Plot
The film is presented as an anthology of four short horror films. Each short film is linked together with the concept of found footage as each segment is from the VHS tapes that Petro and Nash distributed from the warehouse. [a]
Unlike the previous installments, V/H/S/99 does not have an oveararching frame narrative in between each short. Instead, short stop-motion animations of toy soldiers—made by Brady from "The Gawkers"—serve as interludes.
"Shredding"
- Written and directed by Maggie Levin
Punk rock band R.A.C.K.—acronym for its members Rachel, Ankur, Chris, and Kaleb—regularly record their antics on a web show that they host. For their latest video, the quartet break into the Colony Underground, a former music venue that burned down three years prior in an electrical fire which killed all four members of another band, Bitch Cat, after being trampled during a stampede.
As the quartet explore the venue, Ankur warns Rachel about his fear of the bhoota, having heard that they possess any person who defiles their resting place. However, Rachel, Chris, and Kaleb trick Ankur into believing that they are being possessed. An unimpressed Ankur storms off and declares that he hopes the bhoota kills them. The three remaining members produce inflatable sex dolls filled with gelatin and stomp on them to re-enact the stampede that killed Bitch Cat.
Suddenly, Kaleb is snatched into the darkness and his bloody, pulverised remains fall from above. Rachel and Chris attempt to escape until the zombified bhoota of Bitch Cat appear and seize their camera. Bitch Cat film themselves as they gruesomely dismember and decapitate Ankur, Rachel, and Chris. The tape glitches out to reveal the re-animated and crudely re-connected remains of R.A.C.K.—now possessed by Bitch Cat—performing an old song on-stage as the footage ends.
"Suicide Bid"
College freshman Lily attempts to join Beta Sigma Eta, the most prestigious sorority on her campus. She performs a "suicide bid"—which applies to one sorority as her recruitment choice. The effort pays off as Lily is invited by the Beta Sigma Eta sisters to a nearby graveyard where, as part of the hazing ritual, she is dared to spend the night buried inside a coffin.
The sisters' leader Annie explains that it is meant to re-create an urban legend where another freshman, Giltine, was dared to commit the same deed to enter the sorority twenty years earlier. Giltine was forgotten by her classmates for a week and was rumored to have crawled into the underworld when the empty coffin was unearthed.
Lily enters the coffin with a box—whose content she is told will provide reassurance if her resolve falters—and a camera to film her ordeal; she opens the box to discover it contains several spiders. Terrified, Lily demands to be let out, but the sisters laugh at her torment. A sudden rainstorm commences just as a police car arrives to investigate the noises. The sisters flee and agree to exhume Lily in the morning. The officers make an investigation but leave, unable to hear Lily's muffled cries for help.
As the storm continues, the coffin is partially flooded by rainwater. When the water stops rising, Giltine's ghoulish spirit punches through the lid of the coffin and attacks Lily. The next morning, the sisters find the grave full of water and the coffin mysteriously empty; they agree to never speak of the incident but, that night, the sisters awaken, buried in coffins.
Lily, now a ghoul herself, appears with Giltine in Annie's coffin and explains that she has made a deal with Giltine, offering the sisters to her as replacements victims in exchange for her soul being spared. A tarantula crawls out of Giltine's mouth and both then attack Annie amid the sisters' screams as the footage ends.
"Ozzy's Dungeon"
- Directed by Flying Lotus
- Written by Zoe Cooper and Flying Lotus
Young contestant Donna participates in Ozzy's Dungeon, a children's game show where people engage in physical challenges for a chance to descend into the titular dungeon and meet Ozzy, who will allow the winner to be granted a wish. During an obstacle course, Donna—whose wish is to help her poverty-stricken family leave their run-down neighborhood—suffers a serious open fracture to her leg and loses after the host does not stop the game so her injury can be properly tended to.
Some time later, after Ozzy's Dungeon was cancelled, the show's former host awakens, stripped and locked in a dog cage, in the basement of Donna's domineering mother Debra, who is gradually revealed to have groomed her daughter to win the show at all costs. With the help of her browbeaten husband Marcus, their son Brandon, and Donna—who was left crippled after the incident, her leg becoming gangrenous—, Debra has the host filmed while he is forced through several torturous versions of the challenges from the show, threatening to douse him with acid if he refuses to comply.
