Review of the film ‘V/H/S Beyond’ (2024)

V/H/S is a horror franchise centered on the found footage concept. Found footage is a recording found after the death or disappearance of the recorder, and is frequently used by mystery and horror genres. The franchise starts off with the film V/H/S (2012), and follows up with more films (V/H/S Beyond being the seventh one), two spin-off films and one miniseries.

V/H/S Beyond shows six separate short stories, some of them being full found footage and some others just using some footage from the cameras used by the protagonists.

• Abduction/Adduction. False documentary about two found VHS tapes showing proof of extraterrestrial activity on earth, which are shown at the end. Directed by Jay Cheel. This false documentary erases the line between reality and fiction by featuring real people, such as Mitch Horowitz (host of TV Series Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction), Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer and Wren Welchman. It uses many fragments of well-known UFO sighting incidents, and even a fragment from the famous Roswell autopsy hoax. The other five stories are embedded in the middle of this one.

• Stork. Written by Jordan Downey and Kevin Stewart, inspired in the artwork by Oleg Vdovenko. Directed by Jordan Downey. Following a report of stolen babies, a group of New York policemen break into a house. We follow the story through the bodycams of the policemen, and the action quickly becomes violent and videogamesque. Non-stop action story.

• Dream Girl. Written and directed by Virat Pal. In India, two paparazzi infiltrate the studios filming the last musical film of the famous star Tara, hoping to get some intimate pictures of her. The paparazzi find out more than they were expecting.

• Live and Let Dive. Writing by Justin Martínez and Benjamin A. Turner, and directed by the first one. A group of skydivers is on a plane flying towards to the diving zone when they encounter an UFO. We see the story through the camera attached to the helmet of one of the skydivers. Non-stop action story with great aerial footage.

• Fur Babies. Written and directed by Christian Long and Justin Long. A group of animals’ rights activists decide to infiltrate a kennel because of suspecting animal mistreating – but they are in for a more sinister finding. A really twisted story.

• Stowaway. Written by Mike Flanagan and directed by Kate Siegel. Now this is a variety of found footage that we could call ‘hardly found footage’. A lone investigator follows the reports of UFO sightings in the desert, recording everything, and finds more that she was expecting.

With the stories being short, it is difficult to evaluate the acting. Let’s just highlight Libby Letlow from the story Fur Babies and Farhan Syed from the story Dream Girl.

All stories are good, and the action stories in particular are spectacular. The production level is fine, with adequate scenarios, and good special and visual effects. All in all, an excellent horror film with many science-fiction elements. 4 out of 5.

Title:	V/H/S Beyond
Genre:	Horror
Year:	2024
Nationality:	United States
Colour:	Colour
Director:	Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kate Siegel
Writer:	Evan Dickson, Jordan Downey, Mike Flanagan, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kevin Stewart, Benjamin A. Turner, Oleg Vdovenko
Cast:	Brian Baker, Trevor Dow, Gerry Eng, Sam Gorski, Mitch Horowitz, Niko Pueringer, Wren Weichman, Thom Hallum, James C. Burns, Jolene Andersen, Tyler Andrews, Vas Provatakis, Phillip Andre Botello, Michael J. Sielaff, Morgan Chancelien, Dane DiLiegro, Chris Page, Alan Maxson, Blaine Magee, Morgan Magee, Suzie Usaj, Namrata Sheth, Sayandeep Sengupta, Rohan Joshi, Ashwin Mushran, Rikin Saigal, Farhan Syed, Swati Jain, Virat Pal, Bobby Slaski, Rhett Wellington, Jerry Campisi, Bix Krieger, Hannah McBride, Skip Howland, Jeff Turner, Dominique Star, Jared Trevino, Matt Tramel, Felipe Cortes Munoz, Zori Latkovic, Nate Shane, Sebastian Redd, Mike Ferguson, Libby Letlow, Matthew Layton, Braedyn Bruner, Kevin Bohleber, Phillip Lundquist, Trevor Wright, Cameron Krugman, Jenna McCarthy, Sivan Genier, William Granillo, Alanah Pearce, Josh Goldbloom, Boomer Feith, Yuritzi Bojorquez, Ketzali Bojorquez, Theodora Flanagan, Joey Wilson
Producer:	Josh Goldbloom, James Harris, Brad Miska, Nehal Pal, Brian Robertson, Michael Schreiber
Co-producer:	Vishesh Agrawal
Executive producer:	Adam Boorstin, Roy Lee, Steven Schneider
Production designer:	Prashant Kumar Dubey
Cinematographer:	Tapan Basu, Alexander Chinnici, Mike McLaughlin, Kevin Stewart
Film editor:	Jay Cheel, Tanya Chhabria, Jordan Downey, Thom Newell, Benjamin A. Turner
Casting:	Jeffrey Gafner
Costume Designer:	Megan Lian, Ekta Singh
Music:	Jay Cheel, Nick Soole
Running time:	114 minutes
Language:	English, Spanish