Just in time for thespooky Halloween seasoncomes another gory horror film that will shake you to the core. Aside from the very different butacclaimed filmLOLA,V/H/S/85is possibly the best found footage movie of the year. Who else grew up watching ’80s and ’90s movies via the O.G. VCR?TheV/H/Sfranchisekicked off in 2012 and has spawned both sequels and spinoffs, capitalizing on the retro nostalgia of analog video.V/H/S/85is the best one sinceV/H/S/94(2021), effectively weaving in contemporary events (from the 1980s, of course) and relentless humor (in a good way) in addition to the expected gory violence.
We recently caught up with the pair of directors whose storylines aren’t just “one and done,” as each resurfaces at least once during the tight duration ofV/H/S/85. David Bruckner (Hellraiser) helms the framing segment, which helps keep the overall movie going, whileMike Nelson (Wrong Turn)weaves a tale with a surprise twist that arrives deep in the third act to shocking effect. You’ll see what we mean…
Taping Over a Made-for-TV Documentary
Bruckner is no stranger to the franchise, having directed the “Amateur Night” segment in the very firstV/H/Sfilm. WithV/H/S/85, he had big shoes to fill with the film’s official wraparound segment, this one titled “Total Copy” for the eeriest of reasons, as a team of doctors studies a mysterious entity that can replicate people and things. Bruckner commented to us on returning to the franchise and embracing the lost art of taping over video cassettes when you want to record something new:
“I really wanted to go back and get in touch with that experience. I keep saying there’s kind of a garage-band vibe to make a VHS found-footage movie where you have to rely on resources in a way that is very independent in spirit. And so yeah, it was great to go back to that in a lot of ways. It was a reminder of how much freedom you have in that space and how little friction there can be when creating something, and so there’s a certain spontaneity to that that’s a lot of fun.”
“And then in a lot of other ways,” continued Bruckner, “it was surprisingly challenging to go back and have to think that way again, and not have quite as many resources to pull from, but it was liberating, to be honest.”
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“Total Copy” is structured as a made-for-TV documentary, which of course we only see in snippets since parts are recorded over to reveal the other groundbreaking storylines that make up theV/H/S/85anthology. “Trying to hit the beats narratively that tells a story, but not in too succinct a pattern, was super fun, and not just in the writing process,” Bruckner told us.
“Evan Dickson, who wrote the piece, had a really great handle on where you want to come in and where you want to get pulled away, so that there’d be some through line that you could necessarily follow,” added Bruckner. “But then we would just mess it up a bit, and it made for a unique challenge while filming because you’re thinking of it as a piece. And we have to keep reminding ourselves, ‘We’re gonna go away for 20 minutes,’ so we feel as though a story has transpired in the time we were gone.”
So we would spend a lot of time just sort of building up with the actors what went on in the dock while we were away and just to give them context, so that when we came back into it, you would feel a change in the performances. You would feel that there had been actually a passage of time, something was missed.
Surprise Twist: 2 ‘Very Different Segments’ Are Connected
Nelson, meanwhile, is new to the franchise, bringing toV/H/S/85an increasingly terrifying tale dubbed “No Wake.” What starts as a harmless camping trip with hard-partying adults turns dark and deadly, with a daytime massacre that might just make you soil yourself. “The story was actually something that I had written sort of in long form, as an idea that I was told was going to be too weird, that I would never be able to make that,” Nelson told MovieWeb. “And so this was something where, when they came to me with this opportunity, I was like, ‘I have something!’ And I was like, ‘I’m gonna go for it.'”
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The 1980s — perhaps the best of all film decades — is gloriously highlighted in yet another gory entry to the V/H/S franchise.
But the fun doesn’t stop there. Wait for it as a seemingly harmless family reunion captured later in the film reveals a horrifying connection to the victims from the first act. “There was always this idea of wanting to have one cohesive segment that did feel like two parts,” said Nelson. “And it wasn’t necessarily 100% figured out right off the bat. But as I wrote through it, I was like, ‘OK, I think what needs to happen is, it can’t just be like a camping trip and then the killer who did it. There has to be two very, very different segments that are going to end completely differently.'” He added:
But they end up tying together, and you see just a little, piece by piece. So again, the idea is that you’re like, ‘Oh, wait a second!’ And then it pulls you back to that moment earlier in the film, and it all connects, and you realize where you were. And yeah, you get to see there are two sides to the story and get to explore the victims in terrible situations.
There are certainly some terrible situations in this film, but they’re oh so wickedly fun.V/H/S/85releaseson Shuddertoday, Oct. 6.
