Shudder’s beloved V/H/S series of horror movie anthologies returns with one of its most wild installments to date. The music-themed V/H/S Mixtape features four main segments by RZA, Ernest Dickerson, Renee Zhan, and David Moreau, alongside shorts by Flying Lotus and Tobias Forge. ComingSoon spoke with RZA, Dickerson, Zhan, and Moreau about their contributions to the film, which is now streaming on Shudder.
“V/H/S Mixtape cranks the franchise’s signature found-footage horror up to eleven with an electrifying new anthology where music and sound become the source of terror. United by a theme that explores the power of music, rhythm, and audio to haunt, possess, transform, and destroy, the film blends cosmic horror, psychological suspense, outrageous splatter, and groundbreaking practical effects into one unforgettable mixtape of nightmares,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Congrats to you all on V/H/S Mixtape. I really enjoyed the film. RZA, I’d love to hear about your love of found footage and what really appealed to you about getting to mix in your love of producing for your short, Deathtone.
RZA: Well, for me, I was introduced to V/H/S through my casting director, actually, Jeff Gaffner. I was working on an action film, and he was like, “Yo, you ever check out V/H/S? I think it’d be a cool thing. And they’re doing something called a mixtape where they are using music as a theme.”
So I met with Josh, and we kicked it off and had a good time. And it’s like, “Okay, let’s live it out.”
So for me, this was pretty natural. I’ve stayed away from horror for most of my work, as you know, for a long time. But I’m a Gravedigga, and I got three horror albums. That’s crazy. And for this particular segment, if you ever hear my song “1-800-SUICIDE,” you’ll see some of the ideas are there.
And I had my co-host as well, Matt, who’s a horror geek. He works over at the Vista Theater, and it’s a buddy of mine’s. And I was like, “Let’s have some fun.”
And we ended up with something that could put us in a studio, which I’m familiar with. But also, instead of people being like, “Yo, I put my whole life into this song,” okay, let’s have somebody put their whole life into the track for real. And this is my segment, and that’s the party for me right there.
Ernest, you made some really cool horror movies in the past. Bones is such a blast. I love revisiting that in particular. What is it about this genre that keeps drawing you back to it, and this time getting to do just a really wild found-footage story?
Ernest Dickerson: It’s a lot of fun. I mean, it’s a genre that I grew up watching, seeing in the movies. I grew up seeing a lot of old classic horror films, and I enjoy it. I like stories that have mystery. I like stories that you can’t tell what’s going to happen, stories that are full of surprises.
And it’s a genre, even in my first film, Juice, some people are recognizing that I did slip some horror elements in there. So it’s something that I just enjoy. I think it’s a way of exploring interesting ideas in new ways without actually hitting them straight on.
The best of horror is a way of talking about us, talking about what we’re going through, talking about people, talking about the human condition, talking about politics, talking about everything. There’s a lot of themes that you can deal with in horror and hit them in very interesting ways. Plus, it’s the perfect surrealist film. So that makes it really, really interesting.
Renee, I have to ask you about working with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. That had to be a dream come true. Were they just totally up for you doing something gory and wild? We don’t expect to see Muppets combined with carnage, but that’s what we get here.
Renee Zhan: Yeah, it was a dream come true, and they were totally up for that. The notes I got from them were like, “Go further with it. Make it more blood.”
Yeah, I think puppeteers and puppet makers, often they’re making stuff for kids, but I think they have a darkness inside them. And there’s a creepy—puppets are creepy. Even the nicest kids’ show has that weird edge to it.
I think it’s that uncanny valley thing where it’s something that feels alive and looks alive, but isn’t. So I think puppets are actually the perfect vehicle for horror.
David, your short, Heartbeat, has this challenge of staying visually interesting because so much of it is based on sound. How did you tackle that aspect of the film? Because I was engaged the whole way through.
David Moreau: Oh, yeah. What was really tough is I always wanted to make a story with having to get inside this anechoic chamber and to experience what it is when you hear your own body.
