I had been looking forward to V/H/S 99 since it was announced. That was even before when it was premiering but as soon as its premier was announced it became one my most anticipated movies of October. I ended up loving V/H/S 99 a lot more than I thought I would. This might be the most solid entry in the entire V/H/S franchise. There aren’t any singular segments that standout from the others, unlike previous entries.
The first two segments are called “Shredding” and “Suicide Bid”. “Shredding” is about a punk band/prank group that goes to a music venue that’s been closed since a fire killed a band. “Suicide Bid” has to do with a sorority hazing incident. Both of them are fantastic. They do a great job of building tension and making you care for certain characters.
The third and fourth segments are “Ozzy’s Dungeon” and “The Gawkers”. “Ozzy’s Dungeon” deals with an extreme version of a children’s game show. “The Gawkers” is used in an interesting way. Its almost like the framing narrative in the other movies in the series but isn’t one at all. You get little glimpses of the characters but all you see are stop motion snippets of a kid playing with toys, though I’m pretty sure there’s a crocheted Raatma in there. The main part of the segment deals with a group of teenage boys being shitheads.
The final segment is “To Hell and Back”. Its name pretty much says it all. I’ve left all of my summations pretty bare as to not even possibly give anything away. Even possibly spoiling any of these segments would be a disservice to them. Maggie Levin, Johannes Roberts, Flying Lotus, Tyler MacIntyre, Joseph Winter, and Vanessa Winter made some of the best segments of the franchise. That’s not even mentioning the effects for the segments. I also really want to know about the music for “Shredding” because it kicks ass.
V/H/S 99 continues the quality of the previous entry of the series but has a steady quality throughout. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the entirety of V/H/S 99. I know that there’s another entry already filmed and ready to be released called V/H/S/85 that will be released next year. This is a Shudder original. I give V/H/S 99 10 plastic soldiers out of 10.