The V/H/S franchise has constantly evolved and usually been something rather entertaining even if the product as a whole wasn’t all that fantastic, almost all of them have never felt like a chore to get through (Viral excluded) but with the three segmented time capsules with 85, 94, and 99 they set a new precedent for what these could be. Then we had Beyond which wasn’t tied to a time period but rather a sub genre (sci-fi) then Halloween which was more just Halloween focused antics. So, V/H/S Mixtape seems to be focused on music inspired things, and unfortunately this is going to be held in the same breath as Viral versus anything from the last 5 installments. Even changing the overarching tied together aspect, which typically isn’t a highlight by having GWAR be the centre of attention not doing anything remotely interesting or engaging except ejaculating on drawings was a tough way to start this installment that had a great first segment and a great last segment with varying results in the middle making V/H/S Mixtape a true mixed bag resulting in an exhaustive watch.
Mixtape is disappointing because it feels rushed, but more over because Flying Lotus directs the GWAR segments, and their last entry Ozzy’s Dungeon was fantastic, so this is a serious step down but that could be chalked up to GWAR’s abilities. It just felt like they took an out there musical group to add to the genre and ideology of Mixtape more than logistically how it would make sense. However, moving past GWAR and right into Renee Zhan’s “Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance” segment which had Henson Creature Shop puppets and featured Barbara Crampton may have been some of the most fun of the entire installment. While the store is bare bones, and not fleshed out enough, seeing puppets wreak havoc in the name of reclaiming their glory is a bloody good time, imagine R rated Muppets and Kermit dismembering people, it’s hard not to be at least entertained by this. Next up is David Moreau’s segment, Heartbeat but the problem is it feels like someone copied Cube but nowhere near as good or interesting as Cube and feels twice as long. Third, we have Ernest Dickerson’s “The Music of Mr. Zhe” which is a Lovecraftian take that casually works, is certainly a step up from Heartbeat but still is missing something to make this a great segment. An overarching theme throughout all of V/H/S Mixtape, everything feels rushed and sort of just thrown together. Second last we have Tobias Forge’s Premature Burial which truly homes in on the mixtape name, but is painfully uninspired, uninteresting, and overtly disappointing. It is a bad music video on MTV in 2026. Lastly we have RZA’s segment “Death Tone” which is easily described as what if Dexter Morgan was a sound engineer. There really isn’t a better way to describe it and if that interests you even one percent, it is best to seek out Mixtape and watch “Death Tone” the less you know about how gnarly and fun this segment is, the better. Truly the best of the best in V/H/S Mixtape, but considering the output of the entire segment that is damned with faint praise unfortunately. As long as the latest installment SCP goes back to the quality of the previous 5, or the originals we’ll be in good hands, as the V/H/S movies are always something to look forward to, but Mixtape lives up to it’s name, a mixtape of wildly different success.