Because you shoot it as found footage, you’re not able to do the same shots that you would do if you were shooting a typical, a classic movie, where you can have as many close-ups and whatever you want, and to have a huge close-up on the ear. And then you can hear what they’re hearing by having the camera almost inside the ear or the mouth or the nose or whatever.
So I had to find a way to have my characters moving and changing the camera and putting the camera through the action in a way that was able, with the sound mix and the sound design, to have the audience hearing what they were hearing. And that was a very, very interesting process. Very interesting and very fun.
RZA, I really love the lead actress in yours, Nila Jolene. I got some American Psycho, Patrick Bateman kind of vibes from her. Can you speak to working with her? She looks so innocent, and so it’s so fun seeing her go all out here.
RZA: Yeah. I mean, I think I’ve been fortunate a little bit as a creator to come across talent that needs to be exposed to the world. I think she’s one of them.
She was so cooperative, so down. Some of the kill scenes in the film, of course, they’re on the paper, but they’re not as groovy and as crazy as we actually shot them. And she was so down for it.
And I think by the time we got to day three, I think she really embraced that character because I’m like, “Yo, fuck it, kill him and dance as you kill.” And she was dancing and having fun. And she had a lot of trust in me as a director, and she really just let it flow. Cooperative. I know she never told me no.
Only one thing she said no to, if I could speak on it. I almost took out the final scene where she’s kind of on the floor because there was so much mess. I was like, “Yo, you know what? We don’t got to shoot that. I’m going to find another way out.”
She said, “No, I was looking forward to that.” I said, “Okay, let’s do it.” And boom, boom, it’s in the movie.
Ernest, I love the slow build to your short because the last 10 minutes of yours is just absolutely insane. Can you speak to just going balls to the wall with the finale section of yours? Because I’ve never seen much like it. It’s incredible.
Ernest Dickerson: Yeah. I wanted to be like our main character. You’re listening to this sound that you hear, and you want to find out more about it. And all of a sudden, you find yourself in the middle of something you can’t get away from, something that you wish you would never gotten involved in.
Another thing I love about horror cinema is leading an audience on. I like ball-of-twine stories where you start off with one little thread and you gradually unwind it, and you wind up getting involved in something deeper and heavier and full of surprises.
And so I was able to concoct that story and do it that way. Because once he looks into that crystal, it’s over. It’s over.
Renee, I was curious what the influences were for the tone of a kids’ show gone wrong for you. Because I was thinking Wonder Showzen and the Kazoo Kid YouTube video. I kind of got those vibes. So what were your influences?
Renee Zhan: Yeah. I think there’s a really fine history of puppet horror in this way, but I was mostly looking at just pure kids’ shows. I was thinking about the shows that I watched growing up, like the Teletubbies and the Muppets and Fraggle Rock, and just thinking about the possibilities there for how to turn those into something dark.
Because I think there is that underlying dark tone in a lot of those shows unintentionally, and I just wanted to bring that out and play with it.
David, my last question. Heartbeat plays on influencer culture with the setup and urban exploring gone wrong. What made you want to sort of lampoon that and use that as a framing device for yours?
David Moreau: I watch tons of YouTube videos of urbex, people getting to weird places, and I just think it’s scary.
My first feature film, back years ago, we shot it on video, but it was not exactly found footage. What I love with found footage is that you’re avoiding putting the camera in a place where your characters are not.
So it’s very tricky because you have to use the sound in order to enhance the suspense or enhance the scares. Because, for example, if you have two people in a room and there is somebody outside the room, you cannot shoot it because basically your characters have the camera on them. So you cannot show what’s behind the door, but you could just hear what’s behind the door. I always thought it was scarier.
And I think, as an audience, the last movies that really scared the shit out of me were found-footage movies. So I just wanted to try one. And using those Insta360 cameras, where you basically can see 360 degrees, I thought it was just a new and fun way to try found footage.
Thanks to RZA, Ernest Dickerson, Renee Zhan, and David Moreau for taking the time to talk about V/H/S Mixtape.
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