Stream it or skip it: ‘v/h/s/85’ on shudder, in which director scott derrickson headlines the latest entry in the horror anthology

Victims[]

Total Copy

Gary — Dragged away and ripped apart by Rory the Shapeshifter off-camera, sounds heard.
Margaret — Slashed through the neck by one of Rory’s tentacles.
Unnamed Camera Man — Disemboweled by one of Rory’s tentacles.
Pike Spratling
Total — 4

— Throat slashed by one of Rory’s tentacles.

No Wake

Robin — Part of her head shot open by Ruth with a sniper rifle. Revived by the Lake’s water.
Kevin — Shot in the side and in the forehead by Ruth with a sniper rifle.
Kelly — Shot through the back of the mouth, jaw, and chest by Ruth with a sniper rifle. Revived by the Lake’s water.
Rob — Shot in the head by Ruth with a sniper rifle. Revived by the Lake’s water.
Drew — Shot twice through the back by Ruth with a sniper rifle. Revived by the Lake’s water.
Anna — Shot to death by Ruth with a sniper rifle.
Jared

Total — 7

— Shot to death by Ruth with a sniper rifle.

God of Death

Lucia de Leon — Part of her face smashed open after being crushed by debris during an earthquake.
Two Unnamed Males — Crushed by debris during an earthquake.
Unnamed Female — Crushed by debris during an earthquake.
Unnamed Male — Head split by debris during an earthquake.
Javier — Impaled through the back by a steel bar during an earthquake tremor and head smashed by Karla with a crowbar.
Miguel — Throat slashed after being struck in the neck by possessed Eddie with a crowbar.
Eddie — Committed suicide by slashing his stomach open with a crowbar before having his heart ripped out by Mictlantecuhtli.
Luis — Heart ripped out by Karla.
Karla

Total — 10

— Crushed to death by falling debris.

Ambrosia

Mr. Wrigley (Ruth’s father) — Died of unknown causes off-screen prior to the film, mentioned.
Amanda Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
Hank Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
Jeanie Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
Carol Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
Susan Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
Art Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
Jeff Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
James Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
Christopher Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
Mrs. Wrigley — Shot in the crossfire between Wrigleys and unknown police officers.
George Wrigley — Shot three times in the chest by Ruth Wrigley.
Ruth Wrigley — Shot multiple times by several unnamed police officers. Revived by Lake Evic’s waters orchestrated by Robin.
Unnamed Woman — Shot multiple times by Ruth Wrigley.

Dreamkill

Karen — Throat slit with an electric knife and eyes gouged out by Bobby.
Unnamed Male — Fingers cut off with an electric knife before brutally mutilated by Bobby.
Bobby’s Sister — Committed suicide after being driven insane in an unknown manner.
Wayne Johnson — Shot through the forehead out the skull by Bobby.
Unnamed Woman — Dismembered by Bobby off-screen, mentioned.
Unnamed Male Officer — Shot in the head by Bobby.
Unnamed Male Officer — Throat sliced by Bobby.
Unnamed Male Officer — Shot in the jaw out the mouth by Bobby.
Unnamed Male Officer — Arm partially shot off by Bobby with a shotgun.
Unnamed Male Officer — Shot in the leg and part of his head blown off after being shot in the face by Bobby.
Bobby

Total — 11

— Shot through the back of the head by Gunther.

Ripped from the VCR! Official Trailer for ‘V/H/S/85’ Horror Anthology

by Alex Billington September 21, 2023Source: YouTube

«Where did you get those tapes?!» Shudder + Bloody Disgusting have revealed the main official trailer for V/H/S/85, the next film in this found footage anthology series. It’s now the fifth one — V/H/S/99 debuted just last year (also on Shudder now). As expected, V/H/S/85 (#6) is premiering at Fantastic Fest in TX this week before streaming in October. «Get ready for a found footage compilation of disembowelment, clubbing, and dismemberment, just to name a few of the grisly deaths. It’s Reaganomics and imperial disillusionment in the way that only the V/H/S movies can do them — with the fake blood hose nozzle cranked up to the soak setting.» Featuring new segments made by the horror filmmakers: Mike P. Nelson (The Domestics, Wrong Turn), Natasha Kermani (Shattered, Imitation Girl, Lucky), Gigi Saul Guerrero (Bingo Hell, Satanic Hispanics, «La Quinceañera»), Scott Derrickson (Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, Deliver Us from Evil, Doctor Strange, The Black Phone), David Bruckner (The Ritual, The Night House, Hellraiser). The Tron-themed one looks bonkers. This whole thing looks insane! Just as expected — more VHS madness.

Here’s the main official trailer (+ poster) for the horror anthology film V/H/S/85, direct from YouTube:

You can rewatch the teaser trailer for horror anthology V/H/S/85 right here, to view the first look again.

