V/H/S/85 Plot Summary
V/H/S85 is the latest movie in the popular V/H/S franchise, a series of films that will make you think twice before watching any old videotape that you discover in your attic.
This entry contains 6 horrifying stories, each one presented in the found footage format that the series is known for. We take a look at them all here, with a summary of each plot and a brief explanation of the endings of each tale.
Story #1: Total Copy
The wraparound story for V/H/S85 is “Total Copy.” We return to this segment at several points throughout the movie.
It follows a group of scientists, led by Dr. Spratling, as they seek to establish a connection with a mysterious creature they have nicknamed Rory. After months of tests and experimentations, the scientists are no nearer to understanding anything about the entity in their care.
But one evening, they make a startling discovery: Rory has the ability to transform itself into anything it observes. This becomes apparent when the creature becomes a copy of Gary, one of the team members.
Ending Explained – What does Rory do to the scientists?
Despite this worrying discovery, Dr. Spratling decides to carry on with the experimentations on Rory. Bad mistake! When Rory begins to show signs of sickness, Gary enters its room to administer adrenaline. When Rory reveals its true form, it attacks and kills Gary with its long tentacles and then targets Dr. Spratling and other members of the team.
At the end of the story, we see Rory manipulating the dead bodies of the scientists and making them dance like puppets. Weird, right? So, what is going on? Well, as the scientists had shown Rory keep-fit videos as part of their tests, it would appear that the creature is using the dead scientists as his playthings and making them move like the women in the workout videos.
Story #2: No Wake
In this story, we meet several young friends who are enjoying a weekend getaway in a lakeside setting. Some of them take a boat out onto the lake while the others stay behind.
It’s fun and games for those who are on the boat as some of them enjoy a spot of waterskiing. However, their afternoon of entertainment comes to an end after they fall under the crosshairs of a nearby sniper. They receive multiple shots to their heads and bodies and subsequently die.
But moments after experiencing death, they are mysteriously resurrected. When they return to shore, they discover the rest of the group has been killed by whoever was firing a gun at them.
Ending explained – How did some of the group survive? Who is firing the gun?
The water in the lake has miraculous properties that grants immortality to whoever touches it. We don’t know why the water has these properties but it explains why only those who entered the water survived the shooting. This doesn’t mean they are free from suffering, however. As they all lost part of their bodies after being fired upon, it’s not going to be plain sailing for them when they return home from their terrifying vacation.
We find out the identity of the shooter later in the movie. In the segment entitled “Ambrosia,” we meet a woman named Ruth who is celebrating her birthday with her family. These people have a murderous pastime – targeting the innocent – and we discover Ruth was the person who attacked the group at the lake.
Story #3: The God of Death
This story follows a TV cameraman named Luis who manages to survive when the building where he works is hit by a powerful earthquake. Along with a rescue team, Luis makes his way downstairs in search of an available exit.
After descending downwards for quite some time, the group stumble across an underground temple adorned with ancient Mexican engravings. Suddenly, one of the group becomes possessed by something and utters ominous warnings about Mictlan, the god of Death. He then takes a crowbar and plunges it into his chest before offering his heart as a sacrifice to the god.
Ending explained – Does Luis survive? Who is Mictlan?
The god of Death appears and then wipes out everyone except Luis and another survivor named Karla. This woman falls under the spell of Mictlan and impales Luis with the crossbar. After killing him, she tears out his heart and offers it to the god.
Worryingly, Mictlan isn’t somebody who has been made up by this segment’s writers. In Aztec and Mesoamerican mythology, he is the ruler of the underworld. You can learn more about this myth here. Presumably, the TV station in this story was built upon a gateway to the underworld, which is why Mictlan was awakened when the earthquake occurred and the survivors triggered his return.
Story #4: Ambrosia
As we have established, this story centres around Ruth and her murderous family. At the birthday party, they raise a glass to “the Seven, ” which is a link to their tradition of claiming seven lives. In the earlier segment at the lake, the group’s van was marked with the sign of “the Seven,” a connection to the seven lives that Ruth had supposedly claimed.
While the group are celebrating, the police arrive, causing everyone to take up arms. Carnage ensues and bloodshed is caused until Ruth is captured by the police. Unwilling to be taken by them, she shoots herself in the head. Much to her surprise (and everybody else’s), she survives the suicide attempt.
Ending explained – Why isn’t Ruth dead?
In “Ambrosia,” we saw one of the characters filling up a water gun with water from the lake. This gun later ended up in the hands of one of the kids at the party who subsequently fired it at Ruth.
Ruth survived because she had been blessed (or rather cursed) with the power of immortality. The tradition she was a part of required her to kill herself if captured but she was unable to fulfill this rule because of her newfound ability to escape death.
Story #5: TKNOGD
This segment centres on a performance artist named Ada who is putting on a stage play in front of a small audience. During her play, she rails against society’s fixation on the “God of Technology” and their over-reliance on technological devices. Her message is clear – don’t forsake God for the techno-god. It’s similar to the moment in the Bible when Moses is enraged about the false gods that the Israelites are worshipping.
Ada dons a VR headset to mock the supposed techno-god. She aims to prove it doesn’t exist but much to her surprise, it appears in the virtual realm.
Ending explained – What happens to Ada?
Ada is attacked by the God of Technology. Unable to remove the headset, she is murdered by this deity, in both the virtual and the real realm. The audience thinks her murder is all part of the show and that she is faking her death. This is why they applaud when they witness Ada’s death in reality and in the virtual realm on a connected screen.
The watching crowd likely assumed Ada was making a point about technology getting the better of us. It turns out that she was but not in the way she intended. At the end of this segment, Ada is dead. When her helmet is removed, she looks like an animatronic robot with its eyes hanging out, presumably as a result of the headset fusing itself into her brain.
Story #6: Dream Kill
This segment begins with a horrifying housebreak and a woman being killed by an unseen intruder. When Detective Wayne arrives at the house, he realizes he has previously seen this crime scene on footage on a videotape that had been mailed to him a few days before.
Further murders take place, each one foreseen by the detective on a mailed videotape. He investigates the case with his videographer Bobby and manages to find the person who has been mailing these tapes – Gunther, Bobby’s son!
Gunther tells Detective Wayne the tapes come from his family’s VHS machine that is somehow recording his dreams. These dreams are prophecies of murders that are about to take place. Bobby confirms these dreams to be true as his family suffers from a curse wherein their dreams become reality.
Ending explained – Who is the killer?
Of course, the real question is this one – how is the VHS machine recording Gunter’s dreams? We don’t get the answer to that question, unfortunately. However, we do find out the identity of the killer.
It turns out that Bobby is the killer, which Wayne is able to deduce when he learns his partner has a connection to the victims due to charges against him of stalking and sexual assault.
After being rumbled for the crimes, Bobby murders Wayne and then returns to the station to carry out his murder spree. While here, he tries to kill Gunther. But as his son had previously had a dream about this moment, he is prepared for his dad and has a gun in his possession. During their confrontation, Gunther is able to shoot and kill him.
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