Found footage fans can rejoice. V/H/S Halloween made its debut at Fantastic Fest 2025 and proved itself worthy of the hype. This year’s installment leans fully into the spirit of the season, with every short tied to the theme of Halloween. And the result? A wild, unpredictable ride that is as chaotic as it is fun. It’s easily one of the strongest entries in the franchise so far. What makes V/H/S Halloween stand out isn’t just the theme but how each filmmaker interprets it and how every short finds a new way to play with Halloween’s imagery. Let’s break them down one by one.
Coochie Coochie Coo
Anna Zovlick’s Halloween-inspired short captures the essence of the holiday right away. Two teens who are way too old to be trick-or-treating decide to give it one more go before they head off to college. The pair end up inside a house from which they can’t make their way out. Zlokovic leans into grotesque visuals, pushing the found footage format into something that feels both disgusting, creepy, and funny. The tone balances shock with humor, making it stand out as an opener that sets the stage for just how unhinged this anthology is willing to get. It’s not just weird for the sake of weird. It’s memorable, messy, and a statement piece to start the ride.
Ut Supra Sic Infra
REC director, Paco Plaza, doesn’t hold back in his short about a survivor of a massacre who takes the police back to the scene to explain to them what happened to his friends. While this one often doesn’t feel quite like found footage at times, what Plaza does here is such a visual feast that it doesn’t matter. The final sequence of this short is a wild ride and top-tier Plaza.
Fun Size
Casper Kelly’s Fun Size is a straightforward, unhinged extravaganza. I’m sure we’ve all seen videos online of kids (and even some parents) emptying bowls of candy left on porches on Halloween night. I can imagine this sparked some ideas in Kelly’s head. The leads in this short find out the hard way what happens when you put your hand in an unattended candy bowl. The story takes an unexpectedly wild turn next, so it’s best to sit back and let the chaos unfold.
Kidprint
This one is probably my favorite, but not just because I enjoyed it. Kidprint takes me back to being a kid when we had those IDENT-A-KID cards with our photos on them in case we were kidnapped. Not sure if the use of them ever helped, but I digress. Director Alex Ross Perry delivers a haunting story of a photo shop where parents take their children, only to discover something sinister is at play. This is a dark one. And if you’re anything like me, you might find yourself turning away quite a few times.
Home Haunt
Coming full circle at the end, we visit another haunted house. Run by a family for years, they decide to do one final year and end up playing a cursed vinyl, and hell is unleashed. Home Haunt feels authentic and a little too close to home, making it a great choice if visiting haunts are on your annual Halloween bucket list. Directed by Micheline Pitt-Norman & R.H. Norman, this one is the perfect way to close out the anthology.
Diet Phantasma (The Wraparound)
Every V/H/S installment has a wraparound film that brings all the films together. Only the first two V/H/S films were about the tapes themselves, hinting that the recordings were cursed. But starting with Viral, that all went out the window. In V/H/S Halloween, the wraparound follows a group of scientists using a focus group to test out a new drink called “Diet Phantasma”. It doesn’t take long to discover that there are side effects and things get gory. One of the stronger wraparounds in the franchise, this film aligns with the insanity of its counterparts.
V/H/S Halloween is genius and precisely what was needed to breathe new life into this revered found footage franchise. The anthology feels fresh while still delivering the unhinged energy fans have come to love. It’s a reminder of why V/H/S remains one of the most exciting horror franchises around, and this entry easily earns its place among the best of the series.
