V/H/S Beyond
Siegel, Long, Downey, Pal, Long, Martinez, Cheel, 2024
I considered ranking this a at first, and I kind of still want to give it that mark, but a hokey monster in the first segment and a weak frame narrative keep me from pushing it up to that level. Otherwise, this is easily one of the best films in the series, with a couple of absolute banger segments that quickly jumped up to some of my favorites in the entire catalog. The skydiving segment, Live and Let Dive, was pulse pounding and had my wife chewing on her hands by the end. Stowaway was spooky and atmospheric, and then went full on surreal as it progressed along - I absolutely adored this one.
The rest were not bad at all, but as I mentioned, the first one had sort of a silly monster reveal, but was otherwise strong. Fur Babies was twisted af; I enjoyed it's razor wit and kooky take on body horror. Dream Girl was good, but not great, and was sort of a derivative blend of the far superior Safe Haven from V/H/S/2 and poorly conceived and executed TEKNOGD from V/H/S/85.
Speaking of V/H/S/85... that film has one of the strongest and perhaps my favorite frame narratives of the entire series, and it would have been a way better fit for V/H/S/ Beyond, which is heavily focused on sci-fi horror and aliens in particular. I would love to see an edit of V/H/S/ Beyond with that frame narrative inserted in place of the clearly weaker Abduction/Adduction.
Anyway - this kicked ass! I had a lot of fun with this one.
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell