Back in 2012, V/H/S offered a horror anthology that revolved around creepy “found footage” episodes located on videotapes. Though that film did little box office business, it brought enough of an audience to spawn a few sequels, a spinoff and a TV version.

With 2021’s V/H/S/94, we get the most recent iteration. As implied by the title, this one takes place in 1994.

A SWAT team goes on what they believe will become a drug bust. However, when they enter the facility, they discover the deceased participants in a cult.

The SWAT members also find a small cache of VHS tapes, each of which contains its own scary “found footage” tale. V/H/S/94 explores the contents of these as well as what happens to the SWAT team.

Going into my screening of V/H/S/94, I thought for certain that I saw the original movie, and maybe even a sequel or two. However, a quick glimpse of this site’s review archive reveals that this didn’t occur.

I guess I confused V/H/S/94 with similar genre efforts. This comes as little surprise given how many “found footage” flicks we’ve gotten over the decades since 1999’s Blair Witch Project popularized the format.

V/H/S/94 and its franchise predecessors do spice up the concept via the anthology format. Granted, the SWAT team framework gives the overall project a throughline so it doesn’t simply offer a random compilation of vignettes.

However, it comes close to that, as the SWAT narrative proves largely superfluous and gratuitous. V/H/S/94 could easily drop that side of things and work just fine.

That said, I get that anthologies usually feel they need something to link the segments. In that regard, the SWAT elements work in an efficient enough manner, even if they bring little to the table.

Unfortunately, the same goes for the four other segments we get from V/H/S/94. While they present a smattering of effective moments, they generally seem tedious and uninspired.

My main issue stems from my impression that those behind each of the sections came up with a plot twist and worked backwards to build a story around it. The various tales lack much real propulsion and come across as climaxes in search of fully-realized narratives.

The only moderate exception comes from “The Subject”, the third of the four efforts. It offers a riff on Frankenstein and Robocop that shows potential.

Unlike the other vignettes, “The Subject” actually displays intrigue from the start. A tale of a mad doctor who creates freaky human/machine hybrids, “Subject” immediately forms a compelling world.

Unfortunately, it goes downhill before too long. While still the best of the four – or five, if we count the SWAT throughline – “Subject” devolves into generic mayhem and squanders its positives.

At least “Subject” comes with good qualities, which I can’t really say for the rest. The other segments tend to plod and consist of little more than “creepy build-up” before we get to the inevitable gory climax.

All of this leaves us with five stories that lack much to make them especially involving. As far as modern horror goes, V/H/S/94 could be worse, but it nonetheless winds up as a fairly forgettable collection of stories.

V/H/S/94 appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc - mostly. Parts of the image went with 1.33:1 – and given the nature of VHS circa 1994, the entire flick should’ve used that ratio.

Why didn’t it? To match modern choices, I suppose. I guess the producers felt no one wanted to watch 104 minutes of 1.33:1 material.

Whatever the case, the final product lived up – or down – to its fabricated origins. Because the film wanted to look like 90s-era videotape, the end result seemed predictably ugly.

Sharpness consistently felt blah at best. The image always felt soft and mushy.

Jagged edges and moiré effects turned up through much of the movie. VHS-style distortion, interference and artifacts became a persistent factor.

Colors looked bland and on the brown side. Few – if any – instances of brighter hues manifested in this dull presentation.

Blacks came across as flat and inky, while shadows appeared dense and murky. From start to finish, V/H/S/94 brought an ugly image.

So why did I go with a “C”? Because V/H/S/94 should look awful, given the premise.

The movie felt too unattractive for me to give it a higher rating. Nonetheless, due to the concept, I also felt a lower grade seemed unfair, so “C” it was!

At least the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack fared better, even though it clearly violated the aforementioned premise. In a realistic world, the audio would both seem distant/rough and be stereo at best, with monaural more likely.

If we ignore the unreality of these choices, the soundscape seemed pretty good. The mix didn’t go crazy, so it stayed mostly with general atmosphere. A few spooky or violent moments featured the side and rear channels more actively, but the majority of the track remained environmental in nature.

Audio quality was fine. Despite the “on the fly” nature, speech seemed acceptably concise and natural, and effects demonstrated nice clarity and range.

The score was subdued but seemed well-rendered. This wasn’t an impressive track, but it worked in a positive manner.

As we move to extras, we open with an audio commentary. Hosted by Bloody Disgusting’s “Boo Crew” Leone D'Antonio, Trevor Shand, and Lauren Shand, this running, screen-specific pieces involves from directors Jennifer Reeder, Chloe Okuno, Simon Barrett and Ryan Prows and producers Brad Miska and Josh Goldbloom.

During this track, we learn about stories/characters, cast and performances, shooting during the COVID pandemic, sets and locations, music, influences, various effects and connected domains.

The presence of so many participants made me fear the commentary would become a mess. However, the Boo Crew folks keep matters under control.

This allows the discussion to cover a lot of domains in an efficient manner. Brisk and lively, this turns into an effective commentary.

We also get a sequence-specific commentary from Barrett for “The Empty Wake”. This goes for 16 minutes, 15 seconds and gives us Barrett’s notes about various aspects of his segment.

Since Barrett appears during the main commentary, it seems odd that he does another solo track here. Still, he brings a useful discussion. While Barrett repeats some notes from the primary track, he nonetheless adds new info and turns this into an effective discussion.

Hosted by journalist Richard Newby, a 2021 Comic-Con Panel goes for 30 minutes, 18 seconds. It features Goldbloom, Miska, Barrett, Okuno, Prows, Reeder and director Timo Tjahjanto.

Conducted via Zoom, the piece looks at the franchise, the various segments and aspects of the production. Because these Comic-Con panels mainly exist to promote projects, we don’t get a ton of insights here, but the chat still produces a decent view of the film.

Behind the Scenes fills 24 minutes, two seconds with info from Barrett, Prows, Okuno, Reeder, special effects coordinator Michael W. Hamilton, and actors Anna Hopkins, Kyal Legend, Christian Lloyd and Christian Potenza.

“Scenes” looks at how the directors came to the project as well as aspects of their segments. Inevitably, some of this repeats from prior extras, but “Scenes” nonetheless delivers a good overview, and ample footage from the set helps.

Five Deleted and Extended Scenes occupy a total of 13 minutes, 58 seconds. These tend toward exposition and feel like they would’ve slowed down the final film.

Next comes Special FX, a collection of three segments that occupy a total of 10 minutes, 39 seconds. These give us a decent look at the various effects used on the film, though some added commentary would make this raw footage more informative.

”The Empty Wake” VFX runs one minute, 11 seconds and shows a breakdown with notes from visual effects artist Justin Martinez. We find a short but interesting look at this work.

Briefly seen in the final film, we locate the Full-Length Veggie Masher Commercial. The 44-second clip offers an amusing parody of 1990s infomercials.

Finally, Behind the Scenes Images brings 25 stills. These show some effects work and feel adequate, if not especially revealing.

An anthology with a gimmicky concept, V/H/S/94 offers occasional glimmers. However, much of it seems slow and without a lot of horror impact. The Blu-ray comes with ugly but appropriate visuals as well as good audio and a nice mix of bonus materials. This becomes a largely forgettable collection of short stories.