The horror/music fusion of V/H/S/Mixtape amounts to a dull roar
The Shudder horror anthology strains under its latest and most ambitious theme.
Photo: Shudder
Sure as night follows day and Pepto follows a pile of fun-size Snickers, a new anthology in the long-running V/H/S franchise hits Shudder just in time for Samhain season. Music (or at least sound) is the theme that motivates V/H/S/Mixtape, an aural assault of short terror tales that boast the series’ typically wobbly spectrum of quality, only with fewer bursts of horror inspiration to keep the viewer engaged. Not every V/H/S has to be a winner, and the more specific a theme is, the less likely it is to satisfy everyone. But the theme of V/H/S/Mixtape is so specific that it becomes a detriment.
At least Mixtape is the most visually eclectic V/H/S in recent memory. Its imagery ranges from the juvenile gorehound monkeyshines of its ersatz hosts (the metal collective GWAR) to the Wonder Showzen-like puppet mayhem in Renee Zhan’s “Curious Chorus” and horrific stop-motion wonders of “Another Cabin” by Flying Lotus (whose creative versatility remains exciting). But aside from these, the standard-grade horror yarns that fill the rest of its runtime are too underwhelming to stand out. At its best, Mixtape almost resembles the well-curated sampler its title implies, in imagery if not always in energy or even sound—it even has the creative wherewithal to toss in a thrash-revenge music video. At its worst? We’ll get to that.
That music video, by the way, is Tobias Forge’s “Premature Burial” for his Swedish metal band Repugnant (who reunited for this film), and tells the story of a woman who kills a doctor (for effectively disturbing reasons) and looks like a cross between Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and a budget Mark Romanek video. Forge’s short isn’t exceptionally creative, at least visually—he shoots nearly everything at a low angle and from a medium distance, which puts it in something of a rut—but he makes effective use of his 4:3 aspect ratio and fills nearly every frame with creepy, cheapie horror imagery. (The band looks like they’re performing in a Cenobite’s lair, which rules.) “Premature Burial” represents both the possibilities and the limitations of Mixtape; it positions music as the governing idea for storytelling, yet it’s limited by the filmmaker’s ability to effectively convey aural dread within the time constraints they’re given. Still, telling a horror story via a music video is a great idea—in fact, it’s this anthology’s greatest idea—which sets a bar the rest of V/H/S/Mixtape doesn’t reach.
Zhan’s “Curious Chorus” feels like its story was written around its props, which might be the case; Jim Henson’s Creature Shop made its not-so-squishy puppets. The story is astroglide: A faceless television studio (repped by Barbara Crampton) wants to reboot the seemingly canceled-for-a-reason children’s puppet show, “Curious Chorus,” but is resisted by the plushies’ puppetmaster, George (Josh Willis). Soon, studio interference is met with a case of nostalgic hostility and one expertly placed bandsaw. This short doesn’t have much of a setup or even much of a payoff, but its final splatter gag is impressive. (Big nod to boutique L.A. makeup studio, Little Shop Of Gore, which handled the practical effects for most of Mixtape‘s shorts.) Meanwhile, Flying Lotus’ “Another Cabin” is a jittery, effective stop-motion nightmare: Its length stretches to a mere three minutes, which would default it to B-side status if it weren’t so inventive with its monstrous creeps. There’s a frightening feature to extract from “Another Cabin,” if its director ever feels inclined to explore it.
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