Via Fantastic Fest: «A natural disaster leads to a horrifying discovery, shocking terror on a sun-soaked lake, and a performance art piece attempting to contact a new god. How do these ideas relate? Well, you’ll just have to pop V/H/S/85 in the VCR and see for yourself. The found footage franchise returns to Fantastic Fest with more eldritch beings than you can cram onto a handheld camcorder. This installment features alumni galore as we journey back to the ‘80s for teenage campout shenanigans and newscasts from the pits of indigenous retribution. Mike P. Nelson explores body horror and right-wing, gun-nut extremism in No Wake. Gigi Saul Guerrero brings the horror to a disaster recovery crew in God of Death. Natasha Kermani brings us a performance artist whose installation goes wrong in TKNOGD. And finally, Scott Derrickson returns to Fantastic Fest with a disturbing vision of videotaped murders in Dreamkill. The segments are all tied together with a spooky research study from director David Bruckner.» The film will premiere at Fantastic Fest 2023 in Austin. Shudder then debuts V/H/S/85 starting on .

In sync

(Image credit: Shudder)

To this end, it’s pretty creepy that each filmmaker had no idea that their counterparts were also working with alien and/or paranormal themes.Nelson adds: «It’s funny because we’ve all been asked very similar questions like – ‘how did you guys sync up your ideas so well?’ We didn’t! Our minds just went to certain places when we were told ’85’ and there was something in the air.»

According to Nelson, one reason why the separate shorts fit so well together comes down to the freedom given when making these films which only had to be tied to two factors: it has to be found footage and it had to be set in the 1980s. He recalls fellow director Brucker telling him: «This is your ‘fuck you’ movie, you get to do whatever you want, and don’t be scared to push it further than you think». Derrickson echoes this, saying «the producers don’t put any restrictions on you,» which is exactly what filmmakers find so appealing about low-budget passion projects like this.

The most obviously alien-like short has to be Bruckner’s, featuring a strange extraterrestrial entity named Rory. You would think that piece had to influence all the other directors, but actually, Bruckner’s film was made after all of the other shorts, which may be the reason why the movie flows so well. «Evan Dickson, who wrote the piece, and I conceptualized something that borrowed bits from all of the other shorts tonally,» Bruckner says. «So, there’s a bit of body horror, there are some sci-fi elements, and professional characters.»

It is quite extraordinary that none of the filmmakers, apart from Bruckner, had seen or heard anything about the other shorts, or even spoke to the other directors, but still managed to produce films that share the same theme. V/H/S/85 is a welcomed change to the franchise providing audiences with a fun yet horrific blast from the past detailing what was and what definitely wasn’t acceptable in the ’80s.

Moving on from V/H/S/85, Bruckner feels many directors will be jumping at the chance to be included in the next installment as «there’s a certain freedom and a kind of frictionless environment to have fun with the genre». Derrickson agrees: «I like the idea of being able to go real hard, without any worries about ratings.»

And to conclude, Nelson hits the nail on the head: «I guess I can just sum it up with – it’s a lot and it’s crazy, but it’s so much fun.»

Different approaches

(Image credit: Shudder)

Differing from past V/H/S movies, all of these segments have supernatural themes. Bruckner’s short – or rather what he labels the ‘wraparound’ – Total Copy, is presented as a made-for-TV documentary following a group of scientists studying an unusual slime-covered entity named Rory. This chapter acts as the glue holding the whole movie together, with small clips playing in between the other shorts. The storyline was dreamed up by Bruckner and writer Evan Dickson whilst binging ’80s horror movies in a cabin in the woods. The pair watched Joseph Ruben’s Dreamscape, Stuart Gordan’s From Beyond, and David Cronenberg’s Videodrome for inspiration, then as Bruckner explains «jammed on some ideas until we landed on something that was alien but also, whether we wanted to or not, AI».

Meanwhile Doctor Strange director Derrickson’s short, Dreamkill, is not overtly sci-fi but in a Sixth Sense fashion uses the supernatural to guide the story. Dreamkill follows a teenager named Gunther, played by Derrickson’s son, Dashiell, as he starts to dream up horrific murders that tape themselves onto a VCR, then later coming true. Mixing gore with the paranormal is common practice for Derrickson, who tells GamesRadar+ that his V/H/S short was inspired by his recent movie The Black Phone, and even takes place in the same timeline.

Nelson, director of the 2021 reboot Wrong Turn , took a slightly different approach to making his short, that is actually split into two separate parts. Nelson’s two-for-one starts with a group of teens heading to the lake, but it’s not Jason they meet at the camp, but a seemingly harmless assailant. Due to unnatural forces, the murders don’t go to plan and in the second act, Ambrosia, the victims seek revenge. As the filmmaker told GamesRadar+, he felt he had permission to go wild with this final act: «The supernatural element was something that I wanted to incorporate already. For the most part with all the directors, we’re usually working in a bubble — we pitch a story, we write a script, and then we get handed the keys to go nuts.»