The Real Story Behind The VHS Horror Movies

The concept of a haunted or cursed object goes deep into the human race’s collective memory. Ever since we were barely bipedal Cro-Magnons, we learned that there were certain things we should not touch or even look at, lest we encounter danger as a result. As our minds and awareness expanded, such deep seated fears extended out toward the supernatural, and we began entertaining the idea that such things as books, paintings, music, and eventually cinema could somehow be cursed. While these fears are still alive and well in the digital space, warning us against clicking on mysterious hyperlinks, there’s still a certain je ne sais quoi to allegedly cursed physical media.

When the “V/H/S” franchise began in 2012, the filmmakers behind it capitalized on this latent fear of ours, providing just enough hints and allusions as to why a series of VHS tapes seen in the films might contain eerie, horrific, and cursed material on them. Part of the reason for doing this at all comes from the tradition of portmanteau films all containing a “wraparound” segment, one which ties the disparate short segments seen in the movie together in some fashion. This structure began in earnest thanks to Ealing studios’ “Dead of Night” from 1945, which presented its short horror films as stories being told by characters gathered at a country house. Made during the found footage horror movie boom, “V/H/S” needn’t have bothered including any wraparound segments or lore for their stories — as evidence, the latter two “V/H/S” films dispense with a traditional wraparound. Yet perhaps this lore, established in the first “V/H/S” films, is still present up to and including the latest installment, “V/H/S/Beyond.” Join us as we hit Play and attempt to make some sense out of the true story behind all these cursed videotapes.

The first “V/H/S” puts forth the idea that not only is something supernatural going on with these videotapes which all contain creepy material, but that some person (or entity) is encouraging it. in the wraparound segment “Tape 56,” written by Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard and directed by Wingard, we’re introduced to a group of young male criminals who make a point out of filming their crimes. While their actions have ranged from vandalizing buildings and homes to sexually assaulting random women, they are offered an opportunity to impress a mysterious benefactor who is “a fan,” with this client telling them to go to a particular house and steal a special VHS tape. The gang does not heed the ominous warning of one of their members, who verbally wonders aloud how some fan could’ve contacted them when they don’t include their identities or names in the videos they make.

Inside the anonymous house, the gang find several videotapes, as well as the corpse of an elderly man who apparently was watching some of them before he died. As each member of the gang watches a tape (aka the other segments comprising the rest of “V/H/S”), they disappear. The final part of the wraparound reveals that before he’s killed, the last remaining gang member discovers that at least one of his friends had been decapitated by the old man while watching a tape. The man has apparently turned into a zombie. So, not only do these tapes contain some supernatural power that can affect people who watch them, but someone or something knows about it, and has deliberately drawn these victims into a house full of the tapes. There’s a bit of “From Dusk Till Dawn” flavor to this segment — terrestrial criminals encountering supernatural evil — but it’s their mysterious entrapment which hints at larger goings-on.

This concept of luring sacrificial victims to the slaughter-by-tape is furthered during the wraparound segment of “V/H/S/2” entitled “Tape 49,” written and directed by Simon Barrett. In it, a couple of private investigators are hired by the mother of a boy, Kyle (L.C. Holt), to look into his recent disappearance. The PI’s find a stack of VHS tapes and a still-recording laptop in Kyle’s room, with the laptop capturing real-time footage of one of the investigators watching a few of the tapes (hence, the movie’s segments). Eventually, it turns out that the laptop recording is an essential aspect of the plan concocted by Kyle and his mother, which is to make a cursed tape of their own.

Although the title of the wraparound would imply that it takes place before the first film’s “Tape 56,” we do see footage from that “tape” on Kyle’s laptop during this segment. Given that, it’s more likely that this tape takes place after “Tape 56” (unless Barrett is playing around with some supernatural time travel shenanigans again, as he does in Wingard’s “Blair Witch”). Furthermore, Kyle and his mother can’t be the main perpetrators behind the VHS tapes, given that a vlog Kyle recorded that one of the investigators watches describes how the tapes must be watched in a specific sequence in order to have an effect. This implies that the tapes are being discussed in a very underground, urban legend, Reddit-esque manner. It also implies that the effect they have on people varies — it either makes them insane, murderous, eager to make their own tape, some kind of creature, or perhaps all of those things.

Thus, there’s a viral element to these tapes, in which the infected are seeking to spread the infection. Not only does this harken back to the original virally cursed videotape horror movie, Hideo Nakata’s “Ring” (later remade as “The Ring” by Gore Verbinski), it also links the “V/H/S” films to the notorious “Mondo” and “Faces of Death” movies of the 1970s, which purported to contain footage of real atrocities. These connections further implicate the viewer in meta fashion, suggesting they’ll be forever disturbed after watching the movies. There’s a bit of Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games” to all this, especially given the ending of the film, which sees Kyle kill the last investigator on camera before giving us a thumbs up. We’re sick, and we wanted to see this just as much as he wanted to make it.

