V/H/S/99 (2022)

My rating - 5/10

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This entry in the series doesn't have a framing story and instead uses stop motion animation of toy soldiers to separate the segments.

Story one "Shredding" involves a punk band who enjoy playing pranks and recording them for an online show. They break into an abandoned building that was a former music venue where another punk band were crushed to death by a crowd of people as the bulding burned. They are attacked by an unseen force and eventually possessed by the zombified members of the band that died there. Not a fan of this story and found it quite boring. It does have a couple of okay moments but it's one I'd happily skip in future viewings.

Story two "Suicide Bid" is about a collage freshman who on a night out with some other collage girls, and as part of a hazing ritual has to spend the night buried in a coffin in a local cemetery. They tell her about an urban legend that involved another girl 20 years earlier who did the same hazing ritual but was forgotten and when the coffin was opened she was gone and is said to have died and entered the underworld. Once inside the coffin she quickly realizes she may be suffering the same fate. Although better than the first, this is another story that's just okay. It has a decent ending and if you're claustrophobic then it'll probably make you feel uneasy, but other than that there's not much to this one.

Story three titled "Ozzy's Dungeon" is about a childrens game show where contestants have to partake in an obsticle course with the winner getting to have a wish fulfilled. When a child suffers a serious injury and the host doesn't stop the show it eventually gets cancelled. The host wakes up one morning and finds himself naked in a cage belonging to the mother of the injured child. He's forced to go through their own version of the show, but for him the worst is yet to come. For me this is another story that's just okay. It's quite nasty in places with a couple of decent gore effects but not much else.

"The Gawkers" is the title of the forth story and is about a group of teens who like to play pranks on people in their neighborhood. When they become fixated with a stunning blonde across the street one of them befriends her. After being invited in he tells his friends she needed help setting up her webcam and after installing spyware in her computer they continue to spy on her getting undressed. They soon discover that the beautiful woman is more than she seems and their lives are in serious danger. After three underwhelming tales this one is actually pretty good with a nice surprise involving the woman across the street. some decent effects help too.

Story five titled "To Hell And Back" involves two friends who have been hired to film at a party. It turns out the party is populated by a coven of witches who perform a ritual. When the ritual goes wrong and an uninvited demon arrives on the scene the two friends find themselves transported into a hell dimension. They meet a young woman named Mabel and as they follow her they encounter strange creatures, traps and mutilated bodies. Eventually they come across the demon and it's masked cultists and the fight begins to get out of hell before it's too late and they're trapped there forever. A good story and easily my favourite of this entry, although it didn't have much competition. There's some good gore and some of the stuff here is pretty creepy too. Definitely worth a look.

For me this is easily the weakest entry in the franchise with one good story, one decent one and three that I could happily skip over. The stop motion stuff is okay but just seems pointless and I'm not sure what purpose it actually serves. Honestly, I'd give this entry a miss.

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