As a fan of the series and anthology horror, it is a joy to see this series land squarely on Shudder with the intention of continuing indefinitely. Prior iterations have attempted wraparound narratives explaining the reason and rationale for the collection of disparate stories, but often to the series detriment, as there is never any kind of interconnective tissue or thematic overlap between the tales presented. 99 finally abandons any such attempts, although there is a substitution of ‘commercials’ and home movies that serve no purpose whatsoever. They are not amusing or entertaining, and it would be advised for the next iteration to abandon the pretense of such. The quality of the segments this round is fairly mediocre, with no particular standouts. This entry seems more enamored with recreating and riffing off of 90’s fashions, trends and attitudes than providing actual scares. There is a sense that the creative teams are having a lot of fun in this entry, and there is a lot more humor in the segments, but again at the cost of frights and intensity. Unfortunately, the found footage format isn’t utilized quite as effectively as before, and one will get very tired of bad faux tracking errors and video distortion, especially when the characters are running around. While still amusing, and recommended to those who like the format and the nature of short-form horror, but this is easily the weakest entry yet. Let us hope that the next year (84) makes some improvements.
V/H/S 99 (2022)