I’m not one to be nostalgic about most things in life. Maybe it’s the fact that, for the longest time, I felt that I had to hide the queerness in me from the world, but the past can stay there, buried along with Hypercolor shirts and Orbitz. But I do have a slight nostalgia for the era of video store rentals and VHS tapes, for a number of reasons. One thing young people will probably never experience again is the thrill and danger that comes with unmarked VHS tapes. Back in 2012, V/H/S snuck into the horror lexicon by taking that thrill and mixing it with found footage and an anthology format...to mostly creepy effect. It was followed up by two more entries that were hit-or-miss before falling out of the public’s eye. Nine years later, and Bloody Digusting’s little darling is back and...surprise, it’s probably the most consistently good batch of short films since the original.

It opens with an almost cultish love of the tape cassette, as people sit, bleeding from their eyes, in a room full of TVs. It has a dangerous Waco feel that’s helped by the tears in the tape and the graininess of the footage. Before we can think about the horrifying implications of this room, the focus shifts to the back of a SWAT van that’s about to descend on the complex. Jennifer Reeder (Knives and Skin) directs this wrap-around story of the police siege and the resulting mystery of the rooms filled with bleeding corpses, goopy liquids and, of course, TVs.

Each segment stems from the TVs found in this compound and after introducing this nightmarish situation, the camera slowly focuses on one such TV, where a news report discusses the mysterious Rat Man living in the sewers of the town. This first tale, called “Storm Drain” and directed by Chloe Okuno, features intrepid reporter Holly Marciano (Anna Hopkins) and her trusty cameraman as they interview people about the creature. While capturing footage, they discover a sewer system that people seem to be living in. Searching for answers (and maybe a Pulitzer), they enter the subterranean catacombs. What they discover will change everything.

The second segment (“The Empty Wake”) by Simon Barrett (Seance) is staged completely at a wake and is a mostly one woman play. It takes a bit to get going, adding in creepy moments like a coffin that won’t stay still and a raging storm that cuts the power. The camerawork does a good job of forcing the viewer to be on the lookout for something scary lurking in the background, but it takes a good while to introduce overt scares. That said, once it reaches its horrifying apex, it creates some indelibly horrifying images through fantastic creature work and a tone that straddles the line between dark comedy and horror.

This uneasy combination continues in Timo Tjahjanto (May the Devil Take You)’s mad doctor segment (“The Subject”) where a doctor attempts to create a fusion of person and robot to disastrous effects. It also takes a little too long to get going, but, once it does, it becomes a rollicking horror actioner that combines the best of Doom’s FPS moments with monstrous camerawork and effects. Timo created the best segment in V/H/S 2 and manages to up himself in terms of gore and playful cinematography.

The fourth segment (“Terror” by Low Life’s Ryan Prows) tackles a militia that bit off more than they could chew when they find a weapon of destruction in the form of an unassuming man they kill every day, only to bed resurrected the next. Given the political climate we live in, I'm not sure how “fun” it is to see a militia, even if it's played for laughs at how stupid they are. But the effects are fun and it's a neat twist on the supernatural creature the militia uses.

What surprised me the most about this low budget affair is just how good it looks. The creature effects in “Storm Drain” are slathered in enough darkness that what is shown is effectively seared into the brain. Chloe’s vignette is also probably the most tense of the stories and ends with such a darkly comedic bent that will have fans shouting Hail Raatma! But then the mix of robotics, humans and Timo’s slightly unhinged plotting creates such a fun time in “The Subject.” Overall, V/H/S/94 proves that there’s still fun to be had with the format and is surprisingly one of the better horror films released this year.