Director: Jordan Downey, Virat Pal, Justin Martinez, Justin Long, Christian Long, Kate Siegal
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Receiving a strange videotape, a documentarian sets out to look into a pair of strange videotapes recovered from a strange individual that purports to show proof of alien life in the universe, including a series of home videos showing various such encounters.
Review:
Stork-Going on a ride-along, a young officer joining a team raiding a suspected safehouse instead finds the area overrun by ravenous zombies created through a bizarre ritual, and as they make their way through the situation, come face to face with a terrifying threat. Overall, this was a fairly solid and likable start to things. Getting a quick early build to the group arriving at the house and what they're looking for, the series of subsequent interactions involving the team encountering the zombified residents in close-quarter confrontations makes for some thrilling moments. The brutal sequences, graphic wounds, high-quality make-up work, and frantic action lead to a lot to like as they make their way through the various scenarios here, including a strong series of revelations made throughout that keep this one going along rather well. It might be a bit light on explanations for how things operate, as the nature of what's happening is expectedly frantic and feverish without the chance to do anything about it, but there's still plenty to enjoy with this segment.
Dream Girl-Desperate to make it in the film business, a pair of paparazzi for the Bollywood studio system try to get a better handle on their career prospects by getting candid photos of a rising starlet, but are not prepared for the strange truth they discover doing so. This was a fairly solid segment that does have some decent enough aspects. The overall starting point here, with the desire to delve into the film career and sneaking onto the film set, gives this a great point to launch into the gruesome reveal of what's going on with the star, which is a great sequence overall. The rampage that results is also immensely fun with a great series of gore gags and a chilling atmosphere, but it also highlights how little sense it has overall with the scale and scope of what's going on being far too big for it to be ignored by authorities, how the whole thing was supposed to play out in the first place, or how the tapes survived to be recovered which is a hard factor to overcome here.
Live and Let Dive-Going out on a skydiving expedition, a group of friends looking to use the experience to enjoy their favorite pastime, but when they get into a midair accident with a UFO are soon plummeted back to Earth, where they encounter the hostile alien again. This was a fun, if rather underwhelming, segment. The main setup here is incredibly solid and manages to get this off to a strong start with the introduction of the group and their eventual encounter with the UFO, which is immensely chilling. The crash and eventual series of descents back to the ground, where they meet up with each other, only to meet the alien species, featuring a slew of impressive chases through an orange grove, offering a solid series of gory deaths to make it enjoyable. The design of the alien is cool-looking at first until you realize the beast isn't very functional with how oddly it comes together, and the CGI is a bit distracting overall, much like the idea of how the tape survived, which is a recurring theme in the series.
Fur Babies-Trying to look into a suspected animal rights abuser, a pair of activists try to sneak into her service, only to get captured and held captive by the crazed owner who insists on turning them into the next subjects for her experimental treatment procedure. This was a solid enough, if overall troublesome, segment. In terms of structure and setup, this one works incredibly well with the team investigating the rumors about what's going on at the daycare center, as the whole reveal comes off quite nicely. The resulting experiments they take part in and what they eventually turn into come off the best with the demented glee at the process taking place, as well as the series of graphic confrontations, leave this one with a lot to like over its negatives. It feels the most out of place here, with there not being much in the way of sci-fi or even alien content present, so its purpose is a genuine mystery, not belonging with the rest of the material featured here. Likewise, how this has gone on for as long as it has without a proper investigation into the missing persons is a bit strange, leaving it with some big flaws overall.
Stowaway-Wanting to look into a series of strange encounters, a woman sets out to look into the series of reports concerning alien lights in the sky, and after catching one during the trip, tries to investigate things, only to get caught up in a bizarre otherworldly travel. This was a decent enough, if somewhat flawed, story to end things on. The main setup involving the mysterious lights and how they're going about operating in the area that she sets out to look into is pretty solid, much like that concurrent series of investigations while on the ship as the eeriness of being in the environment and how she tries to stay alive while the eventual reveals that take place on the ship is a lot of fun as it takes a drastically darker turn. However, more than any of the other segments, the inability to explain things is a bit underwhelming as it's left to inference more than anything that's going on, and is also the most outright egregious about how the footage is eventually supposed to be recovered to be included on the tape, so it does have some issues.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely solid and enjoyable entry in the series, this one comes across well enough to overcome a few minor issues with several of the segments to be quite high in the franchise. This is recommended to those who appreciate the format or the other entries in the series, as well as fans of the creative crew, while those who are turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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