V/H/S/85 (2023)

My rating - 6.5/10

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Five stories set in 1985 are framed by a sixth titled "Total Copy" which involves a documentary about a group of scientists doing research on a strange creature they call Rory. When one of the scientists enters the room where Rory is being held he's killed and all hell breaks loose as Rory goes on a killing spree. It's an okay framing story with a couple of decent moments scattered throughout the runtime.

Story one "No Wake" features a group of friends who travel in an RV to a lake for some fun. While a couple of them decide to stay on land the rest get in a boat for a spot of waterskiing and swimming. They suddenly find themselves being shot at by an unseen person and everyone on the boat suffers fatal injuries. Later they're all alive despite the injuries and make they way back to the shore only to the find their friends dead. They soon figure out that it was being in the water that brought them back to life. A good first story with some pretty good gore

Story two titled "God Of Death" is about a Mexican new crew preparing to go on air for a broadcast. A massive earthquake strikes causing the building to collapse with a cameraman being the only survivor. He's helped by a rescue team but they become trapped in the building by an aftershock. They find a small crawlspace but find themselves in a roon with skulls around the walls and a statue of an Aztec god at one end. One of the team gets possessed and rips out anothers heart and eats it before attacking the others. A decent story that get's better as it goes along. There's some fun gore and creature effects at the end which makes it worth sitting through.

Story three "TKNODG" features a performance artist on stage in front of a small audience. She rants about how technology has killed god or something like that, she places a virtual reality headset on and gets attacked by a creature in it. When the headset is removed her face is pretty much melted away. I like the final face reveal but apart from that I found this one pretty boring.

Story four is called "Ambrosia" and is about a family celebrating their teenage daughter Ruth. When Ruth walks around outside she's squirted in the face with a water pistol by a young releative of hers. When asked where he got it from he says it was given to him by a woman in an RV. Later Ruth plays a VHS tape that shows her killing 7 people which is the family tradition they're celebrating. Police sirens are heard outside and the whole family grab weapons and a shootout ensues killing all family members, except for Ruth who cannot seem to die. Another fun story that ties in to the first one as the 7 kills she made were the people in the RV at the lake. We're shown an insert scene of the people from the RV filling a water piston with water from the lake and swearing revenge on whomever it was that shot them.

Finally story five "Dreamkill" is about a detective on the hunt for a serial killer who seems to be recording the murders. A young man is brought in for questioning and he tells the detective and his father that he's seen the murders in his dreams due to an ability to see into the future. They don't believe him and the young man soon disocvers the killer is well known to him and everyone at the station is in dangter. Another really fun story that's full of decent gore and violence.

Apart from TKNODG which I'd happily skip over and the framing story which is just okay, this is a solid entry in the franchise and is up there as one of the best for me. Some good effects and gore and fun stories make this entry one I'd recommend.

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