Samantha Cochran, Natalia Montgomery Fernandez, Elena Musser, Adam Carr, Charlotte Mae Curtis, Charlie Gehrt, Samuel Charles, Brayon Cutrer, Teo Planell, María Romanillos, Ismael Martínez, Sonia Almarcha, Almudena Amor, Néstor Aguilera, Lawson Greyson, Riley Nottingham, Jenna Hogan, Jake Ellsworth, Michael J. Sielaff, Deborah Ramaglia
Where to watch
AMC+, Philo, Shudder
Curator Review
Verdict
A Halloween-flavored anthology that leans into the franchise’s strengths: fast, nasty, inventive bursts of gore and a few genuinely unsettling ideas. The best segments sound like they deliver the usual V/H/S mix of DIY chaos, creature-feature weirdness, and holiday-specific nastiness, though the weaker entries still seem to drag the whole package toward unevenness.
Best for
anthology horror fans
viewers who like practical-effects gore
people who enjoy Halloween-set horror
fans of short-form, high-concept genre experiments
late-night horror marathons
Skip if
you want a tightly unified feature
you dislike uneven anthologies
you prefer slow-burn atmosphere over shock tactics
you are tired of the V/H/S formula
you want restrained or elegant horror
Overview
V/H/S/Halloween looks like exactly what the title promises: a seasonal grab bag of cursed tapes, splatter, and bad decisions. The strongest appeal here is the format itself, which lets different filmmakers chase different flavors of fear, from grotesque body horror to prankish trick-or-treat mayhem. When the series is working, it feels like a haunted house built out of VHS static and bad intentions.
Worth noting
The response suggests a split between segments that land hard and segments that feel disposable or irritating. That’s the usual V/H/S tradeoff, but the Halloween setting gives the anthology a cleaner identity than some earlier entries. The holiday iconography also seems to sharpen the nastiness, making the bloodletting feel more playful, more juvenile, and sometimes more disturbing.
Bottom line
If you already like this franchise, this is probably an easy watch. If you’ve bounced off it before, this installment likely won’t convert you, but it may still be worth sampling for the standout shorts and the sheer commitment to seasonal excess. It’s a mixed bag, but a lively one.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Jake Ellsworth (5★) · 3568 likes
I have been immortalized eating a chocolate-coated penis while white icing drips down my chin.
I will quit acting now, for I have peaked.
Mike (4.5★) · 1938 likes
More like V/H/S Fuck Them Kids
meyi (3.5★) · 985 likes
zach cregger would love coochie coochie coo
R.H. Norman (5★) · 828 likes
I'm the co-writer/director of HOME HAUNT, along with my wife, Micheline Pitt-Norman. I thought I'd celebrate the release of V/H/S/HALLOWEEN by singing the praises of our anthology-mates, all of whom delivered a V/H/S installment that I couldn't be more proud to be a part of.
Setting my own biases aside, I truly love this installment. When each user here ranks a different segment as their favorite -- I always agree! I think every director delivered a great iteration on a… more
Joe A · 699 likes
I’ll always appreciate these movies for what they are, a good gateway into horror for young people and as an opportunity for emerging or established genre filmmakers to flex their creative voices on a small budget.
That being said, year after year, I find maybe two of these shorts interesting. The same applies to this year’s (the last 2).