V/H/S Halloween Review (2025)

We have been fans of the V/H/S franchise since it released in 2012. There has always been an infectious energy with their segments, like we are seeing the filmmaker's best work in short form. That's the beauty with short films: you only have enough time to give audience the meat of the story. Shudder Original Films has put together another winner. While the segments are hit or miss ( which is par for the course) the overall feel of the collection is spot on. Being old enough to remember how bad some VHS tapes were we can confidently say V/H/S Halloween has nailed down the aesthetic.

Here is a breakdown of the segments:

"Diet Phantasma" (frame narrative) — Prologue

The wrap around film is different from each anthology. Some have more effort applied than others. The narrative shorts act as a home base of sorts after one segment is finished and before another begins. They are usually comedic or slightly creepy in nature (since the shorts never are) and give you time to exhale. Kind of like a commercial break on television, but for horror.

Diet Phantasma is a genius stroke of storytelling. Each mini segment reveals a little more about a project that is testing live subjects with diet soda. The whole thing is over the top gory and funny, and that's the point. Much praise should be given to the test subjects who look like they signed up for something they didn't fully read through. Just testing a soda right? Diet Phantasma takes queues from all over the horror spectrum, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, 28 Days Later, Evil Dead. It's a wonderful concoction.

"Coochie Coochie Coo"

We mentioned the segments are hit or miss, and Coochie Coochie Coo is a miss. The premise is simple enough: two girls trick or treating for the last time stumble upon a house. The go inside and become trapped with a malevolent entity known as Mommy. There are some gnarly production effects and makeup, but we've seen most of this before. Rating - 7/10

"Ut Supra Sic Infra"

A nice change of pacing featuring a foreign segment. The setup of the police interrogating the only survivor was intriguing, but we've seen the rest. There is one interesting twist at the end, it's minor but a nice detail nonetheless. Rating - 6/10

"Fun Size"

This segment is the talk of the town. Older kids not satisfied with their Halloween night decide to trick-or-treat more. They come across a house with a bowl of oddly shaped candy. There is a sign that reads "one per person" . Unsurprisingly, one of the kids takes a 2nd and off we go into an industrial complex that looks to be a candy maker. Acting is good here, as is the camera work and sound design. The candy is a little to on the nose, but it's one of the highlights of the anthology. Rating - 8/10

"Kidprint"

During the fall of 1992, a small town is rocked by an unusual spate of child and teenager disappearances and murders. We focus on Tim Kaplan who runs a local video store where he films "Kidprints", documentary videos that can be used to ID and help search for missing children. The shop owner is asked to recover a copy of a video for a child that went missing. When we returns to the shop at night all hell breaks loose.

This segment spends most of its time setting up Kidprints as a working solution to a major problem. The payoff is worth it, and while a little cringe and over the top at points we applaud the originality. Rating - 8/10

"Home Haunt"

This segment is the winner of V/H/S Halloween. It revolves around a father who wants to create a home haunt with his son one more time before the kid ages out. The kids resists, rudely, but comes around. The dad and son visit a second hand shop and peruse the back shelves, ignoring the staff online sign and leave with a Halloween record. When they play the record for their customers it opens the Gates of Hell quite literally.

Home haunts are becoming an amazing fan experience. With so much readily available props to decorate your home it was a matter of time before haunts became a thing. In some cases home haunts can be scarier and more intense than the commercial productions you see at amusement parks. Rating - 9/10

Final Thoughts

The V/H/S/ franchise is a fun, quirky, and gore filled anthology. It showcases up and coming filmmakers, usually provides fresh stories and finds new inventive ways to entertain. This latest iteration is a worthy effort. We wouldn't be surprised to see V/H/S take on more seasonal times like Christmas and New Years.