Ever since the setup was popularized by The Blair Witch Project over twenty years ago, the horror subgenre of found footage has never really gone out of fashion. The quality of such films is highly variable, but some of the better examples are found in the anthology series V/H/S, of which a fourth installment has been announced.
Following V/H/S, V/H/S/2 and V/H/S: Viral, V/H/S 94 will follow much the same format, but instead of a collection of disjointed shorts connected by a wraparound story, the plot of each part will form part of a single narrative pulled together by a linking tale that each segment will presumably augment with its events.
The filmmakers currently slated to provide a section of the film are Simon Barrett, writer of A Horrible Way to Die, You’re Next and The Guest, and director of Tape 49, the wraparound segment of V/H/S/2; Chloe Okuno, director of festival favorite short film Slut; David Bruckner, director of The Ritual and Amateur Night, a short from the first collection that was expanded into full-length feature SiREN; filmmaking trio Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett and Chad Villella, who were responsible for Ready or Not and are currently in line for the upcoming Scream revival; and Timo Tjahjanto, who directed Indonesian action thrillers Headshot and The Night Comes For Us.
No plot details have been released for what can be expected from the new collection, but the title almost certainly refers to the year in which its events will be set, which was right before the development of DVDs and the beginning of VHS tapes’ decline in popularity after having dominated the market since the early ‘80s.
Like most anthology films, those of the V/H/S series are a little hit and miss at times, but overall the quality of the better segments makes up for those a little more ropey, and we can presumably expect V/H/S 94 to be more of the same.
