jump scares quickly become frustrating. It’s not a horrible movie at all, but you’ve played this tape before, and it’s starting to wear thin.

What Is ‘V/H/S/Halloween’ About?

As with all V/H/S films, V/H/S/Halloween consists of several segments from different directors. “Diet Phantasma,” by music video director Bryan Ferguson serves as the film’s frame device, as we return to it throughout the film. “Diet Phantasma” consists of a series of shorts revolving around a diet soda taste test with bloody consequences, as the unsuspecting testers experience deadly reactions when they take a sip of the drink. If you’re a gorehound, you definitely won’t be disappointed by what comes out of those cans.

There are five main segments in V/H/S/Halloween. Anna Zlokovic directs “Coochie Coochie Coo,” where two teen girls get stuck inside a house on Halloween night with a creepy figure known by kids around town as The Mommy. Paco Plaza, the mastermind behind the found footage REC films, is perfect for the V/H/S structure, as he comes in to helm “Ut Supra Sic Infra,” a Spanish story that cuts back and forth between found footage and a police interrogation in the aftermath of a mass killing where the victims’ eyes are removed.

The best short film by far is Casper Kelly’s “Fun Size,” where four kids ignore a Halloween candy bowl that says “one per person,” leading them into a candy factory unlike any you’ve ever seen. Alex Rossy Perry‘s (Her Smell) “Kidprint” is a story about a video shop where employees make videos of kids in case they go missing (yes, that used to be a thing), only for a lot of those children to indeed go missing, leaving the employees of the company under suspicion. The last segment, “Home Haunt”, from Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman, is another haunted house story, this time about a dad obsessed with Halloween who takes his passion for creating the scariest home haunt too far when he comes across a vinyl record that conjures something from the beyond when played.

‘V/H/S/Halloween’ Is the Funniest Film in the Franchise

Horror and comedy go hand in hand, as both are meant to elicit a unique physical response from the viewer that other genres can’t achieve. Sometimes, if done right, such as with classics like Gremlins and Scream, a horror comedy can tickle your funny bone and send shivers down your spine simultaneously. The V/H/S franchise has had segments that are pure horror, many that rely on over-the-top gore and spectacle, and others that are aimed to be sickly funny. Take last year’s “Fur Babies” from V/H/S/Beyond, for example, in which a woman operating a dog sitting company turns humans into pets. It’s silly and gross, yet highly effective. This is what V/H/S/ Halloween aims for in its tone more than any of the previous films.

So does that strategy work? The results are mixed. It’s silly, yet attention-grabbing to see a soda taste testing session turn into a gore fest, but when it’s the same thing every time we come back to the “Diet Phantasma” frame device, both the shocks and the laughs at the absurdity of it all quickly disappear. “Coochie Coochie Coo” could have been your traditional story about people being trapped in a house with a monster, so Anna Zlokovic deserves credit for trying to go beyond the norm, but that falls flat when the beast becomes the source of the comedy. The segment breaks down into a Barbarian ripoff with a monster obsessed with being a mother who has six breasts (complete with milk leaking from them), so you’re too busy laughing at the audacity of it to feel any fright.

The comedy is lighter in some of the other segments, but “Fun Size” knocks it out of the park in one of the better V/H/S segments in recent years. It’s off-the-wall chaos, with misshapen villains straight out of a maddening old school fast food commercial, and a plethora of blood and guts as the segment breaks down to show us how these demented psychos make their candy. With candy shooting out of orifices and penises being cut off and slowly moving down a conveyor belt, Casper Kelly (who has a long history working with Adult Swim), wants his viewers to laugh. Still, he doesn’t forget to chill us at the same time with some rather creepy scenes. This is the one that will stick with you, and if you happen to be a kid who watches this, you’ll never take more than one piece of candy from a bowl while trick or treating ever again.

The ‘V/H/S’ Format Has Become Predictable

Image via Shudder

V/H/S/Halloween has potential with some intriguing premises, but it’s held back and kept in the middle of the pack due to one central problem. The latest sequel is relentless to the point of exhaustion, and at 1 hour and 54 minutes (one segment should have been cut), it’s too much. Every single short film consists of characters finding themselves in trouble, then screaming their lungs out as they run with their shaky camera as something jumps out, causing them to scream louder and run faster.

At times, it pulls back, such as when “Fun Size” thankfully moves away from the shaky cam insanity, or when latter segments sit in the quiet for a few minutes, but for the most part, it’s the rinse-and-repeat found footage trope of running, jump scare, and screaming to the heavens. V/H/S/Halloween knows that’s an easy way to get to a viewer, but being constantly on edge is not the same as being scared. Kudos to the filmmakers for coming to the table with different ideas that could ignite their careers, but when it’s the exact same storytelling method every time, it doesn’t matter how unique the original concept is.

Please keep making V/H/S movies because there’s nothing else like them. They’re the perfect way for established names to reconnect with their passion on a more basic level, while also giving a platform to those on the way up. The last few movies have given the franchise new life because the basics of the stories are so enthralling, but it’s time to try coming at the horror in different ways. Not every segment has to be an assault on the senses. It’s as if they feel limited by the short time frame and aim to go all out as fast as they can. That can work here and there, but the best horror comes when we slow it all down and get paralyzed by our fears of the quiet and unknown. V/H/S/Halloween is dark and demented, and is the funniest movie of this franchise. But if the V/H/S series just turned it down a notch and tried some different storytelling formats, the next one could be even better.

Release Date: October 3, 2025
Runtime: 115 Minutes
Director: Paco Plaza, Casper Kelly, Alex Ross Perry, Bryan M Ferguson, Anna Zlokovic, R.H. Norman
Writers: Anna Zlokovic, Bryan M. Ferguson, Micheline Pitt, R.H. Norman
Producers: James Harris, Michael Schreiber, Brad Miska