V/H/S/99 (2022)

 

 

Here is another one of those found footage anthology films.  This being the most recent in the franchise from 2022.  You know the routine, a group of directors with a whole lot of actors making one Hodgepodge of a film.  When released on streaming service Shudder it broke the record for most viewed premier on the service.  Breaking the record held by it's predecessor V/H/S/94.  This time there is no connecting or wrap around story.  Let's start with the first one titled Shredding.  A punk rock band decides to break into a former music venue called Colony Underground.  Three years prior the place burnt down due to an electrical fire that broke out during a performance of another punk rock band named Bitch Cat.  In the chaos after the fire broke out all the members of Bitch Cat were trampled under the stampede of people trying to get out to safety.  The spirits of the dead band return and have a battle of the bands of sorts with the new band who desecrates the place. 

 

The next story is Suicide Bid about a college freshman trying to join a sorority and the hazing ritual that ensues.  The stunt involves the pledge spending the night in a coffin that is to recreate an urban legend of the same dare gone wrong some twenty years ago.  Turns out it isn't an urban legend and the original girls ghost comes to take her to the afterlife.  Afterwards the spirits of the two dead girls join forces to take out the mean sorority sisters.  Another average one maybe a little better than the first story.  The third story is Ozzy's Dungeon which is about a children's game show (think Double Dare and you're in the ball park) contestant who was injured and crippled when a dare went wrong.  Years later the shows host awakens naked in a dog cage in the basement of the mother of the contestant who was mangled.  Debra, the mother, is played by Sonja Eddy who some people may know from her time playing nurse Epiphany Johnson on the soap opera General Hospital for sixteen years.  She gives the performance of a lifetime here and is the best part of the film hands down.  Sadly, Sonja passed away less than a year ago.  Debra and her family force the host of the old show to perform demented versions of the challenges from the show in an attempt to get their revenge on the host of Ozzy's Dungeon.  Things don't exactly go as planned.  This was my favorite of the bunch.

 

The fourth story is The Gawkers.  This one concerns a bunch off teenage boys who are obsessed with the new neighbor who just moved in.  One of the boys, the tech wiz Brady, is asked to come to her house to help set up her webcam.  The rest of the boys force Brady to install spyware that they can use to watch her on her webcam hoping to catch a glimpse of her naked.  Turns out she's a gorgon and when she finds out what the boys across the street have done she isn't too happy.  Most people like this the most but I felt it was on par with the first two stories.  Moving on to the the fifth and final story titled To Hell and Back.  A group of witches hire two guys to video tape their New Year's Eve ritual where they attempt to connect with a powerful demon.  When an unwanted demon arrives the witches banish him back to hell but as he goes he grabs the two guys who were hired to record the ritual.  The rest of the story finds them trying to get out of hell and back on Earth.  Once they return the really dangerous stuff starts to happen to them.  Again, YMMV but for me this is the second best story of the bunch as it is a horror comedy short.  Typical found footage anthology here with one story almost being really good and the rest of them average at best.  We'll go two bouts of Y2K anxiety out of five.  Today we will have three posts and will do three per day for the rest of the month.  Let's keep the spooky rolling!