The final wraparound reveal—that every tape we’ve watched was a snuff collection belonging to the documentary’s “scientist,” who has been broadcasting his “research” into empty airwaves—lands with a quiet, sickening thud. There is no final girl. No police raid. Just the hum of a VCR in an empty room, waiting for the next viewer.
V/H/S/85 (2023) is not a fun haunted house ride. It’s a slow, cold crawl through a dead medium, asking uncomfortable questions: What if the past wasn’t simpler? What if it was just better at hiding its horrors? And what happens when we rewind the tape, only to find something rewinds back?
Unlike the uneven pacing of some franchise entries, 85 builds like a concept album. The wraparound segment, “Total Copy,” presents itself as an earnest PBS-style documentary about a “new form of life” discovered in a Nicaraguan lake. But as the “expert” grows increasingly unhinged, the documentary’s slick veneer cracks to reveal a Cronenbergian body-horror nightmare—one that subtly connects every other tape in the collection.
The final wraparound reveal—that every tape we’ve watched was a snuff collection belonging to the documentary’s “scientist,” who has been broadcasting his “research” into empty airwaves—lands with a quiet, sickening thud. There is no final girl. No police raid. Just the hum of a VCR in an empty room, waiting for the next viewer.
V/H/S/85 (2023) is not a fun haunted house ride. It’s a slow, cold crawl through a dead medium, asking uncomfortable questions: What if the past wasn’t simpler? What if it was just better at hiding its horrors? And what happens when we rewind the tape, only to find something rewinds back? V H S 85 2023
Unlike the uneven pacing of some franchise entries, 85 builds like a concept album. The wraparound segment, “Total Copy,” presents itself as an earnest PBS-style documentary about a “new form of life” discovered in a Nicaraguan lake. But as the “expert” grows increasingly unhinged, the documentary’s slick veneer cracks to reveal a Cronenbergian body-horror nightmare—one that subtly connects every other tape in the collection. Just the hum of a VCR in an