“I think America’s got a huge rage revolution on the way. Everyone is so mad. Everyone’s Daddies got too rich.”

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Found footage is one of my favourite subgenres. It blurs the line between real and choreographed. The remnants of internet dark myths reverberate through every found footage endeavour. One thing that captivates the imagination around the subgenre is the implied intimacy and spontaneity of the footage we see. There’s an intoxicating process of finding out why we’re seeing this footage that lays next to the narrative we’re being told. In most cases, this footage is never meant to be seen and great lengths have gone into finding it, like in the case of Cannibal Holocaust, a pioneer of the subgenre. Sometimes, the footage is deeply personal and holds a particular sentimentality in the case of something like Creep and its sequel, where footage is a trophy but can also act as communication for future victims.

V/H/S 99 plunges us into the world of a teenager. Teenagers have been the focal point of many a horror film, for their assumed innocence and volatile emotional range. Teenagers can pop off at any moment and chaos is sure to ensue. The first thing about V/H/S 99 is it doesn’t shy away from emotional content to build our investment in the characters. The playful, comical start of toy soldiers sets the stage for being a teenager in the 90s. Political prisoners in a different sense. At the will of adults, teenagers navigate any timeline trying to find themselves within someone else’s rules. V/H/S 99 explores this through the scope of 90s nostalgia, a need for camaraderie and the invention of urban myths and story-telling in an era digitally separated from oral tradition. The blood that lays on the playmat, as soldiers are trampled by a toy tank, gives us a foreshadowing of the devastation that is about to come. The juxtaposition of war and toys is a nice metaphor for the world we live in at any time, with world leaders and politicians treating
human life and reality as their own strategy game. These will follow us all the way through.

This is backed up by a lot of the short footage we see that surrounds the change of segments. Adverts that ask the burning questions. “Why wait?” “Buy now!” next to intros to psychology and neuroscience give us a reminder of what the 90s were like. Buy. Consume. Think about it later. The sharp jumps give me a nice sense of the nihilism that came with the 90s.

SHREDDING

In the first anthology instalment, Maggie Levin introduces us to R.A.C.K, an acronym for Rachel, Ankur, Chris and Kaleb. They love pulling pranks, and they’re getting pretty popular on their web show. In their latest video, they want to break into the Colony Underground, an old music venue with a dark past.

We’re thrust into a demo reel of the all-female-fronted band BitchCat. They’re an authentic rock band who came up through bars and clubs, not caring about the media or the bubble-gum pop of the time. They’re punk, bold and their energy is magnetic. We find out they died at the venue after an electrical fire while they were performing led to them being trampled to death in a panicked stampede.

This is one of my favourite segments. R.A.C.K are quintessentially 90s and when it all goes down, there is a beautiful balance between joking, pranks and horror. The jokes and pranks are so intentional and have been thought through impeccably. You get the sense they joke to hide their fear. On the off-chance that there could be something here, they’re not going to feed into it. They’ll do what 90s kids do; prank their friend by setting up their drum kit. When BitchCat does appear, I love that they use their original voices to throw out a warning. The creature design is wonderful and everyone on board creates a fun, slightly terrifying 90s-infused splatter-punk smash that you watch with one eye open. There’s a BitchCat music video on the Bluray if you find them as cool as I do.

I see a really clever link between the first footage of the toy soldiers and the ghosts/zombies of BitchCat. They play with a body they’ve just dismembered and the acting is wonderfully grotesque in its child-like framing. Such a cool concept too, unexpected but still so 90s, for a ghost story with a punk twist.

SUICIDE BID

Is there anything more terrifying but magnetic as a sorority?

College Freshman Lily is dying to be inducted. Not just any sorority though. Beta Sigma Eta is the biggest sorority on campus. Lily is all in, putting out a suicide bid. The sorority obliges and takes Lily out to a graveyard with a spooky law. A girl who wanted to join the sorority did the same thing. Giltine, twenty years before, had agreed to be buried in a coffin for 24 hours. She was forgotten by her classmates for a whole week and when they dug up the coffin, she vanished.

Despite this (I would have been running), Lily agrees. This particular instalment sees Johannes Roberts use the chanting and cult-like behaviour of sororities to perfection. He leans into the mystery surrounding hazing rituals and the very real curiosity around the secrecy and tales of abuse to come out of sororities. This one destroyed my senses. Roberts uses the limited angles and lighting beautifully to make a completely claustrophobic nightmare and makes you question what is so great about being in a sorority anyway. The terror is amplified by Ally Loannides’ acting. She plays it so well. Subtle enough to feel sorry for her and frantically layered enough to have you on the edge of your seat. I was really taken aback by the way she masterfully brought a realistic amount of terror with peaks and valleys.

The jumpscares are well-timed and the use of shadow is intense. Layered with the laughter of the sorority girls, this one gives a level of cruelty that leaves you thinking about the pressures on young people wanting to fit in and the sometimes deadly consequences of conformity. When the girls make a selfish move, you’re unsurprised but still angry with them. Shouldn’t a human life mean more than a silly tradition?

My only criticism of this one is I didn’t need to see Giltine as much as you do. More mystery around her appearance would have sealed this one for me. Still, the ending is so delicious.

