V/H/S/MIXTAPE Turns Music Into Terror on Shudder
V/H/S/MIXTAPE turns music and sound into terror with RZA, Flying Lotus, Tobias Forge, GWAR and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
The V/H/S franchise is turning up the volume for its next collection of found-footage nightmares.
Shudder has officially announced V/H/S/MIXTAPE, the ninth installment in the long-running horror anthology series. The new movie will premiere exclusively on Shudder on October 9, 2026.
This time, music and sound will not simply accompany the horror. They will become the source of it.
Music Becomes the Threat in V/H/S/MIXTAPE
Shudder describes V/H/S/MIXTAPE as an anthology exploring the ability of music, rhythm, and audio to haunt, possess, and destroy.
The new installment will combine cosmic horror, psychological suspense, graphic splatter, and practical effects within a single music-themed collection. Specific story details have not been revealed, but the concept gives the franchise a clear identity while fitting naturally with its obsession with recorded media.
Rather than asking only what might be hiding inside a damaged videotape, V/H/S/MIXTAPE appears ready to make audiences question what they are hearing as well as what they are seeing.
Who Is Making V/H/S/MIXTAPE?
The anthology will feature new segments from Ernest Dickerson, RZA, David Moreau, and Renee Zhan.
Dickerson directed the cult horror favorite Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, while Moreau recently directed the single-take French horror film MadS. RZA brings his background in both filmmaking and music to a project designed specifically around the collision of those two worlds.
Zhan’s segment will include original puppets created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, giving at least one story a practical-effects component that could feel very different from the franchise’s usual visual language.
The announcement does not identify segment titles or explain how the individual stories will be connected.
Flying Lotus and Tobias Forge Add Music-Video Nightmares
Flying Lotus will direct original music-video interludes appearing throughout the anthology.
He previously contributed “Ozzy’s Dungeon” to V/H/S/99, but his role in V/H/S/MIXTAPE appears to extend beyond a traditional standalone segment. The interludes could help give the movie the rhythm and structure of an actual mixtape rather than simply placing several music-related stories beside one another.
Ghost frontman Tobias Forge will also make his filmmaking debut with a new music video created for the anthology. Shudder describes the combination as a genre-bending experience unlike anything the franchise has previously attempted.
That wording leaves open plenty of questions about whether Forge’s contribution will function as a narrative segment, a performance, or something connecting the larger film.
GWAR Joins the Chaos
As though that lineup were not already unpredictable enough, GWAR will also make a featured appearance.
The shock-metal band’s theatrical costumes, grotesque characters, and deliberately excessive stage performances make it a natural fit for a franchise built around blood, practical effects, and images that look as though they were never meant to be found.
Shudder has not explained how GWAR will appear, but the band’s involvement reinforces the idea that V/H/S/MIXTAPE will treat music as more than a loose theme. The anthology appears designed as a collision of horror, music, performance, and cult cinema.
V/H/S/MIXTAPE Follows a Record-Breaking Franchise Entry
V/H/S/MIXTAPE follows V/H/S/Halloween, which premiered in October 2025.
According to Shudder, V/H/S/Halloween delivered the most-watched exclusive film premiere of 2025 across Shudder and AMC+. Its opening also drove Shudder’s largest subscriber-acquisition weekend of the year.
That performance makes another October installment unsurprising, but MIXTAPE does not sound like a simple attempt to repeat the previous movie. Its music-centered format, filmmaker lineup, puppetry, music-video interludes, and GWAR appearance suggest a much stranger direction.
What We Think
I have watched every V/H/S movie, and while I always show up for the next one, this has never been one of my favorite horror franchises.
That is not because I think the series is bad with most installments giving me one or two segments I enjoyed more than the movie surrounding them. I am always curious about the next collection, but the franchise rarely stays with me once the credits roll.
The original V/H/S remains one of the entries I enjoyed most, along with V/H/S/Beyond. “Stowaway” was the segment from Beyond that genuinely disturbed me. The way the alien ship repeatedly attempted to heal its injured passenger, gradually rebuilding her into something no longer entirely human, was exactly the kind of unsettling idea I hope to find in these movies.
That history may be why the MIXTAPE concept interests me and building this one around music, rhythm, and sound could take the franchise in a fresh direction. I won’t pretend that one announcement suddenly makes V/H/S a favorite franchise, but Ernest Dickerson, RZA, David Moreau, Renee Zhan, Flying Lotus, Tobias Forge, GWAR, and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop are strange enough together that I am once again curious to see what turns up on the next tape.
Source: Shudder
