When the inventive and frightening V/H/S was released in 2012, it breathed life into both the found footage and the anthology subgenres. The film was among the best of its kind, a collection of five loosely-connected spooky stories, and it had tremendous sequel potential. Most franchises die because the writers run out of ways to keep the convoluted plot going (looking at you, Saw), but with an anthology, new filmmakers can come aboard to tell unique tales every year. V/H/S 2 didn’t disappoint, living up to the first movie’s legacy and arguably improving upon it. Would this be our next iconic horror series to define a generation?

That question was answered in 2014 when V/H/S Viral came along to crush all of our hopes and dreams. This third installment abandoned the realistic, urban legend aesthetic of its predecessors in favor of silly, uninteresting segments about magic capes and alternate dimensions where humans have monster genitals. Just like that, the franchise was destroyed. No plans for V/H/S 4 are currently underway. But good news! The geniuses behind the original are back for another anthology that is exactly what a third V/H/S should have been, and much like that first movie, Southbound is weird, scary, inconsistent and immensely entertaining from beginning to end.

Read the full review at The Celebrity Cafe.