The V/H/S horror anthology series continues on Shudder, and David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, and the team explain how they made their ’80s-themed movies.
It’s been a little over a decade since the original horror anthology V/H/S helped kickstart an entire era of horror, in which themed horror anthologies (The ABCs of Death, Tales of Halloween, Holidays, etc.) suddenly became underground hits — and a major proving ground for young directors showing off their chops to secure funding for full-length features.
Market oversaturation eventually slowed down the demand for these projects, but the OG, the V/H/S series, kept trucking along. 2013’s V/H/S/2 and 2014’s V/H/S: Viral were eventually joined by Shudder originals V/H/S/94 in 2021 and V/H/S/99 in 2022. And now, Shudder is streaming the latest in the series, V/H/S/85, a collection of five segments (one split up into a “wrapper” film connecting the others) all visually themed around 1980s found-footage technology.
This particular installment in the anthology series is sharper, more startling, and more impressive than some of the others, in part because of its all-star director lineup: V/H/S/94 and 99 producer David Bruckner (The Ritual, The Night House), Natasha Kermani (Lucky, Imitation Girl), Mike P. Nelson (Wrong Turn, The Domestics), Gigi Saul Guerrero (Culture Shock, Bingo Hell), and Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Black Phone).
All five directors were on hand at a Q&A after the movie’s world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2023, where Bruckner made a stir when he told the audience that he lured the other directors into the project by telling them “V/H/S movies are fuck-you movies,” a sentiment they all seemed to enthusiastically agree with. Naturally, when Polygon sat down with all five directors at Fantastic Fest, we had to explore what that means, both for the directors and for fans of the series.
Polygon: So what is a “fuck-you movie,” and why was getting to make one such an instant sell for all of you?
Gigi Saul Guerrero, director of “God of Death”: It means a project where you’re not afraid to push yourself as a filmmaker, but also to push yourself with things that you know you won’t be able to do on a regular job. [laughs] One that gives you an opportunity to not be afraid to shock audiences. Not afraid to leave them with something disturbing that lasts. And to actually grab something that maybe scares you personally as well.
Mike P. Nelson, director of “No Wake”/”Ambrosia”: So often, when you’re given a more normal movie or commercial, you get asked to pull back. And this one was the opposite. It was like, “No, go full-bore, and just have fun with it.”
Guerrero: No filter!
Natasha Kermani, director of “TKNOGD”: Permission to be a little mean and ugly.
Scott Derrickson, director of “Dreamkill”: It’s an opportunity to really swing for the fences without the fear of a big feature failure that will ruin your career. It’s very liberating to be able to do that.
David Bruckner, director of “Total Copy”: When you’re working on a feature, especially in studio systems, it’s a little bit like steering an aircraft carrier. There can be a lot of voices, there can be a lot of expectation. There’s a lot to uphold when you have three acts at work, you have to hold an audience’s attention for 90 minutes or more. It’s an enormous ask.
And part of this is that these are weird little haunted relics. They’re tapes that have been discovered at a certain point, so anything can happen. You don’t have to be as structured. And you find yourself asking different questions on setup. It’s a very purified state of mind: What do I want to see right now? No holds barred.
