Film / V/H/S/94

V/H/S/94 is a 2021 Found Footage anthology film featuring segments directed by franchise returnees Simon Barrett and Timo Tjahjanto, in addition to newcomers Jennifer Reeder, Ryan Prows and Chloe Okun. It follows 2012's V/H/S, 2013's V/H/S/2 and 2014's V/H/S: Viral, acting as a prequel/reboot to those films. A fifth entry, V/H/S/99, debuted on Shudder October 20, 2022 and a sixth film, V/H/S/85, released on the service in October 6, 2023.

In the year 1994, a SWAT team unit and their cameraman raid a supposed drug lab only to find a sinister cult compound whose collection of pre-recorded material uncovers a nightmarish conspiracy. Upon searching, they find multiple horrifying cassettes:

• Holy Hell: The wraparound segment, wherein the SWAT team surveys the warehouse containing the supposed drug lab, only to find several televisions, mannequins, and dead bodies with their eyes gouged out, among other surreal and horrific occurrences.
• Storm Drain: News reporter Holly Marciano and her cameraman Jeff descend into their town's sewer system as part of a report on the "Rat Man", a creature of local legend that supposedly lives in said sewers. The duo end up finding the creature, only to discover far too late that it serves as the godhead for a group of homeless people and a deranged minister, who plan to use it to establish a new world order.
• The Empty Wake: Hailey, the new hire at Jensen funeral home, is assigned to host the wake of a man named Andrew Edwards, the service being filmed at the request of his family. After a long while of eerie silence, Hailey begins hearing noises coming from inside the casket, possibly signifying that Andrew may be alive. What's worse, a massive storm is brewing and the funeral home is chained up tight, leaving her with no possible way to escape as Andrew's reanimated corpse attacks her.
• The Subject: In Indonesia, Mad Scientist James Suhendra has been aspiring to create a functioning human/robot hybrid as a means of pushing the human body's limits, using kidnapped citizens as guinea pigs. He manages to successfully create two cyborgs: the hostile and mindless Subject 98, and the scared and docile Subject 99 (referred to by the initials "S.A." on a news report), whose cybernetics house a camera she sees through. When a squad of militarized police break in and murder James, Subject 99 manages to break free of her containment and seeks a way to escape the lab, all the while evading Subject 98, and the police officers who consider her a threat.
• Terror: The First Patriots Movement Militia, a group of extremist rednecks, are plotting to film themselves blowing up a local government building in a ploy to "purge evil from America". The secret weapon for their plan is revealed to be a captured vampire, who is regularly shot in the head and has his blood siphoned by the group, the blood itself revealed to be explosive when exposed to sunlight. While celebrating a successful test of the vampire's exploding blood, the group get drunk and accidentally release the vampire, and thus must work together to recapture it before it escapes.

---

This movie provides examples of the following:

In General

• Crapsack World: Moreso than the previous entries, all of the individual tapes all directly contribute to the overreaching narrative; meaning the world explicitly plays host to mutliple cults, vampires, zombies, and biopunk mad scientists to name a few.
• Darker and Edgier: While there is still a not-insignificant amount of Black Comedy present, this is easily the darkest and most violent and gory entry in the series.
• Tamer and Chaster: Unlike previous entries, this one features absolutely no sexual content; and the only nudity is brief and as far from titilating as possible.

Holy Hell (Framing Story)

• The Bad Guy Wins: Petro and Nash succeed in killing their entire team on film, even anticipating what they're going to call their latest work.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being members of the Snuff Film fetishist cult operating in the warehouse, Petro and Nash chide Slater for his involvement with the white-supremacist organization in "Terror", implying that it's this that's led them to make him the star of their latest project.
• Eye Scream: Plenty of people within the building are shown to have plucked their own eyes out.
• The Reveal: Petro and Nash, two members of the SWAT team, are revealed to be heavily involved in the Snuff Film cult operating out of the warehouse, having lured their team to kill them on camera for their latest masterpiece.
• Stylistic Suck: The wooden and unconvincing acting and stiff, gratuitously vulgar dialogue are very clearly intentional as a tribute to the low-budget underground exploitation films from this era that the wraparound segments are paying tribute to.

Storm Drain

• Actor Allusion: This isn't the first time Anna Hopkins has played an Intrepid Reporter.
• Affably Evil: Holly's Intrepid Reporter persona doesn't fade after she gets brainwashed and she keeps it up even after she just melted a guy’s face off.
  Holly: And in sports news, Ohio State plays the Indiana Hoosiers tomorrow night. Good luck to our Buckeyes. I'm Holly Marciano, Channel 6 News. Hail Raatma!
• Bad Black Barf: Raatma's vomit is black, and in the end, Holly vomits up a similar glob of black acid that melts off her co-anchor's face.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The deranged preacher and the cult of Raatma are still active by the end of the story, and they have brainwashed Holly into one of their own.
• But Liquor Is Quicker: As Holly is teeming with indignation over being ordered to investigate the storm drain for Raatma, Jeff jokingly suggests to Holly that they both get drunk together at a bar to distress. Holly responds, "Fuck you."
• Chekhov's Gunman: You know that creepy preacher who was interviewed for only a few seconds in the beginning? Well, he's the one leading the cult of Raatma.
• Deadline News: Jeff dies on air after having his face melted off in gory detail.
• Eldritch Abomination: Raatma can barely be called humanoid, with a nightmarishly elongated head, acidic vomit and an apparent influence over its devotees. As per Chloe Okuno, it's of extradimensional origin and may not even necessarily be malicious so much as it is something that simply doesn't belong in this world, is not reacting well to its new surroundings, and happens to react to its discomfort in a way that has horrific consequences.
• Gory Discretion Shot: What Raatma’s Bad Black Barf does to Jeff isn’t shown in full detail due to the low light. But it's subverted hard in the ending when Holly's co-anchor gets a face-full of it, in bright lighting.
• Mood Whiplash: Just as Holly is left to the mercy of Raatma, the segment is interrupted by an infomercial for the "Veggie Masher".
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Whatever Raatma’s cult did to Holly, it turned her into one of their brainwashed followers, causing her to barely bat an eyelash at melting off her co-anchor’s face.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Just what did the cult of Raatma do to Holly that brainwashed her into one of their followers?
• Sinister Minister: The local priest is revealed to be the leader of the cult of Raatma, worshipping the creature as a god and using its abilities to usher in a new era.
• Urban Legend: "The Rat Man."
• Wham Line: "People are already lining up to Raatma the hay rides, Apple Raatma, and of course, to see who will be crowned the festival's largest Raatma."

The Empty Wake

• And Then John Was a Zombie: A tornado apparently kills the zombified Andrew, but Hayley either becomes a zombie herself, or is possessed by his spirit, shambling out of the funeral home at the end of the segment.
• The Bad Guy Wins: One possible interpretation of the ending is that Andrew and Gustav were conspiring to give Andrew a new vessel to inhabit, and they succeeded.
• Bottle Episode: The entire short takes place in the funeral home.
• Foreshadowing: Ronald and Tim bring up Andrew's face and head during their summary of his wake. This later comes into play when it's discovered that half of Andrew's head has been lopped off, and its eyes manage to spy Hailey, allowing the rest of his reanimated corpse to kill her.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Why was Andrew spouting gibberish on the roof of a church before he jumped off? Why does he suddenly reanimate and attack Hailey? Nothing about him or his motives is revealed, unless you count his possible relation to Gustav. Even then, Gustav himself has none of his own history or motives revealed.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Destroying Andrew's brain clearly doesn't have an effect, for one thing, and his body parts are individually functional even when separated.

The Subject

• Action Girl: Subject 99, after having Took a Level in Badass.
• Arm Cannon: Subject 99 has a modular arm cannon, which she uses to defend herself during the climax.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Subject 98 has giant blades for arms, which he uses to bisect and decapitate the policemen.
• Body Horror: All of James' test subjects. Among the menagerie are a human head with robotic spider legs, a man with a camera-mounted skull for a head and swords for arms (Subject 98), a woman with her head from the lower jaw up replaced with cameras and speakers and her hand removed so a modular arm cannon can be attached (Subject 99), and a woman who was still in the middle of roboticization (while conscious) who had most of her entrails replaced with machinery and an arm and foot removed.
• Cyberpunk: The short has a lot of the trappings of the genre.
• Dark Is Not Evil: In spite of her deformed appearance and being treated with nothing but contempt by the SWAT team who were supposed to rescue her, Subject 99 is a Tragic Monster and a Non-Malicious Monster who is as much a victim as the other subjects of James.
• Dirty Cop: The SWAT team were going to execute Subject 99 without her consent first, though they thought they were going to perform a Mercy Kill.
• Droste Image: James displays Subject 99's camera feed on a computer monitor, which repeats ad infinitum.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Subject 99 manages, at the very end of the segment, to survive her unspeakable ordeal and escape James' lab, possibly to return to her parents.
• Electronic Speech Impediment: Subject 99's vocalizations, as well as the vocalizations of others from her perspective, are accompanied by an electronic stutter.
• Frankenstein's Monster: The subjects who underwent Unwilling Roboticization are essentially this.
• Gorn: By far the most violent of the shorts, with graphic mutilation and bloody violence galore.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The commander proves himself to be a Killer Cop who is just as bloodthirsty as the Mad Scientist he was ordered to arrest, taking way too much zealous joy in taking down Subject 99 while Laughing Mad (though that could be excused as him having Go Mad from the Revelation following having battled Subject 98 and how his team became a Dwindling Party as he was A Father to His Men), prompting Jono, the Token Good Teammate of his team, to take him down like a mad dog.
• Hero Antagonist: The SWAT team, with the exception of Jono.
• Inspector Javert: The SWAT team's commander, even after being Driven to Madness.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: The commander refers to Subject 99 as an "it" due to her Was Once a Man state.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Subject 99 discovers, and attaches, her arm cannon.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Suhendra has all the obvious traits - unkempt hair, crazed eyes, builds messy cyborgs out of unwilling test subjects, ranting to himself about his colleagues in the scientific community being imbeciles, etc.
• Mercy Kill: Subverted with the SWAT team in regards to their decision in killing Subject 99, though they treat her like another enemy than a victim. Played straight when Subject 99 discovers one of James' earlier subjects on an operating table, and unhooks her life support to end her suffering.
• No Name Given: The commander and the man who becomes Subject 98.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Subject 99 only ever kills in self-defense, and even attempts to save Jono, the one policeman who showed her kindness, from the much more violent male subject.
• Not Quite Dead: When the SWAT team first find Subject 99, they assume she's already dead, so her grabbing one of their arms comes as a shock to them. Likewise, despite being heavily injured and her battery dying, 99 is seen shuffling out of the lab and on to parts unknown in the segment's final moments.
• Only Known by Initials: The young woman who becomes Subject 99 is known only as "S.A." through a news report.
• The Quiet One: Subject 99 rarely speaks throughout the segment, usually vocalizing through screaming and crying.
• Rage Against the Reflection: When Subject 99 sees her own reflection for the first time, she punches the mirror.
• Shout-Out: Dr. Suhendra refers to his cyborgs as "Neo-Humans". Another, possibly unintentional, is that the segment follows, in first person, a woman named S.A. whose right arm is a gun.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To "Safe Haven", Timo Tjahjanto's segment from V/H/S/2. Whereas that was a Religious Horror story about a documentary crew investigating a cult, this is a Sci-Fi Horror story about a Mad Scientist turning people into cyborgs.
• Token Good Teammate: Jono, the timid officer assigned with recording James' arrest/death. He somewhat befriends Subject 99 and offers to help her escape the lab.
• Took a Level in Badass: Subject 99 after she acquires her Arm Cannon.
• Tragic Monster: The subjects who underwent Unwilling Roboticization could count.
• Unwilling Roboticization: What Dr. Suhendra's subjects undergo.

Terror

• Bad People Abuse Animals: To test their plan of attack, the militiamen inject an adorable rabbit with some of the vampire's blood. When the sun rises, the poor thing explodes.
• Chromosome Casting: This is the first segment in the franchise that does not include any sort of women.
• Despair Event Horizon: The vampire gradually stops pleading to be shot in the head, spending his fourth death completely silent and morose.
• Dirty Cop: Slater from "Holy Hell" is revealed to be affiliated with the militia, providing them weapons and ammunition and sharing their warped views to "take back America".
• Evil Is Not a Toy: What exactly were the militia thinking when they decided a vampire can be controlled by them, especially when they eventually failed to properly maintain protocol thanks to their drunken celebration?
• Formula-Breaking Episode: This is the first segment in the franchise where a character from the wraparound story appears outside of the wraparound.
• Humanoid Abomination: The vampire, the "metaphysical superweapon" the militia claims to have acquired, is a man who is seemingly immortal, whose blood explodes in contact with sunlight, and who turns into a toothy-mawed creature when they fail to kill him on schedule.
• Laughably Evil: The Right-Wing Militia Fanatic militia can be viewed as this for being a Stupid Evil ragtag bunch of goofy hillbilly morons.
• Miles Gloriosus: Despite being an armed militia, they have poor trigger discipline and lack effective combat prowess.
• No Name Given: The vampire.
• Our Vampires Are Different: The vampire that the militia calls their "superweapon". He's a seemingly immortal man who grows a Flower Mouth that is brimming with jagged fangs if he is still animate after sundown, and his blood violently explodes when exposed to sunlight.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The main characters are obviously this, being a white supremacist militia.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The Villain Protagonists, with deliberate shades of the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in their plot to blow up a federal building.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Bob.
• Taking You with Me: The vampire chains Greg up and then exposes itself to sunlight, obliterating both of them.
• Too Dumb to Live: Not only do the militiamen decide to have a massive drunken party the night before their operation, failing to follow containment procedures for the vampire as a result, but more of them die as a result of poor trigger discipline than are actually killed by the creature itself.
• Tragic Monster: The vampire can easily be seen as one. After being confined to a small room filled with wooden crosses and getting gruesomely shot in the head on a daily basis, you can understand why he goes after the militiamen. If that's not enough, he tearfully begs for his life whenever he's about to be killed.
• Villain Protagonist: The far-right militia group planning on carrying out a bombing at a federal building.
• Warrior Poet: Greg, the Commandant of the group, fancies himself this. Too bad he's surrounded by a bunch of lowbrow hicks.
• Wham Line: "You're covered in vampire blood!"
• Would Hurt a Child: Like Timothy McVeigh, the militiamen are willing to set off their bombs (or exploding vampire blood) in a building with a daycare.

---