31 Days of Halloween: V/H/S/Beyond: Lovecraftian Night Falls Flat

V/H/S Beyond - 2024

Directors: Jordan Downey ("Stork"), Kevin Stewart ("Stork"), Christian Long ("Fur Babies"), Justin Long ("Fur Babies"), Justin Martinez ("Live and Let Dive"), Virat Pal ("Dream Girl"), Kate Siegel ("Stowaway"), Jay Cheel ("Abduction/Adduction")

 

★★-Day 15 of Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween Horror Challenge.  V/H/S/Beyond. Lovecraftian night. 
 
The latest of the V/H/S anthology series. Made up of six shorts that explore mostly extraterrestrial themes in a found footage style. In one police battle zombies in an abandoned mansion. Another follows a Bollywood popstar doing a dance number that turns into chaos. And so forth. 

Usually have fun with these V/H/S flicks, especially 94, 99, and 85. I usually go to New York in October. Saw those three at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Might have elevated them a little in my mind. Hell, I briefly talked to the Shudder curator, Samuel Zimmerman, on my way out of the theatre following 99, which was hella cool.

Didn't have fun with this one. It was pretty lame, IMO. Framing device (a documentary) veered too far away from all the other films in the franchise. Focus on aliens instead of ghosts and monsters/killers. 
 
There is a very disturbing one where a pair of siblings turn people into dogs called “Fur Babies.” Justin Long and his brother Christian direct the segment, which is a whole lot like Kevin Smith's Tusk, a film that Justin starred in. They claim that it isn’t directly inspired by the film, but the (overrated) body horror cult film was on their minds. I actually liked this better than Tusk, but it wasn’t anything I ever want to see again. 

Mike Flanagan did the writing for the forgettable “Stowaway” about a woman who is abducted by aliens. His wife, the lovely Kate Siegel, did the directing. Flanagan has mostly bangers with Absentia, Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald's Game, and Doctor Sleep, probably my favorite horror film of the 2010s. Also, five killer miniseries on Netflix. My favorite of those was The Midnight Club, which was unfortunately canceled after 10 wonderful episodes. Siegel appears in a lot of his stuff and has been nothing but great in everything I’ve seen her in, notably The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher.
 
Favorite of the pieces was "Live and Let Dive" where a guy goes skydiving with his wife and friends for his birthday. Before they take the plunge, they are attacked by aliens. All hell then breaks loose. It was only alright. 

Again, not really a fan, overall. The segments didn’t hit home for me like ones from previous iterations. Plus, the framing doc format sucked. And it bummed me out I didn't go to NYC. I'm sure I would've liked it more under those circumstances. Next year… I’m sure there will be more of them down the road. 

Doctor Sleep - Mike Flanagan - 2019

★★★★★ - God, I love this movie. Liked the book a lot. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the movie. What an experience though. Jesus. Making this a sequel to both the book and the movie is just genius. Takes the best from The shining both in movie and book form. Flanagan makes peace with both groups, fans of the novel and fans of the movie, and completely knocks it out of the park. Grand fucking slam.

There were of course some things I liked in the book better, but overall, man, this movie. The last half hour when they are in the Overlook is just incredible. More on that later. I think it is as good as The Shining and Carrie. At worst, the very best Stephen King adaptation sense the early 80s. 

I love Wendy. Reminds me so much of my own mom especially in this movie. When I was growing up my mother was the spitting image of Shelley Duvall, much to her chagrin, but I always loved Shelley Duvall because of that. As an INFP, I relate to a lot of King’s protagonists. See a lot of myself in Danny Torrance for sure. At least when life was hard. 

The True Knot is insanely terrifying. Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) is an incredible villain. Type of chick I’ve always done well with and found super attractive. A hippie/gypsy type of gal. She’s trouble though. An evil Rachel (my female companion). A top King big bad. The actress that plays her gives a performance that is not to be forgotten. Hard to outshine Ewan McGregor. This whole cast is crazy good but she is on another level.

Good old fashion high octane Stephen King horror. The shit with the little kid Brad is fucked. It is hard to watch that as anything on Dahmer. I feel most kids are terrible actors but that one was really moving. And as he is dying and Danny’s chalkboard cracks and he says “REDRUM” in the mirror. Incredible filmmaking. The main girl is GREAT too. 

Random note: When I go, I want a sweet, beautiful cat to comfort me and lead me to the other side. 

Minimizing Crow Daddy was a good call. Just seeing his name made me grown in the book. 

The scene where she tries to ambush Abra is incredible. Especially when Rose gets trapped and then is thrown back into her body.

The last half hour of the movie is unreal. It’s what separates the book from the movie and what makes the movie just an incredible watch. Going back to the overlook is more than I could’ve ever hoped for from a movie pretty much. All builds to this reunion. Once they hit that gas station that Dick Halloran was at it is fucking on. You see it, recognize it, then the music kicks on, and we get the drone footage except at night. Incredible. It does not disappoint. Some hottest take territory stuff, but I might like it more than The Shining.