New 'V/H/S/Halloween' Proves a Franchise Can Run Out of Ideas Even on Its Favorite Holiday

Sooner or later, a popular franchise reaches a point of creative exhaustion. For the horror anthology V/H/S, that point was the latest installment, V/H/S/Halloween.

By dedicating the project to the ultimate holiday for horror fans, the creators managed to make perhaps the most disappointing film in the series' history.

What Is 'V/H/S/Halloween' About?

Like previous installments, V/H/S/Halloween is a collection of short stories united by a common theme.

This time, all the stories take place on Halloween night: children in costumes roam the streets looking for candy, pumpkins adorn doorsteps, and the festive fun turns into a real nightmare.

Plots include testing a dangerous soda in a lab, encountering ghosts in an abandoned house, investigating a grisly massacre, and an attack by candy monsters.

'V/H/S/Halloween' Is Just Too Clichéd and Lazy

The idea of dedicating an anthology to Halloween is unoriginal itself, but the creators don't even attempt to offer a fresh perspective.

Instead, viewers are treated to a collection of the genre's most tired tropes: ghosts in a house, faces appearing in the frame, and an abandoned camera capturing the character's final moments.

The plots of short stories such as "Coochie Coochie Coo," which is about an abandoned haunted house, and "Kidprint," which is about an ominous record, are so predictable that they evoke yawns rather than fear.

Even the visual aesthetic, once the franchise's hallmark with its analog roughness, has been replaced by dull, faceless digital images.

If You Want to Prepare for Halloween, It's Better to Rewatch Previous 'V/H/S' Installments

This installment's failure is especially noticeable against the backdrop of the franchise's previous achievements. V/H/S had its share of gems, like Gareth Evans and Timo Tjahjanto's short in V/H/S/2, and the cyborg story in V/H/S/94.

However, Halloween is woefully derivative – the soda lab experiment story is nearly identical to the plot of V/H/S/85.

Only one short story, "Fun Size," attempts to break free from cliché through grotesque imagery, but even this device feels like a desperate attempt to stir the audience.

What Did Critics & Viewers Think of 'V/H/S/Halloween'?

• V/H/S/Halloween has 94% from critics and 59% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.

• On IMDb, the movie has a score of 6.0/10.

• On Letterboxd, V/H/S/Halloween is scored 3.1/5.0.

Where to Watch 'V/H/S/Halloween'?

V/H/S/Halloween is available to stream on Shudder.