Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for V/H/S/94 (2021) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Anna Hopkins, Christian Potenza, Brian Paul, Tim Campbell, Gina Louise Phillips, Thiago Dos Santos DIRECTOR: Jennifer Reeder, Ryan Prows, Steven Kostanski, Simon Barrett, Chloe Okuno, Timo Tjahjanto CINEMATOGRAPHY: Benjamin Kitchens, Andrew Appelle MUSIC: Greg Anderson, Pierce Derks PRODUCTION: Bloody Disgusting, Raven Banner Entertainment, Radio Silence, Studio71, Hangar 18 Media, Shudder, Cinepocalypse

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for V/H/S/94 (2021). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Franchise: V/H/S/94 is part of the V/H/S Collection.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Filming & Locations

Principal photography was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to producer Josh Goldbloom, the production teams built sets in hotels and conference rooms, and "in the spirit of the series punk rock roots [they] even ventured underground into a sewer."

During a Comic-Con@Home discussion panel on the film, Goldbloom added that the filmmakers had gone "very era-authentic with this iteration of V/H/S", using older video equipment, physical tape transfers and digital effects to make each segment look like amateur video from the 1990s. The directors also detailed some of their influences on making each short film, citing the events and video footage of the Waco siege, O. J. Simpson's Bronco chase, the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding assault and the Heaven's Gate religious group. Directors Reeder and Timo Tjahjanto mentioned David Cronenberg's Videodrome and infamous mondo shockumentary Faces of Death as inspirations, respectively. Tjahjanto concluded that "ironically, the latest V/H/S will probably be the grungiest looking."

In an interview for The Daily Texan, Goldbloom and the filmmakers explained how some of the segments achieved the deteriorated VHS look. The filmmakers shot their segments at 29.97 frames per second to emulate the shot-on-video aesthetic. According to director Chloe Okuno, her segment "Storm Drain" — inspired by horror film [REC] and documentary Dark Days — was shot digitally and then converted to tape and played over multiple times to purposefully degrade the footage. Director Barrett explained how his short was inspired by the 1967 Soviet horror film Viy and his desire to direct a film with the premise of someone having to watch over a corpse.

[Filming] Principal photography was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

▸ Marketing & Release

An "exclusive first look" of V/H/S/94 was uploaded to YouTube on the official Comic-Con International channel on June 27, 2021, after a roundtable interview with the producers and directors. The short clip featured a portion of the segment "Storm Drain" by Okuno.

The first official still image of the film was released via Bloody Disgusting on September 9, 2021, to promote its announced world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2021. A week later, IGN premiered an exclusive official trailer for the film, which was then shared by Shudder and Bloody Disgusting on their respective outlets. That same month, film critics and horror film influencers were sent a care package from Shudder celebrating its "61 Days of Halloween" programming. Included in the package was a promotional faux VHS cover for V/H/S/94, with a fake cassette containing Halloween-themed candy.

On October 4, 2021, Shudder released a small promotional clip from the segment "Storm Drain" in anticipation for the film's release.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 1 win & 1 nomination total

CRITICAL RECEPTION

Critics praised the film's gritty aesthetic, creature and make-up effects, and embrace of 1990s video culture. Writing for Dread Central, Drew Tinnin found that "There’s a great balance of technical artistry and funhouse fright that keep the momentum building through every story," summarizing that "V/H/S/94 hits the same high notes as the original entry and even has some new twists and turns of its own," and rating it 3.5/5.

In a positive review, Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said that while the film is not impervious to the "unevenness that is common to anthology horror," it nonetheless delivers "more hits than misses, and a general air of unhinged joy for the genre that these films often lack", rating the film 2.5/4 stars.

Film critic Paul Le concluded that the film "proves the V/H/S movies are still in a class of their own when it comes to macabre, found-footage storytelling." Adam Patterson of Film Pulse stated that "The low-definition depravity of the visuals fit nicely into the underground tape-trading scene by which the film was certainly inspired". He also compared the quality of the film's segments to those of the franchise's previous entries, affirming that V/H/S/94 "is the most consistent of the bunch." Critic Nathaniel Muir praised the originality of each short film, as well as the blending of horror, science fiction and dark comedy, asserting that "V/H/S/94 is arguably the strongest entry yet" in the series.

Melissa Hannon of Horror Geek Life wrote that the wraparound story was "weak," but praised the other segments. She concluded that "V/H/S/94 delivers impressive moments of horror, insanity, and gore, with some fantastic plot twists.