V/H/S 85 [DVD]

First off I am a big fan of this series, this addition doesn't disappoint. In my humble opinion this one does not have any bad segments. If you are a fan of the series I highly recommend.

It was a vast improvement over 99. God, that sucked! V/H/S/85 had some real directors with real surprises this time around. Of course, I'm speaking of Scott Derrickson. Dreamkill was great. It felt like a sequel to Sinister. Mike P. Nelson REALLY surprised me with "No Wake/Ambrosia." I've seen his rendition of Wrong Turn with was pretty Meh. I have to admit the ending was awesome and fun. His indy flick The Domestics was interesting so, I was happy with what he gave us here. Gigi Saul Guerrero's segment "God of Death" should have been on V/H/S/99 instead of this one because it was CRAP! I wish Brad Miska could swap it out for 99's "To Hell and Back" because that was the ONLY good one 99 had. The last. This was an upgrade from it's predecessor and I'm glad to have it and glad they made it. I hope they make more. Just no more Flying Lotus. Yuck!

Big fan of the franchise every movie brings something different to the table . keep them coming!

Swinging in on the coattails of the quite enjoyable horror-comedy anthology V/H/S/99, this 6th V/H/S anthology emerges as the least impressive of the recent three installments (i.e., 94, 99, 85). Still, this is a watchable, more often than not entertaining set of unlinked horror segments. Not only are these stories unlinked, but there is no wraparound story—and either of these tend to enrich these anthologies. However, one positive stylistic decision was that two of the segments (No Wake, Total Copy) are shown to us gradually wrapped around the other segments.Featuring a rather eclectic mix of brutal gun violence, unconventional undeath, forgotten Mexican deities, tentacle monsters, VR demigods and all manner of murder, this movie brings a healthy dose of lower budget (but acceptable) gore, gashes, dismemberments, flesh-tearing and guts. So there’s that.-----------------------------------------------------No Wake (Director Mike P. Nelson)A group of twentysomethings hit the lake for a day of beer and waterskiing. It’s all fun and flirting until an unseen shooter starts sniping them in the boat. Bullet after bullet, they fall one by one. There’s an excellent gore effect when someone’s jaw is nearly shot clean from their face leaving a dangling chonky mess! Wow. After the slaughter, the twentysomething victims find themselves walking around when they should surely be dead. One with his brains blown out the back of his head, otherwise seems perfectly fine… just… upset about it. This segment continues later in the movie with an entirely different and interesting chapter that I will not spoil. I’ll just say that this is the segment that makes this anthology worth watching (perhaps entirely on its own).God of Death (Director Gigi Saul Guerrero)A Mexican news team endures an earthquake leaving only the cameraman alive. With a search and rescue team, they try to navigate the rubble of the now-dilapidated building’s hazards as more die.They wander into some undiscovered subterranean ruins of an ancient God that demands tribute in blood. The blood and gore is maybe decent, but there’s a lot of it. In fact, this entire segment is rather a struggle to endure. It just felt toothless for me. The shoestring budget didn’t help.Total Copy (Director David Bruckner)A shapeshifting alien lifeform is the subject of learning-based experimentation under the eye of a team of scientists. They expose “Rory” to various media to see how he reacts. Rory becomes a tentacled monster and attacks the scientists. The writhing monstrous mess becomes violent and kills more. Okay gore, neat creature effects. It ends on a very dark but funny note that closes the movie.TKNOGD (Director Natasha Kermani)Not a fan. A one-woman show becomes an exploration of 1985 virtual reality technology in search of a “Techno-God.” She enters VR and taunts the network to show her their God. Artistic, but shallow; crass even. The Techno-God does appear and it is not happy with its doubter, whom it violently punishes, flaying and dismembering her on-stage from the VR world. Some very nice gory visuals. But overall, not a satisfying segment.Dreamkill (Director Scott Derickson)Detectives investigate a series of murders that they have already watched on videos from before the murders actually occurred! Very bloody, gory and mean. Some truly brutal gunshot wounds. Like, wow.-----------------------------------------------------Every now and then, random clips of 80sness are deliciously nostalgic. The clothes, the video clips, classic sound bites… I feel the movie missed an opportunity in adding more. But that was also my overall impression, that this movie missed an opportunity (in most of its segments). Often the problem was budget. But I truly had trouble getting interested (at all) in Dreamkill, TEKNOGD and God of Death until the gore kicked into high gear. The ideas are all good ideas, but I cannot find their inspiration being properly realized on-screen as I did with No Wake, the belle of this anthology’s ball.Still, I’ll take every V/H/S movie I can get. So many interesting ideas to be shared.

This may be the lowest/no budget, poorly acted, poorly written movie I have ever seen. There are no redeeming factors and I recommend not wasting your time.No, it doesn't get better. It never has a cool segment, has better effects, make sense, is funny, or anything.It is excruciating to watch.

Look. I get it. It's not a freakin Coen Brothers production.These movies were never about that. It's a collage of short horror stories with weird/somewhat gory effects. The concepts are genuinely UNIQUE. Seriously, I don't get how some of these stories are not picked up for full length films, but then you see remake of Candy man, Friday the 13th, etc.These are just a fun watch to have. So enjoy it when you watch! If you got some friends watch it together. I wish they'd come out with these more often, but it seems to be only on October's of each year. Still such a cool series to enjoy.

TO ALL ASPIRING FILMMAKERS WHO WANT TO MAKE AN 80s MOVIE:-People smoked cigarettes a LOT-Nobody, ever, said "Nice" instead of "Cool"-The aspect ratio for VHS tapes were 4:3, not full screenI tried to google what they had for a budget with no success. Considering one of the segments had a VR headset from 1985 made out of a motorcycle helmet and tinfoil, I would assume less than $100 (btw, the VR segment should win an award for the most cringe). A majority of that probably went to catering and converting the digital footage to VHS quality (nothing shot on 80s camcorders even comes close to HD quality that this anthology shows). For some reason one of the anthology tales was shot in full-screen, and one of the characters in that tale is a goth kid who clearly shopped at his local Hot Topic (which didn't exist in '85).1. the goth scene started in the United Kingdom in the early 80s, not small town suburbia2. if you're going to have the killer film all of his own kills, maybe not include audio since he's clearly filming with an 8mm camera and a gimble.I loved the first V/H/S and part of the second one, so I'm not sure where they fell off track creating this franchise. Maybe have the producers actually supervise each of the segments to make sure they stick with the overall theme and not create a jungle juice mashup of everything then slap on a VHS effect layer?Snap out of it Brad Miska and Roxanne Benjamin and make a good anthology again.

Wish we’d have gotten another steelbook like 99 but still I’m happy to now own all 6 films!

Even though some stories were much better than others, as a whole, V/H/S 85 still lives up to its reputation of craziness, gore, and just plain fun.