Director: Jordan Downey, Christian and Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kate Siegel, Jay Cheel Screenwriter: Jordan Downey, Kevin Stewart, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Ben Turner, Virat Pal, Evan Dickson, Mike Flanagan, Jay Cheel Cast: Dane DiLiegro, Alanah Pearce, Mitch Horowitz Distributor: Shudder Running Time: 114 min. MPAA: TV-MA

The V/H/S series of horror films have grown on me. Despite a rough start, the batting average of these many found-footage anthology films looks pretty strong. I adore the better stories and look forward to each new movie, eagerly anticipating their Fall arrivals like a new iteration of my favorite candy every Halloween. My love is being tested this time, however, with V/H/S/Beyond, the seventh entry, a mixed bag of stories that fluctuate between being decently clever and passively creepy.

Unlike the previous two stellar entries of V/H/S/99 and V/H/S/85, this batch has a sci-fi angle going for it. This intrigued me as a refreshing dip out of the retro horror genre and perhaps a trek into cosmic horror. But the bridging story of “Abduction/Adduction” sets an off tone by posing a documentary format for a spooky house with an alien twist. With its slow build-up over each segment and its favoring of more interviews and archive footage, I got the feeling that most of these entries were going to save the sci-fi for the third-act twist.

This doesn’t mean the format doesn’t work. I dug the aggressive tone of “Stork,” where a police unit (seen through their installed cameras) shoot their way through a house of zombies with a grotesque alien presence being behind it all. The same goes for the following entry of “Dream Girl,” where the paparazzi trying to get a big scoop on a Bollywood star discover she’s a robot that is easy enough to instigate, leading to some gruesome guttings and faces being cut off.

But the segments start to lose their luster with the diminishing presence of twists. “Live and Let Die” is an ambitious segment for skydivers being hit by a UFO and trying to flee from brutalizing aliens when they land. Unfortunately, the aliens are not that impressive with their ray-shooting vaginas and cheaply composited special effects, making the elongated running from them illicit little more than screams of expletives and names.

It’s perhaps almost merciful and refreshing that Justin Long’s entry, “Fur Babies,” embraces more of mad-scientist sci-fi than aliens. Echoing Long’s presence in Kevin Smith’s Tusk, this story centers on a dog daycare lady who secretly wants to transform people into her deceased dogs. There’s some decent tension and okay moments of dark comedy, but it ends right around the point where the premise loses steam, and the effects become distracting.

The most fascinating segment in terms of premise was the final story, “Stowaway.” An amateur documentarian takes it upon herself to seek out aliens in the Mojave desert. She gets her wish and boards a UFO to explore. The bad news is that the ship is taking off and she has no seatbelt. The good news is that the ship has nanomachines that can automatically repair any injuries she might endure during the flight. The worst news is that the nanomachines don’t do the most accurate job, and the violent voyage seems never to stop. She can never die on this uncertain trek among the stars, weaving an unorthodox horror that is haunting to consider.

V/H/S/Beyond has moments of engaging sci-fi horror, even if some segments don’t hit that found-footage sweet spot with an uneven collection. Segments like “Live and Let Dive” don’t have much going on beyond the theatrics, but segments like “Stowaway” have ideas so grand that it’s worth watching for that bit alone. So while I didn’t enjoy Beyond as much as past V/H/S sequels, there is still enough potential to enthuse me for the next installment, be it another trip to the past or dabbling in another sub-genre.

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