Plot
The film is presented as an anthology of five short horror films, built into a frame narrative which acts as its own sixth short horror film. Each short is linked together with the concept of found footage as each segment is from VHS tapes.
V/H/S/85 is the first installment in the franchise to have two segments directly connected with each other—"No Wake" and "Ambrosia"—, as well as having a segment related to its filmmaker's most recent work—Scott Derrickson's "Dreamkill" is directly connected to The Black Phone (2021).
"Total Copy" (frame narrative) — Prologue
The frame narrative, presented as a documentary, focuses on a team of scientists—Dr. Pike Spratling, Dr. Gary Newell, Dr. Margaret Porter, and Dr. Sarah Greyson— at Stamer University as they study a shapeshifting being named "Rory".
"No Wake"
- Written and directed by Mike P. Nelson
Seven friends—Rob, Anna, Jared, Drew, Robin, Kevin, and Kelly—travel in a recreational vehicle to camp at a nearby lake. The group, except for Anna and Jared, ignore several signs that warn visitors against swimming and enter the water.
While water skiing, Rob, Drew, Robin, Kevin, and Kelly are shot and killed by an unseen sniper on the shore. Moments later, the group regain consciousness despite their fatal injuries and return to the shore, where they find Anna and Jared dead, and that their vehicle has the Roman numeral for seven painted on it with blood.
The survivors conclude that the lake has the ability to bring the dead back to life and, since they were the only ones to go swimming, only they were resurrected. They decide to enact their revenge on their attackers as the footage ends.
"Total Copy" — First interlude
Back in the frame narrative, it is revealed that Rory was found on the top of a butte and brought to the university to be studied under Spratling's supervision. In hopes to educate the being about human culture, the scientists contain Rory in a small room with a television—which broadcasts exercise videos—as Spratling is convinced that they can communicate with it.
"God of Death"
In a fictional depiction of the actual 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a Mexican news crew is preparing for the morning news until a massive earthquake strikes during the broadcast, which kills the entire crew except for cameraman Luis. He is assisted by a rescue team—Eddie, Karla, Javier, and Miguel—as they attempt to make their way out of the building.
Javier is mortally wounded in an aftershock and forces Karla to expedite his death; the remaining quartet notice a crawl space and enter a room with walls made of skulls, where they find a statue of an ancient Aztec god named Mictlantecuhtli. Eddie is suddenly possessed by Mictlantecuhtli, who then kills Miguel. Mictlantecuhtli also materializes behind Eddie and rips out his heart, which he proceeds to eat.
Karla succumbs to Mictlantecuhtli's influence and kills Luis, ripping out his heart as an offering. She is eventually killed when the room collapses, and a surviving news reporter broadcasts from outside the building explaining that "Today, September 19th, approximately 7:20 a.m., will be a day to remember" as the footage ends.
"TKNOGD"
Performance artist Ada Lovelace opens a show for a small audience in a theater. She explains that the world has killed God and replaced him with the "God of Technology", and introduces a demonstration video of a virtual reality software device that allows its user to exist simultaneously on the physical and digital plane.
When Ada adorns herself with a virtual reality headset, gloves, and a full body suit, another video is projected and shows what Ada sees through her headseat, depicting an electronic landscape. Ada performs an incantation to awaken the "God of Technology" and taunts it as a "myth" until a mysterious entity appears on the screen.
An unnerved Ada tries to remove the headset, but the entity attacks her; her real life body mimics her virtual one as she is lifted, strangled, and thrown. Ada's hand is bitten off in the virtual world and, though she is able to remove the gloves, she finds that her real hand is gone. The entity then breaks Ada's leg, tears away her skin, and rips her other leg off entirely.
Ada screams and succumbs to her injuries; the shocked audience, who believe it was all part of Ada's performance, clap as her cameraman approaches her. He is able to lift the visor, where it is revealed that Ada's now exposed brain and facial tissue has fused with the headset as the footage ends.
"Total Copy" — Third interlude
While the scientists are distracted, Rory sprouts a tentacle with spikes at the end.
"Ambrosia"
- Written and directed by Mike P. Nelson
The Wrigley family host a celebration in honor of their teenage daughter Ruth, who films the occasion with her cousin James. Ruth's young relative Adam shoots her with a water gun, which he reveals was given to him by a "lady in a recreational vehicle". That evening, the Wrigleys reveal that they are celebrating an old family tradition as a rite of passage that Ruth has completed.
She produces her passage's recording, in which she shot seven people dead at a lake shore. [a] When police officers surround the house, the family rushes to fight back. As the police raid the house and shoot Ruth's family dead, Ruth kills James after he confesses he is too frightened to fight. Ruth then begins a shootout with the police, but is killed.
