Beyond Fest 2026 Review: V/H/S/MIXTAPE Keeps The Franchise Rocking

Some horror franchises mature; V/H/S seems to be growing more rebellious with each entry. V/H/S/Mixtape continues Shudder’s stellar anthology run behind producer Josh Goldblum, tuning into audio horror frequencies. Most segments theme around music: an 80s-era metal video; armageddon compositions; songs made by the dead. It’s a madcap moshpit of filmmaking talent, from Wu-Tang leaders to New French Extremity stalwarts to alien Scumdogs, bound together with a punk-as-fuck attitude. Not to say every inclusion is a winner; most are a riot of rhythmic massacres and gnarly practical effects—another successful grab-bag of unpredictable shorts, infected butt warts and all.

The film wastes no time subjecting audiences to its repulsive behaviors by introducing notorious Virginia metal gods GWAR as its wraparound hosts. V/H/S/Mixtape doesn’t roll for more than two minutes before slime-green space jizz coats hot dogs, honoring GWAR’s shock-rock insanity. The whole gang is there—Blöthar the Berserker, Beefcake the Mighty, Balsac the Jaws of Death—bringing their bloodthirsty bonehead sense of humor. It’s one of my favorite wraparounds, but with the disclaimer that I’m a massive GWAR fan who's been covered in their concert juices before. The band is given a blank canvas, which means lots of stammering scatological improv, GWAR tracks laid under grotesque mutilation sequences, or necrophiliac fitness workouts—surely not everyone’s cup of tea.

But V/H/S/Mixtape is smart about its chapter arrangement, which keeps momentum churning as smoothly as possible. It’s bumpy in the middle, with lulls of inflated storytelling and an entire segment that feels out of place. Still, the team nails what matters most: the intro and the outro. Renee Zhan’s “Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance” welcomes us into Jim Henson’s workshop if it went all Five Nights at Freddy’s, while RZA’s “Death Tone” brings us home with a serial-killer riff on Dexter meets American Psycho, set in the music industry. The bookends are the strongest, reeling us in and sending us home gobsmacked by the artistic impressiveness of turning corpses into a chart-topping hit.

Variety is both a tool and a struggle for V/H/S/Mixtape, but way less the latter. “Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance” (written by Zoe Cooper) sends Barbara Crampton and others into the adorable felt world of a canceled children’s program, only for the puppets to fight back as the Henson warehouse comes entirely to life. It’s unlike David Moreau’s “Heartbeat,” about idiot vloggers who lock themselves inside a defunct sound-deprivation chamber, or Ernest Dickerson’s “The Music of Mr. Sze.” Filmmakers operate on their own exciting wavelengths, with Flying Lotus and Tobias Forge (Ghost) adding bite-sized music videos to the menu. From the Lovecraftian to the technological, the stop-motion-sorta animated to the orchestral, each segment guards unique ideas and taps into a host of fears.

That said, V/H/S/Mixtape exhibits your usual anthology highs and lows. Where Forge’s “Premature Burial” resurrects his death metal band Repugnant for a vengeful music video that fits the vibe, Flying Lotus’ “Another Cabin” feels odd as an animated music video, even outside the loose constraint of V/H/S entries being filmed in found-footage style. Dickerson’s story of a mysterious violinist and the evils tethered to his music could use a first-half trim before a deliriously awesome payoff brimming with monstrous visuals. Despite their serviceable work as the exploitation hounds holding everything together, even GWAR could have used some wrangling, as they chomp on video cassettes and act like clueless warrior buffoons trying to make sense of their instructions (and humanity).

As for gore, V/H/S/Mixtape reinforces the argument that V/H/S has become a dependable source of exquisite violence. Credit Los Angeles-based SFX company Little Shop of Gore (Ryan & Salina Ward), who showcase their love of prosthetics, cosmetics, and other do-it-yourself methods for turning butchered bodies into magnificent highlights. “Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance” features one of my favorite killings of the year, not just because it’s at the hands of Lamb Chop wannabes singing their happy little ditty as they [redacted] with a [redacted]. “Death Tone” is a smorgasbord of gruesome musician-themed murderers, carried out by the top-performing Neela Jolene, who swings an axe and waves her chainsaw with appealing villainy. The Wards are quickly making a name for themselves as go-to indie horror SFX specialists, not to mention the other segments that feature their mind-blowing work (literally), plus other hired SFX artists, who punt decapitated heads and chew into bleeding flesh.

V/H/S/Mixtape is a robust collection of mix-and-match horrors that feel like flipping through channels on a cursed television set. We’re nine films in, and the V/H/S franchise only inspires more optimism—that alone is a miracle. Goldblum’s behind-the-scenes work curating rosters, cultivating ideas, and stitching it all together has made V/H/S Shudder’s Halloween tradition, which is well deserved. V/H/S/Mixtape is another example of why the series has amassed its fanbase, defying the odds with another slaughter-happy, sloppy-silly, you-can’t-stop-us entry tailor-made to kickstart your October movie marathons with an amp-bursting bang.

Movie Score: 3.5/5