Anthology series can be tricky. Sometimes you get a pile of really great stories, sometimes you get a pile of crap, and sometimes you get something in between. As a follow up to last year’s V/H/S/94, we are shot into 1999 with V/H/S/99. Where 94 was found footage, 99 is presented as a mixtape of sorts.

The first story we see is “R.A.C.K.,” which is an acronym for the lead characters - Rachel (Jesse LaTourette), Ankur (Keanush Tafreshi), Chris (Dashiell Derrickson), and Kaleb (Jackson Kelly) - as well as the name of their band. One night, the decide to break into a music venue that burned down during a show three years ago. The band that was playing, Bitch Cat, were trampled to death as the audience fled the fire. As R.A.C.K. was messing around, they get attacked by the zombie members of Bitch Cat. Things don’t end well for the pranksters.

“Suicide Bid” is the story of college freshman, Lily (Ally Ioannides), as she pledges the Beta Sigma Eta sorority. Four of the sorority sisters invite Lily out to a graveyard, where they dare her to spend the night buried in a coffin. Lily agrees and somehow puts up with the torture pranks the sisters pull on her. However, when a security guard comes to investigate what is going on, the girls leave Lily in the coffin in the pouring rain. As Lily’s coffin fills with mud and rain, she is…saved by a previous hazed student, Giltine (Chris Page), who died during the same prank. The sorority girls return the next morning to find the grave filled with water and Lily missing. Now it’s Lily’s turn to haze them.

Forcing us to remember old children’s adventure game shows like Legends of the Hidden Temple or Double Dare, “Ozzy’s Dungeon” shows us what can happen when those games go wrong. Donna (Amelia Ann) is competing to win a wish from Ozzy (Amelia Ann). Unfortunately, Donna suffers a major leg injury on the final obstacle, meaning she didn’t win the wish. Years later, the host (Steven Ogg) of the show is kidnapped by Donna’s mother, Debra (Sonya Eddy). Debra tortures the host until he takes the family to get their wish from Ozzy. Only Donna didn’t wish for things Debra wanted her to.

In between all of the episodes of V/H/S/99, we see stop motion movies with plastic army men. In “The Gawkers,” we find out that these little movies are being made by Brady (Ethan Pogue) with a camera owned by his brother, Dylan (Luke Mullen). Dylan and his friends take the camera back from Brady in order to record their hot neighbor, Sandra (Emily Sweet). The boys see Sandra getting a new computer delivered to her house. She has asked Brady to help her set up the webcam. Of course, the boys coerce Brady into setting it up so they can watch her from Dylan’s computer in the hopes of seeing her naked. But when Sandra starts to undress, the boys find out that she’s not the human they thought she was.

Finally, my favorite episode, “To Hell And Back.” Nate (Archelaus Crisanto) and Troy (Joseph Winter) are filming a ritual where a woman (Tori Pence) is offered as a sacrifice to the demon Ukoban (Dustin Watts). She will be the vessel he uses when he rises from hell. When the ritual begins, Nate and Troy see an uninvited demon, Furcas (James C. Morris), in the room. The witches cast him out but he takes Nate and Troy with him. As they try to escape, the men get help from Mabel (Melanie Stone), a tortured soul, with the promise they they would write Mabel’s name in witches’ book when they get back. Nate and Troy manage to hitchhike with Ukoban back Earth, where the witches kill them for ruining the ritual. Dying, Troy scribbles Mabel’s name in the book with his blood.

Unlike V/H/S/94, I thought these stories worked well. Each of them were a complete story with an actual ending and the camera wasn’t swinging all over the place (most of the time) so you could actually see what is going on. A lot of these stories are filmed with a handheld camera, meaning there is a bit of jerkiness to the visuals but it’s not nearly as bad as last year. There were some fun ideas in there. I would have liked to have seen “The Gawkers” tell a little more of Sandra’s background or “Ozzy’s Dungeon” flesh out Donna’s character a little more. Otherwise, “Suicide Bid” and “To Hell And Back” are the strongest stories of the bunch. I don’t know if we’ll get another V/H/S release next year but I hope that it continues to improve the stories it tells.