Common Sense Media Review
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Ultra-gory holiday-themed found-footage anthology.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
V/H/S/Halloween
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In V/H/S/HALLOWEEN, a wraparound sequence involves the testing of a new soda, "Diet Phantasma," in hopes of it being market-ready for Halloween. But the side effects are less than ideal. In "Coochie Coochie Coo," two young women go for one last night of trick-or-treating before college and encounter the urban legend known as "The Mommy." In "Ut Supra Sic Infra," the police question the sole survivor of a party that turned into a massacre, taking the young man back to the scene to understand what happened. In "Fun Size," four young people out trick-or-treating come across a bowl of strange candy with the instruction: "One per person." When they break the rules, they find themselves transported to a bizarre candy factory. In "Kidprint," a shop offers videos that will help authorities identify children should they go missing on Halloween night. And in "Home Haunt," a teenager has grown up helping his father build their annual Halloween haunted house. He's outgrown it, so this will be the last year. Unfortunately, their newest prop is a haunted LP record.
Is It Any Good?
While most horror franchises go on and on until they wear out, the low-budget V/H/S anthology series keeps returning with fresh faces, creative ideas, and reliable jolts; this entry is no exception. V/H/S/Halloween is the eighth movie in the found-footage series, and you have to wonder what took them so long to get to a Halloween-themed movie? (Although the original V/H/S did include a segment set on October 31.) It has just the right touch of holiday atmosphere, but it also goes right over the edge into the unexpected and the insane.
Unlike many horror anthologies, each story here is solid, and no one story outweighs any other. They're not unlike the infamous horror comics of old, in which characters who erred were taught a gruesome or unholy lesson. The only drawback is that "Coochie Coochie Coo" and "Fun Size" have such a similar setup—i.e. young adults going trick-or-treating and getting into trouble. (In both episodes, adults ask them, "aren't you a little old for trick-or-treating?") But, happily, both segments have very different energies. Directors this time around include Spanish filmmaker Paco Plaza, co-creator of the [REC] found footage series (the first movie was remade in English as Quarantine) and director of the spooky Veronica; and writer/director Alex Ross Perry, who's known for the acclaimed movies Listen Up Philip and Her Smell. If you yourself are getting a little old for trick-or-treating, it might be better to stay home this Halloween and watch V/H/S/Halloween lest you risk the ire of some monster.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about V/H/S/Halloween's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
Is the movie scary? Why are horror movies popular? Why do people sometimes enjoy being scared?
What themes or morals, if any, did you notice in the five stories? Can horror stories sometimes contain positive lessons?
What's the appeal of filming everything? Does filming detract from actually experiencing things? Will anyone ever watch all the footage that exists in the world?
What does the "Kidprint" segment have to say about real-world violence involving children?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : October 3, 2025
- Cast : David Haydn , Samantha Cochran , Natalia Montgomery Fernandez , Teo Planell
- Directors : Bryan M. Ferguson , Anna Zlokovic , Paco Plaza , Casper Kelly , Alex Ross Perry , Micheline Pitt-Norman , R.H. Norman
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Latino Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Writer(s)
- Studio : Shudder
- Genre : Horror
- Topics : Fantasy ( Monsters ) , Holidays ( Halloween )
- Run time : 115 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : October 2, 2025
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