- Directed by: Ernest Dickerson, Flying Lotus, Tobias Forge
- Written by: Zoe Cooper, Ernest Dickerson, Matt Landsman
- Stars: Mike Ferguson, Omar Mustafa Adem, Sarah Berman
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrIouRKyPDw
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s the twelfth V/H/S movie, again an anthology of short horror tales. This time with the performance rockers Gwar hosting the wraparound. And the stories all have the theme of music and sound as horror elements.
We’re both in agreement that we hated the Gwar segments, but the shorts were all quite good, some more favorite than others. The shorts range from very short to full story mini-movies of their own.
Despite the Gwar, we both call it a win.
Spoilery Synopsis
As with the other films in the series, this one’s an anthology, but with an audio/music theme to it. A guy in a cheap monster mask comes out with a monster mask and babbles about hot dogs. Gwar then introduces the first tape…
Dance Dance Dance Dance
It’s a children’s show with puppets, and they all sing about death, at least until the show was cancelled. We cut to people discussing rebooting, or re-imagining the series. George was a little boy on the original show, but now he’s grown up and very protective of the puppets. The technician scans the puppets to reproduce them for the new show. The computer scans show hideous monsters, not fun puppets.
George shows the crew the original set for the puppets. He makes each of them put on a puppet and sing the song with him. The puppets turn lethal as they sing the song. The whole studio seems to come alive for the final guy.
Another Cabin
The stop-motion animated boy looks out the window to see a giant creature with an even bigger tongue. It eats his grandmother. Then it eats him. The creature looks toward the next cabin.
Heartbeat
Wes and Maya, a couple of urban explorers find what might be a hidden military base in Bulgaria and rush right there to explore it. They cut their way inside and see that it’s been sealed up since 1967. They find a room labeled “Testing Room” and open it up.
It’s a soundproof room, and they soon find themselves locked inside. Wes hears a heartbeat down near the floor. And other noises. It drives him insane, so he pokes out his eardrums and throat and dies. Maya continues on, going mad from hearing her own body sounds and the heartbeat of her unborn child.
When she starts getting hungry, Wes is right there.
The Music of Mr. Sze
Phil puts on recording glasses to record his neighbors for a documentary he’s making. The neighbors are all weird and talk about Mr. Sze who plays weird music on the top floor. The music is both horrible and very good at the same time, and Phil is enthralled. He tells Mr. Sze that it’s brilliant and that he’d like to record him. Sze is interested and allows the recording.
Mr. Sze gets terrified when Phil hums the music he heard last night and the whole room goes crazy. Phil moves to a downstairs apartment, and when he sees Sze again, the man now has gray hair and won’t talk to him. That night, he hears more playing upstairs and investigates.
Phil sneaks into Sze’s apartment the next morning and snoops around. He gets a vision of another world and a very Cthulhu-like place and monster. It follows Phil back to this world and wreaks some havoc.
Premature Burial
It’s a music video from the death metal band “Repugnant.” A woman kills a man then does an autopsy on him. Except the man isn’t dead; she’s buried him alive as an act of revenge.
Death Tone
Lydia talks about her music producer father who recently died. He leaves her instructions on how to mix a song that will keep him with her forever. She can’t find just the right sound, so she starts taking his drugs. She lures a guy home with her and chains him to the bed. She uses a winch to rip him in half and records the sound it makes.
Now she needs a vocal layer. She invites another guy home, and this time, she tears him up with a chainsaw.
She still needs more, so this time, she “hires” a homeless woman to move some stuff for her. She stabs her repeatedly and records it all.
A police officer comes to the door about several missing persons. More deaths are needed to complete the album. The officer comes back with a warrant just as Lydia decides to put herself into the work as her father’s recording advises.
As the detective closes in, she finally gets the right tone. As she dies, she says the song is perfect now.
Brian’s Commentary
All the GWAR stuff, the wraparound “story,” is just stupid and would probably bore a five year old.
“Another Cabin” barely had a story, and “Heartbeat” didn’t have much to it either. I liked most of the other segments, probably “The Music of Mr. Sze” the best, although “Dance Dance Dance” was also fun.
It was pretty decent.
Kevin’s Commentary
I wasn’t at all impressed with the Gwar intro/wraparound thing. That was more dumb than funny or entertaining.
But I enjoyed the segments. Especially “The Music of Mr. Sze.” Who knew Cthulhu could be tamed with a song? Up to a point anyway. “Death Tone” was a good one too – an artist taking the death metal genre of music literally.
So, except for the Gwar, which wasn’t that much of the movie, I really liked it.
Be the first to comment on "2026 V/H/S Mixtape"