Things come to a head in “V/H/S: Viral.” Although the first three “V/H/S” films might seem to be primarily interested in the past given their obsession with obsolete media, they’re actually about the present and the way human beings are perversely drawn to transgressive images and content. The concept of a “viral video” is proof of this, and writers T.J. Cimfel, David White, and Marcel Sarmiento lean into that idea in their wraparound segment entitled “Vicious Circles.”

Directed by Sarmiento, the segment follows Kevin (Patrick Lawrie), a Los Angeles guy obsessed with taking video of his life. He can’t stop filming even when his grandmother abuses him, and even though his girlfriend, Iris (Emilia Ares), is okay with his constant shooting at first, she becomes increasingly upset at it. One night, a high-speed pursuit breaks out in Kevin’s neighborhood involving a mysterious ice cream truck, and Kevin insists on chasing the truck in order to hopefully go viral. He ignores Iris’ ominous actions and eventual disappearance after she receives a mysterious FaceTime call, all to get his hoped-for viral video. Of course, he ends up getting what he wished for and then some, discovering that the truck is actually filled with TV’s and VHS tapes, and after an avatar of Iris blackmails him into uploading his footage to as many places as possible, it seems that the effect of the evil VHS tapes is being spread across the world.

Given that the people Kevin comes across while chasing the truck are being visibly affected and changed after seeing the cursed videos and tapes, it’s easy to assume that Kevin’s upload is the beginning of the entire world being forever changed. Thus, it makes sense why “Viral” is, so far, the endpoint of the lore for the “V/H/S” series. Sure, we could discover in a future installment that there are pockets of unaffected people mounting a resistance, as with any viral post-apocalypse narrative, but the last three “V/H/S” films seem uninterested in continuing this storyline. But that may be intentional — we’ll get to that in a bit.

Before we dig into what the latest “V/H/S” films might be implying when it comes to the wraparound continuity, we have one final piece of the franchise puzzle. By virtue of the concept of “V/H/S/94,” the entire movie is a period piece, with all the segments taking place in the titular year 1994 (aside from a few exceptions, the majority of the first three films were set in their year of release). The wraparound, “Holy Hell,” written and directed by Jennifer Reeder, involves a SWAT team going on a drug bust, having been tipped that a certain warehouse contains the illegal substance and distributors they’re looking to confiscate. Instead, the team finds the headquarters of the snuff/fetish film cult that was only hinted at in the first three movies, implying that the distribution and proliferation of these tapes and their viral demonic power was far more orchestrated than it initially seemed.

While the segment essentially follows the structure established by the wraparounds of the first three movies — most of the characters are lured into being killed on camera by people who are part of the cult and/or have been affected by the tapes — it retroactively gives more shape and clarity to the other wraparounds that’ve come before it. Sure, the wraparounds may arguably be creepier the less we know about who’s behind them and why, but “Holy Hell” gives as much of an explanation as to where the tapes come from and what their endgame is (again, as seen in “Viral”). There’s a bit of a “chicken and egg” question as to what started it all — did a demon-worshipping cult begin making cursed tapes start to appear, or did a single tape birth the founding of the cult? Ultimately, the “V/H/S” mythology is founded on ambiguity, with the footage at hand our only source for any answers. The notion that this cult may be all-female also feels like Reeder’s clever retcon of the misogyny found in the first three wraparounds: not only are we seemingly destined for apocalypse, but it’s in part due to the failings of men that have led us all to our doom.

After the success of “V/H/S/94,” the series leaned into the period piece idea for two more films. The latest installment, “Beyond,” breaks this pattern by instead leaning into a genre-based collection of shorts, this time with each segment having a sci-fi element. Thus, it seems the franchise is interested in making a series of trilogies with varying focus. In that way, it’s very possible that the last few “V/H/S” films aren’t intended to be in continuity with each other; certainly, the real-life concept behind the series, bringing together a mixture of up-and-coming filmmakers with veterans and turning their imaginations loose, wouldn’t be best served by forcing everyone to set their segments in 2014 or earlier.

Yet there’s no aspect of the last three “V/H/S” films that explicitly says they’re not part of the overarching lore. After all, both “99” and “85” are presented as if they’re a collection of segments on the same tape, a distinction from the first four movies. Early accounts of “Beyond” makes it sound like that wraparound, “Abduction/Adduction” by Jay Cheel, is in the same style as “99” and “85.” However, “Beyond” also seemingly contains segments set in the current year, meaning past the apocalypse of “Viral.” Since it’s sci-fi themed, though, perhaps “Beyond” is set in “our” 2024, in a universe where the VHS cult wasn’t successful? Or maybe we can head canon the idea that Kevin’s upload has been scrubbed from the internet and all other devices, allowing that strain of the virus to be cut off, replaced by the new tapes from “Beyond”?

Just like the “V/H/S” films themselves, the future is full of possibilities. We could very well see a return of the killer tape cult, or maybe we’re just entering a new phase of the virus. In any case, you’d do well to choose whatever you watch wisely.

“V/H/S/Beyond” is streaming on Shudder on October 4, 2024.