V/H/S/Halloween feels like the most obvious swing this long-running Shudder anthology could take, and the holiday framing mostly works. After a few detours to specific years and even outer space, this film plants every vignette on October 31, stitching them together with a proper wraparound about The Octagon Corporation’s cursed “Diet Phantasma” soda that kills its taste testers in escalatingly nasty ways. Bryan M. Ferguson leans into splattery punch lines here, and the carnage sets the tone for a lineup that ricochets between gross-out mayhem and quieter, queasier terror.
As with most V/H/S entries, the batting average is mixed, but the highs justify the sit. Paco Plaza’s “Ut Supra Sic Infra,” from the co-creator of [REC], is a standout, toggling between past and present as a psychic’s party turns into a supernatural snare that replays itself for the investigators who arrive later. It is confident, chilly, and the rare segment that lingers. Alex Ross Perry’s “Kidprint” is even gnarlier in spirit, ditching paranormal shtick for a grounded true-crime nightmare about a video-store proprietor whose “kidprints” inadvertently arm a serial killer. It is stark, plausibly grim, and the one short that begs to be expanded.
The rest are serviceable but thin. Anna Zlokovic’s “Coochie Coochie Coo” follows two teens through a funhouse built on a small-town legend and never finds a new scare. Casper Kelly’s “Fun Size” is a candy-coated abduction farce that escalates to goofy body-horror assembly lines. Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman’s “Home Haunt” closes things out with a straight shot of haunted-house chaos that plays like a demo reel. The franchise’s return to a proper wraparound is welcome even if it mostly exists for punchy kills rather than connective tissue, and the Halloween-night constraint gives the whole feature a cozy campfire vibe.
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V/H/S/Halloween is not top-tier for the series, but it is a notch above V/H/S/Beyond and proof that the brand still has tricks when the right filmmakers are in the rotation. The Shudder staple remains a safe bet for October viewing, even if only a couple of these tapes are keepers.
Score: 5/10
V/H/S/Halloween (2025)
- Cast: David Haydn, Samantha Cochran, Natalia Montgomery Fernandez, Teo Planell, María Romanillos, Lawson Greyson, Riley Nottingham, Stephen Gurewitz, Carl William Garrison, Jeff Harms, Noah Diamond
- Directors: Bryan M. Ferguson, Casper Kelly, Micheline Pitt-Norman, R.H. Norman, Alex Ross Perry, Paco Plaza, Anna Zlokovic
- Genre: Horror, Thriller
- Runtime: 115 minutes
- Rated: NR
- Release Date: October 3, 2025
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