OZZY’S DUNGEON

Zoe Cooper and Flying Lotus have satisfied my love of taking children’s shows/games and making them creepy. From the presenter, the safety gear, the colours and the sound effects, this is perfection from ceiling to floor. Steven Ogg’s presenter is energetic and unhinged. From the start, he drives through the danger putting you on edge. Cooper and Lotus delve into the exploitation of 90s TV shows and I can’t help but think of all the talk shows of the time. Jerry Springer, Forgive or Forget, Maury. The reality of these shows and how they operate comes under the microscope, giving power and agency back to the victims.

Ozzy’s Dungeon has a simple premise. Children are brought on to complete physical challenges (like the Crystal Maze, Fun House, Incredible Games, etc) and if they complete the final challenge, they meet Ozzy and are granted a wish. With some horrific footage of a mangled Donna, an enthusiastic girl from Detroit who has come to help her family, exploration of the process of gaining fame and money comes into play. Some people will stop at nothing and Donna’s mother, brilliantly played by Sonya Eddy, is equal parts mad, determined and a mother wanting to do right by her daughter. The complex character of loving her daughter, Donna, played so sympathetically by Amelia Ann, and making her the intended main breadwinner of the family, leaves a gut-churning adventure that has splatter-punk-like elements but with a whole lot of heart. The gore in this one is devastating because of the ideas and emotions behind it.
We’re seeing the degradation of a human being but should we really feel sorry for him?

THE GAWKERS

Chris Lee and Tyler Macintyre give us a playful exuberance before knocking the shit out of us. We see a link between the toy soldiers footage we’ve been seeing and the person behind them. His name is Brady and he’s been using his big brother’s camera to stage his war play. Shunned from the group and the camera, we’re introduced to a group of teenagers who love pulling pranks. Full of adolescent curiosity and stupid jokes, the group go around pranking themselves and everyone else. We see questionable intimate moments as the group records videos of an unsuspecting woman, which leaves a slightly sour taste in our mouths.

The group find a huge snakeskin and in their normal vibe, they dare each other to eat it for 50 cents. The boys become fixated on a woman that has moved in next door to Dylan and Brady’s house. Lee and Macintyre perfectly capture adolescent boys and their lack of accountability or understanding of privacy. They put a beautiful moment in that illustrates the boys’ selfishness. They absolutely understand privacy and ask for it at some point when Brady comes in, but proceed to violate other people’s, namely women they’re attracted to.

They expertly navigate the change in Brady’s social position as we’re taken through. We don’t really know where it’s going to go, but you just have a pit in your stomach knowing it’s not going to go anywhere gentle. I really like that this one takes its time and earns that time back; a really big feat for an anthology short.

So, when it gets to where it’s going, I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT AT ALL. The webcam quality and colour grading make the reveal feel even freakier. The sound design when the reveal happens is gorgeous and equally terrifying. They invaded people’s privacy and my god, did they pay for it.

TO HELL AND BACK

New Year’s Eve, 1999. Vanessa and Joseph Winter take us on a witchy ride through Hell. There are tones of death and new beginnings here. I can’t help but think the choice to start with a ritual that is high energy and full of action harkens back to the anxiety of the time. When 2000 came around, there were all sorts of worries. The world could end. The Millennium Bug.

Their depiction of hell is one I really enjoy. They use light, shadow, and reds both intense and muted to cast a shadow of unrelenting fear and torture. The scepticism of Nate (Archeleus Crisanto) and the frantic anxiety of Troy (Joseph Winter) makes this uncomfortable funny, raucous ride through hell a treat. Don’t be fooled though, it is scary. With Satan an outline in the sky, an oozing female creature named Mable (Melanie Stone) who speaks as if she’s in a Shakespearean play (it’s fantastic) and deformed creatures only coming into the light if they cross the path of Nate and Troy, this one is one of the most unique takes on a journey through hell. Part Dante’s Inferno and Shawn of the Dead, it doesn’t shy away from being scary when it needs to be and leaning into funny when it wants to. The Winters mastered what they want you to see and what they don’t. Playing with light and dark through a first-person perspective, hell doesn’t seem like a walk in the park but the acting from the trio makes a ride you want to be a part of.

The V/H/S collection has been ambitious but V/H/S 99 lives up to it. Every segment is unique in its own right and the stepping away of an overarching narrative has made way for artists to bring stories that are funny, terrifying, and sad in parts but can absolutely be linked together by theme if you wanted to really think about it. If you don’t, there are 5 stories that are all interesting, fun and deeply well-made within the found footage sphere. I always think some found footage falls down at the hurdle of logic. Why is this found footage? Why has this been recorded? All of these stories have fairly good reasons why the recording was in progress and so the suspension of disbelief was easy.

As I wrap up watching V/H/S 99, I have thought wash across me as the glitches on the screen make their way to the credits. The scariest thing about a VHS is it could sit dormant for years and as technology has advanced, who watches VHS anymore? Many have been destroyed. Lots stay in people’s attics and basements. Just waiting, with all kinds of real horrors inscribed on their film, waiting for someone to finally watch their confessions. It underpins a fear that we don’t talk about enough.

Lost footage, lost archive and all the evidence we must have unintentionally destroyed.

V/H/S 99 IS ALSO AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON SHUDDER

SAMMY’S ARCHIVE: V/H/S 99