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.

Shudder, the horror movie channel, has entered the Halloween fray with V/H/S/94. This is the fourth installment in the series. I haven’t watched the other three so I’m not sure if I’ll get lost in a storyline or whatnot.

V/H/S/94 is a “found footage” anthology series. There are four separate stories strung together with an overarching story about a SWAT team raiding a warehouse for drugs. The four stories consist of “Storm Drain,” a story about a rat-man living in the sewers of a small town; “The Empty Wake,” where a woman has to host a late night viewing at a funeral home by herself; “The Subject,” which is the story of a mad scientist kidnapping people to turn them into creatures; and “Terror,” a weirdly political vampire tale.

Like any anthology movie, there are good stories and there are not-as-good stories. I didn’t think “Storm Drain” was particularly entertaining. The story didn’t make a lot of sense and the acting was cheesy. Sometimes cheesy is good. But you need a good story to make up for the cheesiness.

“The Empty Wake” was a little bit better but it took a very long time to get to the action. There’s a lot of…well, empty time where the woman (Kyal Legend) is just sitting there. The end was interesting. It just took too long to get there.

My favorite story out of all of them was “The Subject.” We barely see the creatures. Actually, most of the movie is from the female creature’s point of view. So what we see is everyone’s reactions to the creatures. It is pretty terrifying. I think I would like to a full length movie with this premise.

As for “Terror,” I’m not sure how I feel about it. It starts out with domestic terrorism and ends up with vampires. I see what the writer wanted to do with the story, I’m just not sure it worked out well. This is another instance where I think the story needed more time to develop the characters and really bring everything together. I probably would watch a full length movie about this if it was done right. Terrorism can be a tricky subject though.

Finally, that overarching story they called “Holy Hell.” I wanted to like these parts so bad. But the camerawork is terrible. I understand that it’s supposed to be a found footage documentary type thing but the camera swings all over the place, not giving you a chance to really see what is going on. Especially since the warehouse setting isn’t lit very well. At least the good stories trapped inside “Holy Hell” made watching the movie worthwhile.

With all that said, do I think you should watch this… If you are a fan of found footage type movies, you might get a kick out of it. But if you are looking for some actual Halloween thrills, you aren’t likely to find them there. I spent more time thinking “Oh, that is interesting” or “I wonder how they did that effect” instead of being pulled into the stories. I think the people who would enjoy this film the most are the ones that love cheesy C-list horror movies. If you are into Goblin, or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, or maybe even Sharknado, this may be for you.