📼 V/H/S/Halloween Review: Six Twisted Tapes Turn Halloween into a Nightmare
My Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ 4.6/5
This V/H/S/Halloween review digs into the found footage franchise’s long overdue trip into trick-or-treat night. Six filmmakers grab their camcorders and twist the holiday’s favorite traditions into something nasty. There are costumes, candy bowls, haunted houses, and things on tape that absolutely shouldn’t be there. It’s messy, funny, gross, and exactly the kind of Halloween treat horror fans want in October.
V/H/S/Halloween Review: The Series Finally Goes Trick-or-Treating
The V/H/S series and Halloween seem like they should have met years ago.
Cheap video cameras.
Strange tapes.
People making terrible decisions.
Masks.
Blood.
Things appearing on video that absolutely shouldn’t be there.
All that was missing was a plastic pumpkin full of candy.
V/H/S/Halloween finally puts the franchise directly into Halloween night and hands several filmmakers the camera.
As usual with V/H/S, you never know what the next tape is going to contain.
That’s half the fun.
V/H/S/Halloween is the eighth film in the V/H/S series. It had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin on September 19, 2025. Shudder released it as a Shudder Original on October 3, 2025. The anthology runs 115 minutes and packs six segments, counting the wraparound.
This V/H/S/Halloween review stays spoiler free.
Welcome Back to V/H/S
If you’ve never watched one of these movies, the idea is simple.
V/H/S is a found-footage horror anthology.
Instead of following one story for the entire movie, we’re given a collection of shorter horror films.
They’re presented through camcorders, surveillance footage, home video, and other supposedly discovered recordings.
Different filmmakers handle different segments.
Some are creepy.
Some are disgusting.
Some are completely insane.
Sometimes they’re all three.
Halloween Is Perfect for Found Footage
Halloween gives the filmmakers an advantage.
Someone walking around wearing a mask isn’t suspicious.
People deliberately decorate their houses to look haunted.
Strangers knock on doors after dark.
Kids wander around neighborhoods carrying bags of candy.
People jump out and scare one another for fun.
If something genuinely supernatural happened on Halloween night, there’s a decent chance everybody would assume it was part of the show.
That’s a pretty useful setup for horror.
Eight films in, the series finally went trick-or-treating.
The Cheap-Camera Look Is Part of the Appeal
Don’t come to V/H/S/Halloween expecting beautifully polished cinematography.
That would defeat the purpose.
Images shake.
Cameras struggle in the dark.
Video breaks up.
People point lenses in the wrong direction at exactly the wrong moment.
The roughness makes the footage feel like something you weren’t supposed to see.
In the V/H/S world, bad camerawork can actually be good filmmaking.
Tape #1: Coochie Coochie Coo
Anna Zlokovic directs Coochie Coochie Coo.
Zlokovic also wrote the segment. Horror fans may know her from the 2023 body horror film Appendage.
The segment takes one of Halloween’s most familiar traditions and starts twisting it into something much less innocent.
That’s the strength of making Halloween the theme of an anthology.
The filmmakers don’t need to invent an excuse for characters to wander into strange houses, wear costumes, or encounter bizarre people.
Halloween already provides one.
I’m not telling you where this particular night goes.
Tape #2: Ut Supra Sic Infra
Paco Plaza directs Ut Supra Sic Infra.
Horror fans may recognize Plaza as one of the filmmakers behind [REC].
He co-created that Spanish found footage classic with Jaume Balagueró. He also directed Verónica.
His presence immediately gives this installment another connection to found-footage history.
Plaza co-wrote this segment with Alberto Marini.
The segment brings a different flavor to the anthology.
It reminds us that Halloween horror doesn’t have to look exactly the same in every country or every filmmaker’s hands.
The less you know beforehand, the better.
Tape #3: Fun Size
Casper Kelly directs Fun Size.
Kelly is the twisted mind behind Adult Swim’s cult favorite Too Many Cooks.
He also made the Adult Swim Yule Log, so holiday horror is clearly in his blood.
Even that title sounds like something you’d see printed across a bag of Halloween candy.
Which means you should probably be suspicious immediately.
