2025’s “V/H/S/Halloween” was arguably the best in the series, a joyful mashup of every horror fan’s favorite holiday and the increasingly demented sense of humor that has turned this found-footage franchise into one that values the extreme over the truly terrifying. It wasn’t perfect—no anthology film ever is—but it had significantly more hits than misses, and an overall tone that hinted at a promising future for the annual series.
That future comes crashing down with the horrendous “V/H/S/Mixtape,” the worst in the series since 2014’s “Viral.” The concept of merging music with horror was promising on paper, but most of the development ended there. “Mixtape” feels rushed, incoherent, and unambitious, and it includes several of the worst installments in the entire “V/H/S” legacy. It ends with what’s easily its best short film from the legendary RZA, but it’s hard to tell whether “Death Tone” is actually good or just feels that way compared to the nonsense that precedes it.
Even the wraparound footage is lazy this time, as Flying Lotus (“Ash”) directs GWAR to, well, just be GWAR. It opens with a segment with a member of GWAR ejaculating on drawings that then come to life. When he unloads onto a crayon version of himself, it comes to life, and they battle, jerking off on each other. It’s almost an impressive gauntlet for potential viewers of “Mixtape.” No one can say they weren’t prepared for what came next.
Renee Zhan’s “Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance” plays like a mini-version of “Buddy” in how it uses children’s television to gruesome ends, including using puppets designed by the actual Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Featuring a turn from the legendary Barbara Crampton, it follows haunted puppets who get medieval on a crew trying to “reimagine” their old show. It’s remarkably flat, an example of creators who think a short like this only needs one idea. “Puppets who dismember people” is about the extent of it.
And that’s the recurring problem through much of “Mixtape”: A remarkable lack of on-set ambition after the concept was devised. Flying Lotus follows with a forgettable stop-motion animated piece before David Moreau (“MadS”) locks a couple of urban-exploring idiots in a chamber so soundproof they can hear their heartbeats. Neither short film works, although Moreau does get in some effective practical effects and sound design, even if his film feels twice as long as it should.
Things feel like they’re picking up when the great Ernest Dickerson takes the helm for “The Music of Mr. Zhe,” but the story of a young man who discovers his new apartment is basically below a portal to Hell ultimately feels hollow. Dickerson’s take on Lovecraft should be more memorable. Tobias Forge’s “Premature Burial” is a music video that almost everyone would change the channel off if they stumbled onto it on cable.
Which finally brings us to “Death Tone,” easily the most impressive short in “Mixtape.” Neela Jolene effectively plays a sound engineer searching for the perfect sounds for a breakthrough track, becoming a sort of Dexter Morgan of the music-production scene. Wonder how you could use a spine being torn in half as a sample? How about the sound a person’s insides make while it’s being stabbed? The production here gets a little too B-movie, with awkward supporting performances and shallow design, but you can sense RZA’s personal touch, especially in a truly great Wu-Tang reference.
The “V/H/S” series has proven impressively resilient. They’re already working (though somewhat controversially) on a tenth film subtitled “SCP,” based on the collaborative fiction project of the same name and distributed by A24, which is clearly hoping for a bit of the viral magic they found with “Backrooms.” The potential comeback in that enticing project makes “Mixtape” easier to write off as a footnote in the series, a forgettable tune in an otherwise interesting set list.