As a coroner examines the bodies, Ruth regains consciousness despite her fatal injuries and, in shock, shoots the coroner. She shoots herself in the head, but remains alive and is arrested in great distress. It is revealed that Robin—one of Ruth's victims from the lake shore massacre—filled a water gun with the lake's water and gave it to Adam as the footage ends.
"Total Copy" — Fourth interlude
Newell becomes disturbed when Rory takes on his appearance, as he is the only one that has never had a face-to-face with the being, and Greyson calls for an emergency meeting. She explains that Newell has never been in the chamber, then deduces that Rory can see through the one-way mirror that divides its containment chamber and the study room.
While Greyson expresses concern, Spratling sees it as a miracles and argues that Rory is breaching beyond its restraints to make contact with them. Greyson, in another interview, explains that Spratling did not deserve what happened to him.
"Dreamkill"
In a first-person point-of-view, a serial killer enters a woman's house, ties her up, and brutally murders her while she is on the phone with emergency services. Lead detective Wayne Johnson recognizes the scene from a previous video of a similar murder. Another video shows the killer as he enters another house, fights the man inside, and brutally murders him as well.
The police come to the house and Wayne tells his partner Bobby Blake that he had already seen the murder on a tape he received earlier. Wayne investigates and finds out that Bobby's son Gunther is the one sending the tapes. Gunther claims that he saw the murders in his dreams and that they were being recorded on the tapes, but Wayne is skeptical. Bobby explains that their family has a psychic ability to see the future—Gunther's cousin Gwen had similar dreams when her brother Finney was kidnapped and his aunt committed suicide after having a series of disturbing dreams. [b]
A new tape is discovered, showing another murder where the victim was dismembered and beheaded. Bobby and Wayne recognize the location and decide to investigate. Outside the house, Wayne confronts Bobby about his involvement in the previous murders as it is revealed that Bobby had a connection with the victims—the woman from the respective first and last video tapes accused him of sexual assault and stalking, and the man from the second video tape was their attorney.
Wayne also reveals that Bobby lost his job as a result of these accusations; he pleads with Bobby to tell the truth, but Bobby kills him and then enters the house to carry out the murder depicted in Gunther's dream. In the police station, Gunther discovers that his dream is being replayed on the camera in the interrogation room. Bobby returns to the station and encounters Gunther, who then realizes his father is the killer. Gunther shares that he had a dream predicting the outcome of the situation. The police arrive and Bobby easily takes them down, only to get shot in the head by Gunther as the footage ends.
"Total Copy" — Epilogue
Rory is unresponsive to stimuli, which Spratling interprets as it being sick. Greyson disagrees and says that if Rory is as intelligent as Spratling says, then Rory could be manipulating him. Later, on that evening, Greyson abandons the study; she tries to convince Newell and Porter to follow her, but is unsuccessful.
In another interview, Greyson reveals that, while authorities have shared footage of what happened at the university, the documentary will not show it due to the images' disturbing nature and a concern for the well-being of viewers. The tape then cuts to a black screen, revealing that the following footage is property of Stamer University, leased to the show with no intention of distribution.
After Greyson leaves, Spratling sends Newell into Rory's room to give it an adrenaline shot. Before he can do so, Rory exposes his tentacle and wraps it around Newell's arm. While Spratling is able to get Newell out of the room, Rory sprouts another tentacle that uses to drag both Newell and Porter back to its room to kill them.
Spratling and the cameraman attempt to escape but, due to Newell's blood on Spratling's hand, the door scanner cannot read his handprint. Rory's tentacles extend to the hallway and kill them both. Rory then uses its tentacles to grab the cameraman's corpse and drags him back to its room, where it begins to manipulate the corpses in an imitation of the exercise videos it previously watched.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 74% of 47 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10.The website's consensus reads: "One of the franchise's stronger entries, V/H/S/85 largely avoids the quality control issues common to anthologies, with consistently creepy results." [14]
Jacob Hall of Slashfilm stated that "this is the first film in the series where it feels like every director is actively shooting for the moon," rating it 7 out of 10. [15] Mary McAndrews of Dread Central wrote that "V/H/S/85 is perhaps the series' most consistent entry," praising the focus on cosmic horror and "the shifting cultural consciousness of the 80s," rating it 4 out of 5. [16]
Emily Von Seele of Daily Dead deemed the film "an exceptionally strong entry" in the franchise, highlighting the consistent quality between segments with "no obvious weak link," rating it 5 out of 5. [17] In a positive review for The Daily Texan , Ryan Ranc commented that "'V/H/S/85' stands out as one of the best in the long running franchise," pointing out the "very satisfying payoff" of the main wraparound story and rating the film 3.5 out of 5. [18]
Kat Hughes of The Hollywood News praised the film as one of the best in the franchise, specifying Nelson's first segment, "No Wake", as "by far the bloodiest, messiest, and goriest of all the stories shown" and rating the film 4 out of 5. [19]
