V/H/S/94 is a horror found footage anthology movie. It was directed by multiple people. Below is my V/H/S/94 (2021) movie review
This anthology begins with a SWAT team raiding a place and finding some weird stuff. This includes plenty of dead people surrounded by television. This is our framing narrative segment that we keep coming back to.
The first story is about Rat Man. It is a creature living in sewers that is half man and half rat. A news reporter goes after it not believing the locals that it exists. The entire segment is shot from the view of a news cameraman. It’s eerie and can get pretty intense when strange sounds start coming from the sewer.
Pretty soon the characters get into full panic mode. At the end, after the reveal, the story itself takes a weird angle. One would say it is a fresh take on a cult while others would say it is predictable. It is all about how many horror movies one watches.The creature effects are well done and seem to be a throwback to practical effects. The whole screeching when it is present is highly unsettling.
The second segment starts in a funeral home with new employees getting ready for a wake. This one is a weak entry in the anthology. It mainly focuses on an animated corpse and lots of lights flickering to creep out the audience. The effects were ok, but nothing new. This segment is as basic and routine as they get. The only way it differs is that it is a found footage film which is not enough to make it memorable.
The third segment is most people’s favorite one. It is a mix of scifi, body-horror, action, and even some drama. It is a cyberpunk/steampunk-ish segment that deals with a man who reanimates corpses with a bunch of weapons glued on them.The look of them is great but the limited budget can be very obvious from the beginning. The blood effects were comical but also over the top with people exploding everywhere. However, one can argue the comical effects are part of the charm of these movies.
The last segment is about an extremist group who have a secret weapon. They hold somebody hostage that can help them blow up a government building. This one is unique but wayyy too political. Think of it as a group of extremists who want to make America righteous and get rid of all its sins. I did not care for this segment but some of the dumb stuff happening and over the top gore is fun to watch.
Overall the anthology is not the best. It includes one of the best segments (the 3rd one), but the rest were mediocre. Not sure if the lack of a bigger budget hurt these stories, but it didn’t help it for sure. Majority of these entries were not as developed as they should have been. They had a good premise but it never went for it and the majority didn’t go as wild as I hoped. For a non-horror fan, this would either be mind blowing or they would hate the whole VHS look. Either way it was a fun anthology, just not the strongest entry in the VHS movie line up.
Thanks for reading my V/H/S/94 (2021) movie review
