‘V/H/S Halloween’ Review: Scattered Spooky Shorts Lack Holiday Spirit

From the outside looking in, you’d think it’d be a tall task to overcomplicate a collection of individual horror stories made for, and releasing during, the Halloween season. And yet, here we are.

While V/H/S Halloween compiles an impressive list of talented filmmakers seemingly suited for the job, the five (or so) short stories that result are almost all underwhelming. While the overarching Halloween spirit is here, it feels watered down in favor of cheap cosmetics that miss the holiday’s more refined cinematic aesthetics.

The V/H/S formula has proven in the past to be an efficient way to pack spooks and director-driven tales into a uniquely digestible format; after all, we wouldn’t have this holiday-specific iteration if not for the success of past entries. But what was meant to set Halloween apart – namely, its focus on the holiday itself – is what ultimately makes it feel misplaced.

Take the first full vignette, “Coochie Coochie Coo,” for example. The short follows two teenage girls dressed as toddlers antagonizing a neighborhood on Halloween night who, in due time, are met with an ironic twist of fate in an environment that feels visually akin to a Texas Chainsaw Massacre playground.

Just replace the chainsaws and blood with pacifiers and milk. The issue is clear in concept.

It doesn’t help that those two lead girls, as well as just about every main character across this collection, are downright insufferable and apparently written by someone well out of the age range to make their dialogue believable.

After that opening, we move on two shorts later to “Fun Size,” another (mostly) misfire worth breaking down. The idea is clear, and the short’s goofier tone than the rest of this selection sets it apart in a positive way, at least at first. But quickly, in a patterned habit for this bunch, the short devolves into grating humor, overlong silence, and nonsensical uses of the found-footage format.

To the larger collection’s credit, these environments and sets feel lived in and the camera moves methodically throughout them. Not for a moment do you feel like these horrors couldn’t exist in this hypothetical vision of our reality; rather, if they did, you simply may not fear them.

That’s the biggest issue with V/H/S Halloween. When it isn’t being outright disgusting and arguably deplorable – looking at you, “Kidprint” – there exists very little of actual tact to keep this weathered audience engaged. You may be able to do worse this holiday season, but you could also do a whole lot better.

Nothing about this new release makes it a worthwhile or necessary watch, even over the franchise’s previous output. It’s a safe skip for anyone who isn’t explicitly interested in this format. Even then, you’d be stretching to find something to put under your pillow after the credits roll on this collection.

V/H/S/Halloween is currently available to stream on Shudder.