The V/H/S series has been a beacon of spookiness and terror in the month of October since its move to Shudder. With this ninth installment in the series, they’re focusing on music and sound as the theme. Between the six directors on board (Ernest Dickerson, RZA, Flying Lotus, Tobias Forge, David Moreau, and Renee Zhan), there are a multitude of styles and subjects on display. Not all of them are focused on music though. We also have wraparound appearances from GWAR to complement the different segments.
So let’s go through all the various segments of V/H/S/MIXTAPE.
‘Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance’
‘Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance’ was directed by Renee Zhan and features work from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. This segment is about an old puppet show, similar to Fraggle Rock, that is getting rebooted. A producer (Barbara Crampton) and her crew come into the creature shop to scan the puppets and make 3D CG versions of them. Once they’re there, they realize that the puppets have other ideas about becoming CG monsters. This one shares similar vibes to something like Buddy, where it feels very much like those kids shows we all used to watch. Crampton is fantastic in the villainous role as an entitled producer for the studio.
The puppets are the stars of the show here, though. Their work carries the entire segment and you’ll be singing and humming the song from this one for a while after the movie is over. For the gore hounds out there, this segment will thrill.
‘Heartbeat’
‘Heartbeat’ was my least favorite segment of the entire film. David Moreau directed this one. It follows two YouTuber/Content Creators that break into an old Soviet compound and start exploring. The sound/music portion of this segment comes from when they find a room that is soundproof. As they’re messing around in the room, they flip a switch on an audio recording that closes the door on them. From there, the segment goes off the rails with both of them slowly going insane in the room.
This one has some interesting camerawork that did make me a bit disoriented. The two main characters are also kind of annoying and not really personable. This one does have an excellent twist though, so even if it wasn’t my favorite, that was the best part of the whole thing.
‘The Music Of Mr. Sze’
‘The Music of Mister Sze’ was by far my favorite segment of V/H/S/MIXTAPE and was directed by Ernest Dickerson. This one tells the story of a film student who’s moved into a new apartment building that has some mysteries. He goes around filming his daily life for a project and notices that his upstairs neighbor is playing music all night long. From there it gets crazy with the mysterious Mr. Sze acting as a guardian against an ancient eldritch evil. This is your classic cosmic horror story and it fits the V/H/S series perfectly.
This was an exceptional segment with so much to like.
‘Death Tone’
‘Death Tone’ closes out V/H/S/MIXTAPE with RZA directing the longest segment of the film. This one follows a young sound engineer/musician who is following her late father’s instructions on how to make the perfect track. Neela Jolene gives a HELL of a performance here as she weaves her way through the instructions with deadly precision. This one really combines the sonic assault with some tremendous visuals from RZA and crew. If it wasn’t for the smashing segment before it, this would be the best of the bunch.
The Wraparound Segments With GWAR, Flying Lotus, And Tobias Forge
The wrap segments for this are definitely the weakest portions. GWAR is awesome, but a lot of the dialogue and what’s happening is just them being them and screaming. For people who are fans of GWAR, that’s par for the course. But I can see why this would turn away people tuning in without any knowledge of them.
Flying Lotus’s contribution is a short flim that shows off a monster attacking a grandma and her grandson in a cabin. Its very short and while it does look cool and the music is nice, it doesn’t really add a whole lot outside of that. I’m happy to see more from Flying Lotus and it makes their second time being in a V/H/S film.
Tobas Forge directed (and provided guitars) for a music video. The creator and man behind Ghost has some chops as a director with this music video. It tells the story of a woman who’s assaulted by a higher-up and she gets her revenge. For fans of death metal, the song is pretty damn good and combined with the visuals, it captures that late 80s/early 90s vibe of videos.
Overall, V/H/S/MIXTAPE has some great highs and some middling segments through. But its still a hell of a time to go through sound and music with the V/H/S series.
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