When the host fails to complete the final challenge, Debra attempts to inject him with a syringe full of acid, but the host offers to bring the family to Ozzy and have their wish granted. The group then drives to the empty studio where Ozzy's Dungeon was filmed and the host leads the family inside through the rear entrance. The door is opened by the host's former assistant and it leads to a cave. Inside, the family discover Ozzy on an altar, being worshipped by the assistant and people dressed in the attire of the show's contestants. As Donna is brought before Ozzy to tell him her wish, Ozzy's outer body splits open into a vaguely-humanoid, spindly creature.
Granting Donna's wish, Ozzy proceeds to fire an energy beam out of his eye to melt the faces of the host and Donna's family, killing them all, while Donna smiles at the camera as the footage ends.
"The Gawkers"
- Directed by Tyler MacIntyre
- Written by Tyler MacIntyre and Chris Lee Hill
Young teenager Brady films stop motion videos of toy soldiers—the animations depicted in-between the film's segments—with his older brother Dylan's camera. While Brady records his latest video, Dylan takes the camera, which he uses to film himself practicing pick-up lines with his friends Kurt, Mark, and Boner. The quartet exclude Brady from their activities, thinking him to be a hopeless loser, and go out to pull pranks on the neighborhood residents and perform tricks at the local skatepark.
After concealing the camera to get secret up-skirt photos, the quartet become fixated on Sandra, an attractive blonde woman who has moved into the house across the street and whose yard is decorated with several stone busts. Brady later meets and befriends Sandra, who invites him into her house while he attempts to roller-skate, much to Dylan's shock and jealousy. The quartet compliment Brady for his newfound relationship with Sandra and beg him for information. Brady explains that Sandra invited him to help set up a new webcam and is enlisted to install a spyware on her computer and hack into her webcam in hopes of seeing her nude.
Brady reluctantly agrees and goes to Sandra's house that night. He installs the spyware despite being wracked with guilt for betraying her trust. As Brady leaves the room, the quartet watch Sandra through the webcam while she undresses. They became horrified when Sandra rips off her scalp to uncover a hair made of snakes—revealing that she is actually a gorgon. She also notices what the quartet is doing and leaps from her window to their house.
Sandra breaks into Dylan's room and kills Kurt, Mark, and Boner while Dylan flees. Brady attempts to reason with Sandra but she does not accepts his apology and turns him into stone, then proceeds to petrify Dylan as well. Now fully transformed, she slowly approaches the camera, stuck in Dylan's stony hand, as the footage ends.
"To Hell and Back"
- Written and directed by Vanessa and Joseph Winter
On New Year's Eve, videographer best friends Nate and Troy are hired by a coven of witches to film them performing a ritual where a woman named Kirsten volunteers to be offered as a vessel to a powerful demon known as Ukabon. Despite agreeing, Nate is skeptical of them and thinks that the ritual may be a prank. The witches tell the duo that they will not actually summon Ukabon until the stroke of midnight on the new millennium, when the veil between Earth and Hell is at its thinnest.
As the ritual begins, Ferkus—an uninvited demon who has disrupted the witches' rituals before—makes its presence known. The witches attempt to cast it out, but Ferkus grabs Nate and Troy and drags them underneath the witches' altar. As the camera glimpses Ferkus retreating, Troy learns that he and Nate have been sent to Hell. The duo encounter bloodthirsty demons, hazardous traps, and mutilated bodies spread throughout the cavernous landscape. They also cross paths with Mabel, a damned soul who speaks in archaic terms and explains that they are irresistible to hungry demons due to their mortality.
Mabel decides to help the duo escape by leading them to Ukabon, whom she hates, in exchange for both writing her name in the witches' spell book. Since Ukabon is the only conduit through which the duo can return to Earth, they have only minutes to find him before they are stuck in Hell for eternity. While trekking, Nate, Troy, and Mabel encounter more demons and eventually enter a cave where they find Ukabon, surrounded by a cult of masked demons, preparing to enter Kristen's body. The cultists attack the trio, but they manage to kill them.