Candy is supposed to be the reward for surviving a night of walking around dressed like a monster.
Here’s the only setup you need. A candy bowl. A sign. One per person.
Follow the rules.
In a V/H/S movie, apparently even the candy can’t be trusted.
Halloween is getting complicated.
Tape #4: Kidprint
Alex Ross Perry directs Kidprint.
Perry is best known for indie dramas like Her Smell and Queen of Earth.
A V/H/S segment is quite a detour from those, and that’s what makes it interesting.
The title taps into another piece of childhood and Halloween-era uneasiness.
This segment has its own personality within the collection, and that’s important in an anthology.
You don’t want six filmmakers making essentially the same short film.
The fun comes from watching the theme change as each new tape begins.
This V/H/S/Halloween review will only say that the lineup covers a lot of ground, from gross-out comedy to genuine dread.
Tape #5: Home Haunt
Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman direct Home Haunt.
The directing duo previously worked together on Cosmetic.
Now this is a title Kilroy can appreciate.
Turning your house into a homemade haunted attraction is one of Halloween’s great traditions.
Cardboard tombstones.
Fake cobwebs.
Rubber skeletons.
Fog machines.
Somebody hiding behind a sheet of plywood waiting to scare the neighbors.
What could possibly go wrong?
Remember which franchise we’re watching.
Record collectors in particular should pay close attention to this one.
That’s all I’m saying.
The Wraparound: Diet Phantasma
Bryan M. Ferguson directs Diet Phantasma, the wraparound material connecting the anthology.
Ferguson earned his spot with Pumpkin Guts, a short 1980s-style slasher about a babysitter and a pumpkin left on the front porch.
The wraparound has always been an important part of the V/H/S formula.
It gives us somewhere to return between stories while maintaining the strange feeling that these recordings belong together.
This time, the framing story involves product testing for a brand-new soda.
Let’s just say the taste test doesn’t go well.
This time, even the material surrounding the tapes gets pulled into the Halloween spirit.
Anthology Horror Means You’re Never Stuck for Long
One advantage of horror anthologies is simple.
Don’t like one story?
Wait.
Another one is coming.
Each filmmaker gets a limited amount of time to establish characters, create a situation, and deliver something memorable.
There’s very little room for wasted motion.
The downside is that when you really like a segment, it may end just when you want more.
That’s the anthology bargain.
Which Tape Is the Best?
Nice try.
I’m not ranking them here.
Part of the fun is watching the movie and discovering which segment works best for you.
One viewer may prefer supernatural horror.
Another may want gore.
Someone else may like the weirdest concept in the collection.
That’s why anthologies are fun to discuss after you’ve watched them.
Everybody leaves with a favorite.
This V/H/S/Halloween review will only say that the lineup covers a lot of ground, from gross-out comedy to genuine dread.
The V/H/S Series Has Become a Horror Time Capsule
The original V/H/S arrived back in 2012.
V/H/S/2 followed in 2013, then V/H/S: Viral in 2014.
After a break, the series came roaring back with V/H/S/94 in 2021.
V/H/S/99, V/H/S/85, and V/H/S/Beyond followed, one per year.
Since then, the franchise has kept returning with new filmmakers, new monsters, new formats, and increasingly strange collections of supposedly discovered footage.
The basic idea remains wonderfully flexible:
Give horror filmmakers a camera and tell them to show us something we’re not supposed to see.
Apparently there are still plenty of tapes left in the box.
Old Video Technology Makes Horror Better
There’s something wonderfully creepy about obsolete recording technology.
VHS tracking lines.
Static.
Blown-out highlights.
Bad night photography.
Distorted audio.
Modern digital video usually tries to eliminate those imperfections.
Horror can use them.
When an image becomes distorted at exactly the wrong moment, your imagination starts filling in whatever the camera couldn’t capture.
Sometimes that’s worse than seeing the monster clearly.
Halloween Decorations Make Great Camouflage
This may be the smartest thing about combining V/H/S with Halloween.
Imagine seeing something horrifying standing on someone’s lawn in July.
You’d probably call somebody.
See the same thing on October 31?
Nice decoration.
