One ‘V/H/S/Beyond’ Segment Has a Brilliant Concept — And We Know What It Is (2024)

I’m a massive V/H/S fan. It’s a brilliant horror anthology concept that encourages bold and highly unique story ideas, and has a track record of putting the spotlight on some of the very best rising talent in the genre.

Before the release of Watcher, Chloe Okuno brought “Storm Drain” to the V/H/S franchise. The Night House, The Ritual and Hellraiser director David Bruckner is responsible for “Amateur Night” from the first V/H/S film and also just returned for the V/H/S/85 segment “Total Copy.”Jason Eisener gave us “Slumber Party Alien Abduction,” Edúardo Sanchez & Gregg Hale’s “A Ride in the Park” is top-tier, “No Wake/Ambrosia” just confirmed Mike P. Nelson is a horror filmmaker bound for big things, and Timo Tjahjanto’s “Safe Haven” from V/H/S/2 is a true classic. I could go on and on listing segments I adore, and now it seems as though I’m bound to add another to the list with the franchise’s upcoming installment, V/H/S/Beyond. One particular segment of the new film rocks an idea that’s not only right up my alley, but is also just generally a genius horror concept that’s never been done before. V/H/S/Beyond will feature a skydiving segment.

Many draw the line at jumping out of an airplane with a parachute. I, on the other hand, thrive off of the pre-jump jitters and overall adrenaline. No matter what side of that divide you fall on, “Live & Let Dive” is bound to be a highly effective concept.

Back in April, I had the chance to visit the set of the film. I’m told the opportunity to tap into the concept in the air will come (more on that soon), but on this particular day, we were on the ground in an orange grove. As long-time V/H/S producer Josh Goldbloom explained, “It's a bunch of kids going up to skydive for the first time.” He continued, “Mid-air they collide with a UFO, then they free-fall.” Ultimately, the group’s fight for survival continues when they land in an orange grove.

Given the fact that the V/H/S franchise is well known for being a low-budget production, one might be wondering, how? How can you possibly craft what’s meant to be a thrilling and gruesome horror short that involves skydiving and aliens with minimal resources? The answer? Director Justin Martinez. Goldbloom explained:

“Justin comes from a VFX background. He's worked with us on all of our V/H/S segments doing VFX, but he comes from Radio Silence. So he was with them up until Ready or Not. But for us, it was, ‘What can you bring to the table? We've never done anything where we've really leaned into VFX,’ and so we were like, ‘We gotta go all out. What's the craziest concept we could come up with?’”

Justin Martinez: From Radio Silence to Solo Director

After co-directing a segment in 'V/H/S' as part of Radio Silence, Martinez is flying solo for 'V/H/S/Beyond.'

Martinez had the team well covered in that respect. He began:

“I’ve been doing visual effects with these guys since 94, and I was obviously a director on the first V/H/S, and every year I was like, ‘I want to direct one! I want to direct one!’ And I kept on it, and finally one day, Josh called me and he said, 'I think we got a new V/H/S going and we’d love to try to get you to direct one of the segments. And I was like, ‘Alright, great!’”

Ultimately, Martinez came to the conclusion that he wanted to collaborate with someone on the script, so in came Ben Turner. Here’s what happened when Martinez whipped up the skydiving concept and pitched moving forward with the script with Turner:

“They heard about the skydiver idea I had and they were like, ‘Whoa, can you do that?’ Jaws were dropping thinking, ‘Whoa, we can do a plane crash and an actual skydive?’ That would be crazy.’ Josh went down the path of, can we produce this? And every time he came back, it was like, ‘Oh yeah, we can do this. I think we can do this. We can figure this out.’”

The team did indeed figure it out. “Live & Let Dive” will blend practical skydiving and gore effects with plane crash and alien visual effects, easily making the piece one of the franchise’s most ambitious productions yet.

We’ll have loads more exclusive behind-the-scenes material for you on the making of V/H/S/Beyond’s “Live & Let Dive” closer to the film’s release on Shudder on October 4. In the meantime, revisit V/H/S/85 by watching our chat with directors Mike P. Nelson, Gigi Saul Guerrero and Natasha Kermani below: