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Anthology films have become synonymous with the expression “mixed bag,” as it’s incredibly difficult to bring in multiple different directors with distinct voices to create short films and expect there to be an equal level of quality or tone. In my opinion, that’s part of the fun. An anthology film gives me the chance to micro-dose an experience of a time gone by, where I’d agonize over VHS box cover art in the hopes that whatever I brought home would become my new favorite movie. If it didn’t, that’s okay, because I could just move on to the next one. The “V/H/S” films capture that experience, and every so often, a segment transcends its place within the anthology and becomes something singular. There are plenty of “V/H/S” segments that I adore and can watch on repeat without ever tiring, but there will always only be one “Safe Haven.”
Co-written and co-directed by Gareth Huw Evans (“The Raid,” “The Raid 2”) and Timo Tjahjanto (“The Night Comes for Us,” “Killers”), “Safe Haven” is the longest segment in “V/H/S/2,” and legitimately the greatest horror short film ever made. A group of documentary filmmakers armed with visible and hidden cameras investigate the Paradise Gates cult in Indonesia and are met with an immediate sense that something is very, very wrong. Cult stories often all end the same way, and such is the case with “Safe Haven,” but this isn’t something as simple as consuming poison on a mass scale. The members of Paradise Gates will not go out quietly, and their violent massacre of one another is to celebrate the arrival of something growing inside one of the documentary members, Lena. “Safe Haven” is the perfect blend of psychological torment and graphic atrociousness and remains the greatest horror movie of the century — short film or not.
Safe Haven goes beyond the scope of traditional found footage
While “Safe Haven” thrives regardless of horror subgenre, it’s also the gold standard of found footage — and I suspect “The Blair Witch Project” would be proud. It’s so expertly paced that even before all hell breaks loose, viewers must sit with the dread of already sensing the inevitable bloodbath that is to come. The hidden camera POVs spark a disorienting experience, which is only exacerbated when the tone shifts from an unsettling calmness to visceral terror.
As /Film writer Matt Donato explained in his argument for our “Scariest Scenes” column, “Between the gunshots and demonic birthings, ‘Safe Haven’ cycles through a cavalcade of horror ideas.” Donato continues, “Where anthology segments sometimes play too simply, hinging on one sole reveal, ‘Safe Haven’ explodes with excess. It’s a rare cinematic experience that has snowballing momentum from start to finish, rolling faster downhill, picking up speed until reaching the finish.”
“Safe Haven” is so good that people genuinely forget just how good it is until they rewatch it, especially with what Evans and Tjahjanto choose to reveal compared to where they force our imaginations to run wild. The practical effects still hold up, the cult leader is a haunting presence from start to finish, and the bell that goes off before “the time of reckoning” now triggers a Pavlovian response that makes my heart race. “Safe Haven” provides horror fans with anything but, and no film since it has been able to match its glory. I fear that I’ll spend the rest of my life chasing the full-body high that this segment provides … but that’s the thrill of the hunt.
On today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast, we ranked all of the V/H/S films in honor of the new release of “V/H/S/Beyond.” Take a listen to find out where “V/H/S/2” falls on the list:
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