Gory Trailer for Shudder’s New Horror Anthology

The V/H/S anthology series often slots a year into its titles—that way, audiences have a context and framework for when whatever depraved, grainy, shaky-cam nightmare they’re viewing is supposed to have taken place. But the “Beyond” in the title of V/H/S/Beyond feels perfectly deployed, now that the first trailer is here. As you can see from the gory chaos, this could be the absolute wildest entry in the long-running found-footage franchise to date… and considering what’s come before, that’s saying something.

“Just… keep… filming!” From the looks of things, V/H/S/Beyond will once again capture the feeling that you’re watching something you should not be watching, and may come to regret watching, but absolutely cannot tear your eyes away.

The first film—simply titled V/H/S—arrived in 2012; it was followed by V/H/S/2 in 2013 (which later spun off 2023 feature Kids vs. Aliens), and V/H/S: Viral in 2014. Viral was probably the weakest entry to date and meant that the series took a nap until 2021’s V/H/S/94; since then we’ve gotten an energetic new installment every year, with 2022’s V/H/S/99 and last year’s particularly excellent V/H/S/85.

Now here comes Beyond, reminding us that a) the found-footage genre still has plenty of untapped scare tactics at its fingertips; and b) introducing fresh creative blood can keep even a well-worn gimmick feeling razor-sharp.

There are six segments in Beyond, which is billed as being especially sci-fi horror in theme throughout. The directors and their vignettes are as follows: Jay Cheel, “The Wrap” (an alien-abduction exploration); Jordan Downey, “Stork” (inspired by the work of artist Oleg Vdovenko); Virat Pal, “Dream Girl” (a Bollywood-set AI tale, also the first V/H/S segment from India); Justin Martinez’s “Live and Let Dive” (skydiving is already terrifying, so you can imagine the possibilities here); Christian Long and Justin Long’s “Fur Babies” (a more comedic short set in and around a doggie daycare); and actor-turned-director Kate Siegel’s “Stowaway” (described as a blend of Contact and The Fly).

We’re more than ready to shove V/H/S/Beyond directly into our eyeballs, and the wait won’t be long: it hits Shudder October 4.

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