As midnight rapidly approaches, the duo shout at Mabel to come with them to Earth, but she is fatally stabbed by Ukabon and reminds them to write her name in the book before dying. The duo jump inside Ukabon's cavernous stomach just as the witches' ritual commences. The duo successfully return to Earth, albeit with Nate possessing Kirsten's body; furious that their ritual has failed, the witches kill both Nate and Kirsten and argue about what went wrong. Troy attempts to flee, but is fatally wounded with a scythe. He uses his blood to write Mabel's name in the book, then succumbs to his injuries as the footage ends.
Epilogue
The tape returns to the previous segment; Dylan's and Brady's stone corpses are shown before the camera's battery dies in low battery. In the post-credits scene, the witches can be heard performing their ritual again, this time calling Mabel's name, a hint that she will also return to Earth before the toy soldier hitting the miniature tank.
Production
In September 2021, producer Josh Goldbloom stated that a sequel would only be possible if V/H/S/94 proved successful with streaming audiences. [4] Soon after its release via Shudder, V/H/S/94 broke viewership records for the streaming company, which prompted a rush to produce a sequel in time for the following year. [5]
The film was believed to be titled V/H/S/85 following a deleted social media post by actor Freddy Rodriguez in April 2022. [6] [7] The streaming service Shudder was to handle distribution, as it did with the previous installment. [8] However, official confirmation of the film, titled V/H/S/99, came in July 2022 from Bloody Disgusting , who co-produced the film alongside Studio71, Radio Silence Productions, and Cinepocalypse Productions. [9] The film was described to take place in the "final punk rock analog days of VHS". [10] Flying Lotus, Johannes Roberts, Vanessa and Joseph Winter, Maggie Levin, and Tyler MacIntyre were announced as directors, with Goldbloom, Brad Miska, David Bruckner, Chad Villella, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and James Harris serving as producers. [11] The apparent V/H/S/85 was instead another entry in the franchise, which was officially announced on October 8, 2022. David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Natasha Kermani, and Mike P. Nelson were announced as directors, with a 2023 release window by Shudder. [12]
Goldbloom revealed that the first pitch to Shudder by the producers was a film set during Christmas, tentatively titled V/H/Xmas, as well as a film set during medieval times. Shudder ultimately rejected these pitches in favor of V/H/S/99. [13]
Reception
Audience viewership
Upon its release, V/H/S/99 broke streaming records for Shudder. Through its first four days of release, the film registered 28% more unique viewers than the previous record holder, V/H/S/94, which premiered on the platform in 2021. V/H/S/99 also accounted for nearly 22% of all on-demand streams on Shudder during the same time period and was AMC+’s #1 most watched movie of the weekend. [2]
Craig Engler, GM of Shudder said “By every metric V/H/S/99 has been a wild success, with subscribers watching in record numbers and debating with each other on social media about which segment of the anthology was their favorite. We are thrilled that the revival of the series continues to be embraced by our audience, and already looking forward to next year’s V/H/S/85.” [21]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 76% of 54 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6/10.The website's consensus reads: "Like most anthologies, V/H/S/99 has its ups and downs -- but more often than not, this collection of shorts continues the franchise's recent creative rebound." [22] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [23]
Matt Donato of IGN praised the film as "the biggest gamble in the V/H/S franchise yet," commending the use of practical effects and the depiction of common phobias, such as the fear of spiders or being buried alive, to generate anxiety and terror. [24] He concluded by stating that "V/H/S/99 capitalizes on frenzied found-footage fun, howls with blitzkrieg chaos, and keeps exploding like a firecracker bundle that loves to watch you wince," and rating it 7/10. [24]
Writing for Dread Central, Emily Gagne stated that the film "may be the simplest and most streamlined V/H/S sequel yet." She praised the production design and the nostalgia factor that is incorporated into the film, affirming that "[V/H/S/99] has the potential to become a slumber party touchstone," and rating it 3/5 stars. [25] In a review for That Shelf, critic Victor Stiff praised the film, stating that "[V/H/S/99 is] one of the rare horror anthologies with solid movies across the board. All five shorts give audiences something meaty to feast on." [26]
In a mixed review for Variety , critic Dennis Harvey wrote that "[t]he best episodes are merely good enough, and the worst just tiresome." [27] Harvey praised the "amusing stop-motion animations of toy soldiers" that serve as the film's interludes between segments, but concluded that V/H/S/99 "provides a watchable but underwhelming franchise clock-punch with no memorable highpoints." [27]
