For a while, it seemed like the V/H/S series was onto something with its approach to theming. Making all the segments set in the same year was clever, with cultural considerations and the limits of technology helping guide the individual segments. The franchise is still trying to top 2023’s V/H/S/85 and very nearly got there with 2024’s V/H/S/Beyond, which signaled a shift from “years” to “horror subgenres.”

In that case, it was sci-fi; last year’s entry, V/H/S/Halloween, focused on the perils of backyard haunted houses and fun-sized candy bars. This spooky season we have V/H/S/Mixtape. From the title you can tell it embraces music, maybe not the most obvious of choices, but horror revolving around cursed records and devil-worshipping bands is definitely nothing new.

But there’s not much that would stir up a new wave of Satanic Panic in V/H/S/Mixtape, unless you have an irrational fear of Gwar, since members of the shock-metal band pop up between shorts to crack jokes and fling bodily fluids around. There are also a couple of music videos, including Flying Lotus’ eye-popping animation “Another Cabin” and the Tobias Forge-directed video for “Premature Burial” by Repugnant, a band he was in before finding mainstream metal stardom with Ghost.

Neither music video is styled as found footage, so it’s a little unclear why they were included other than to bolster the theme, but the rest of the shorts do follow the expected format. Renee Zhan’s “Dance Dance Dance Dance” gets most of its juice from its collaboration with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, though horror icon Barbara Crampton is always a welcome sight.

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