V/H/S Halloween Review – The Goriest Trick-or-Treat Yet

Film Title: V/H/S Halloween
Cast: Multiple anthology casts
Directors: Anthology format – multiple directors (Shudder production)
Writer(s): Various
Distribution: Shudder
Release Date: October 3, 2025
Review by: Mother of Movies

Anthology Carnage: V/H/S Returns for Halloween

There’s no polite way to say it, V/H/S Halloween is the cinematic equivalent of stuffing your trick-or-treat bag with razor blades and caramel. The Shudder-exclusive brings together a line-up of directors who clearly woke up and chose chaos. This is found footage meets gross-out horror, stitched together with the kind of wraparound storyline that feels like a carnival sideshow run by a mad soda chemist. Blaine, the Octagon’s resident Willy Wonka of death, introduces “Diet Fantasma,” a drink that’s less refreshment and more facial tentacle infestation. It’s absurd, disgusting, and weirdly satisfying for gore fiends.

Segment Highlights & Horror Styles

The anthology barrels through Halloween-themed nightmares, each with its own flavor of filmmaking depravity:

• Baby Horror House – Two older teens in baby costumes stumble into a domestic nightmare dripping with milk, giant breast pumps, and deformed “grown babies.” The set design here is peak mise-en-scène for found footage horror, claustrophobic rooms, flickering lights, and enough grime to make you want a tetanus shot. Performances sell the absurd premise, even as the WTF factor overtakes the scares.
• Possession via Phone – A crime scene retraced in eerie Spanish-language footage leads to a séance, a forbidden telephone, and one of the best possession effects in the whole film, vomiting eyeballs and levitating cops in a hexagonal room. It’s avant-garde in its editing rhythm, cutting between police reenactment and original massacre footage for maximum unease.
• Candy Death Factory – A pumpkin-headed confectioner turns trick-or-treaters into candy via conveyor belts, chocolate-coating brains, and caramel-dousing victims. The segment’s iconography, “One Per Person” signs, and surreal candy weaponry is a twisted homage to the Willy Wonka mythos, with a kill ratio that rivals any slasher.
• Kidprint Gone Wrong – A photography service meant to protect trick-or-treaters becomes the front for brutal teen murders. The gore level here skates the edge of “too much,” especially for those sensitive to violence against younger characters. It’s pure exploitation horror, but the found footage framing adds realism.
• Haunt Record Massacre – In 1977, a family-run haunted house becomes possessed after playing the cursed “Symphony of the Damned” vinyl. Sheet ghosts attack, decapitations abound, and the segment collapses into a meta-haunt where the wraparound horror bleeds in.

The Wraparound: Soda, Death & Marketing

Blaine’s soda experiments are the connective tissue between segments, a tongue-in-cheek jab at commercialized Halloween. From tentacle cans to GBH-infused recipes, the wraparound leans into grotesque advertising satire. By the final ad promising “real ghosts in every can,” it’s clear the filmmakers are having fun skewering consumer culture in horror.

Aesthetic & Gore Factor

From an aesthetic standpoint, V/H/S Halloween thrives on practical effects, black goop, prosthetic deformities, and meticulous gore tableaux that feel handcrafted. Cinematography sticks to the franchise’s vérité-style handheld chaos, with deliberate blocking that traps characters in tight frames. Editing keeps momentum high, often cutting mid-scream to the next slice of horror pie.

Final Thoughts

This is a gorehound’s buffet, unapologetically outrageous and occasionally mean-spirited. The anthology format means not every segment lands; some lean too hard into absurdity at the expense of tension, but the sheer variety keeps it bingeable. If your Halloween watchlist demands blood, camp, and relentless creativity, this is your ticket. If you prefer subtle horror, you might want to stick to carving pumpkins.

Rating

V/H/S Halloween is rated
3.75 Ghosts in Every Can out of 5

Similar Films:

1. V/H/S/94
2. The ABCs of Death
3. Southbound
4. Scare Package
5. V/H/S Beyond Review

Filmmaker Stamp:
While V/H/S Halloween brings multiple directors together, the franchise’s collective stamp is unmistakable, chaotic anthology horror with a fetish for practical gore. Shudder’s continued support for this format signals a commitment to underground horror trends that blend nostalgia for VHS-era grime with modern exploitation sensibilities. Production Companies Shudder Films, Cinepocalypse Productions, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ, Spooky Pictures.

V/H/S Halloween

Director: Bryan M. Ferguson, Casper Kelly, R.H. Norman, Alex Ross Perry, Micheline Pitt, Paco Plaza, Anna Zlokovic

Date Created: 2025-10-03 16:20

Editor's Rating:
3.75

Pros

• Practical effects in specatular fashion
• Gorehounds dellight
• Fun segments

Cons

• Some episodes might go too far for some some people