That uncertainty lets the filmmakers play with the boundary between fake Halloween scares and things that are genuinely dangerous.
The audience may notice the difference before the characters do.
Don’t Expect One Continuous Story
This is worth knowing if you’ve never watched a V/H/S movie.
These are separate shorts connected by a common presentation and theme.
Characters from one segment aren’t necessarily going to wander into another.
You’re essentially getting a miniature horror-film festival built around Halloween.
Finish one nightmare.
Insert the next tape.
Start another. That rhythm is what this V/H/S/Halloween review enjoyed most.
This Is Definitely Not Family Halloween Entertainment
The Halloween title might bring pumpkins, costumes, and trick-or-treating.
The V/H/S name brings everything else.
Expect adult horror, disturbing imagery, violence, gore, strange creatures, and filmmakers actively looking for ways to make familiar Halloween traditions unpleasant.
This isn’t something to put on for the kids while they’re sorting candy.
Unless you want to permanently reduce next year’s trick-or-treating expenses.
Practical Weirdness Still Matters
One of the pleasures of anthology horror is seeing how much filmmakers can accomplish in a short running time.
There isn’t enough time to build an enormous cinematic universe.
You need an image.
A creature.
A situation.
A scare.
Something viewers will remember when the next tape starts.
That pressure can produce some wonderfully strange horror ideas.
V/H/S/Halloween Understands the Holiday
The best Halloween horror doesn’t simply happen to take place on October 31.
It uses the traditions.
Costumes.
Candy.
Masks.
Haunted attractions.
Dark neighborhoods.
Children wandering from house to house.
People deliberately trying to frighten one another.
V/H/S/Halloween has an entire holiday toy box available.
Naturally, it chooses the sharpest toys.
Don’t Look Up the Segments Before Watching
This is especially important with an anthology.
A short film may only have twenty minutes to surprise you.
If somebody tells you the creature, twist, final image, or big scare beforehand, they’ve potentially ruined a large percentage of the story.
Know the segment titles.
Know the filmmakers.
Then stop searching.
This review isn’t revealing how any of them end.
Does V/H/S/Halloween Work?
The anthology format almost guarantees that viewers will like some segments more than others.
That’s normal.
What matters is whether the collection delivers enough memorable ideas to make opening the next tape worthwhile.
The Halloween theme gives this installment an immediate identity and a huge collection of familiar traditions for the filmmakers to corrupt.
For horror fans, that’s a pretty inviting candy bowl.
So the answer in this V/H/S/Halloween review is an easy yes.
Who Should Watch V/H/S/Halloween?
Watch it if you enjoy found footage, horror anthologies, Halloween movies, practical effects, and strange creatures.
Same goes for experimental horror, short films, VHS-era aesthetics, and stories that get to the nasty stuff quickly.
It’s particularly well suited to a Halloween-night watch when you don’t necessarily want one long story.
Think of it as trick-or-treating for horror fans.
You don’t know what’s in the next wrapper. Consider this V/H/S/Halloween review your candy inspection.
Final Thoughts 4.6/5
This one earns a 4.6 out of 5 from Kilroy. Wrapping up this V/H/S/Halloween review, the franchise finally gets the holiday it seems built for. Six tapes give a strong lineup of horror filmmakers a whole bag of Halloween traditions to twist. Not every segment hits the same way, but the best ones make October 31 feel genuinely dangerous again.
“A gleefully nasty Halloween candy bowl of found footage horror.”
ML Lamp, Kilroy Was Here Shop
V/H/S/Halloween takes a franchise built around mysterious recordings and finally gives it the holiday that seems designed for it.
Halloween already asks us to pretend monsters are real.
V/H/S simply removes the pretending.
The anthology format means not every tape will hit every viewer the same way, but that’s part of the fun. Each segment gets another chance to take something familiar about October 31 and make you regret recognizing it.
Masks aren’t necessarily costumes.
Haunted houses aren’t necessarily fake.
And that strange thing captured in the corner of somebody’s camcorder footage might not be a video glitch.
This Halloween, check the candy, lock the door, and whatever you do, don’t put that unidentified VHS tape in the player.
