Macabre…ish Horror Review: V/H/S Beyond
V/H/S Beyond, 2024/ 1 hr 54 min
The movie is framed by some guys who are interested in aliens and abductions and they find tapes at a flea market and receive video files from a redditer, that claims to show proof.
The series starts off strong with cops arriving at what can only be described as a possibly haunted and definitely dilapidated house and they are ready for war. After a rash of baby kidnappings, they are led to this location as a possibility. And this is not a normal kidnapping case.
As soon as they step inside they are inundated with possible zombies. They are fast, aggressive and violent. And each of them have the same wound in the middle of their foreheads. The zombies’ skulls are totally empty and the cops think it’s a part of some kind of ritual but based on their clothing, these people are all random. The cops unload heavy fire at these monsters.
Inside the house are lit candles and some kind of altar. Upstairs are cribs and they contain deformed humanoid infants and at least one, once human caretaker. These infants are being fed by a giant birdlike creature but in monstrous form. The creature sucks the contents from the skull of one of the cops and feeds it to an infant. Then the police open fire.
The next segment, two Indian brothers who are aspiring indie filmmakers but current paparazzi are on the hunt for a popular superstar named Tara. The locals whisper that she’s involved in witchcraft because of her meteoric rise in only 2 short years.
After her performance, one brother hides in her trailer, finds a face floating in some kind of gooey substance. Before he leaves he has a heart to heart with Tara and after saying she can do what she wants, he witnesses her change. Her voice changes, she starts throwing sparks like a malfunctioning machine and starts to take her face off.
He flees and grabs his brother. Outside, Tara spews acid at her manager’s face and melts it off, sending everything into chaos. Then the killing spree begins.
Segment 3 is about a group on a sky diving trip and just before their jump, something bizarre starts happening to the plane. They’re told it’s turbulence but one of the terrified jumpers is not so sure. He’s terrified. They look outside and see a UFO and their plane is clipped by military aircraft. And now they are in trouble. And if they don’t jump, they die but something keeps hitting their plane until it finally tears apart.
Suddenly everyone is falling and disoriented. Some never get the chance to open their chutes before they hit the ground. And some do but too late. But that’s not all, they’re being hunted. And whatever it is, it’s not human.
The forth episode is a home run doggy daycare called The Doggy Treehouse who’s owned by an quirky woman who has all the vibes of Annie Wilkes who’s dedicated her life to dogs. So much so she has a memorial wall for her long lost dogs. Her mantle is decorated by taxidermied pets. Also in the house is her brother, Beau.
The longer the tour goes on, for a couple who says they’re looking for a daycare for their dog. The stranger and darker it gets. She and Beau attack the couple, who are doing an undercover exposé about animal cruelty. The pair are caged, named Becky and Marcus, and treated like bad dogs, they are expected to behave like dogs. And if they don’t they are punished.
But the transformation from human to do does not stop there. It comes complete with surgery that adapts their hands into paws, changes their noses into snouts and their mouths are surgically transformed to function like a canine’s.
Luckily or rather unluckily their group arrives to find them and they’re armed and camera ready. But down in the basement, the crazy lady is ready. She orders her other human dogs, Gary and Abraham, to attack. And attack they do.
The fifth episode is an independent media person and her show, Desert News, interviewing people who live out in the desert and believe in aliens. She is seeking evidence.
And one day she finds it. A ship and she goes in to look around. At first she thought it was empty, then she was investigated by what she thought was some kind of nanotechnology that repaired a minor injury. When she does find an alien she runs for the door but it’s gone, it’s as if the door never existed. Then the ship takes off and leaves the planet.
She’s injured again and repaired again. Every time the ship takes off, she’s injured worse and worse and repaired again and again until she’s begging for mercy. And with every repair she looks more and more monstrous.
This is number 7 in the V/H/S franchise and it is a banger. Very graphic and disturbing.