'V/H/S/Mixtape' Endings Explained & Plot Summaries: Did Lydia Create The Perfect Song?

[Spoiler Alert] The ending of V/H/S/Mixtape was about Lydia creating the perfect song, just like her dad had directed her to. But, much like every other installment in the V/H/S/ franchise, it wasn’t just about that one story; it was about a bunch of different stories loosely tied together by the theme of music. Renee Zhan’s Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance was centered around a puppet master’s dark creations; Flying Lotus’ Another Cabin was about an old lady and her grandchild living in a cabin in the woods and tackling some giants. David Moreau’s Heartbeat followed a vlogger couple stumbling upon a mysterious room in the forest. Ernest Dickerson’s The Music of Mr. Sze saw a music enthusiast meeting a musician, leading to some disastrous consequences. Tobias Forge’s Premature Burial was about a woman seemingly burying a guy for no reason. RZA’s Deathtone featured Lydia taking a pretty demented route to making the best song of all time. And then there were the interstitials that had the band GWAR getting up to all kinds of shenanigans. Now, allow me to talk about these anthological tales and figure out the underlying meaning of these narratives (because, my god, were some of them confusing as hell).

Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance

Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance started off with a quartet of puppet characters–Riptide, Botulism, Hemlock, and Skeeto–bringing in a kid named George to sing the titular song for their show, The Curious Chorus. The narrative then moved forward to 2026, where George had become a grown man and the owner of the company that made the puppets for the aforementioned show. Vanessa, Sam, and Chris arrive at George’s office to document the place before they go ahead with their reimagining of The Curious Chorus. While the original show had puppets and animatronic creatures, the reimagining was slated to be completely 3D animated. Daisy, George’s assistant, warned the crew that George wouldn’t be happy with that. As predicted, George put his foot down regarding the digital scanning process; hence, Vanessa had to remind him that it wasn’t he who owned the puppets and the IP, but the studio that was paying for the “reimagining.” Now, when Chris started digitally scanning the puppets, they came out looking all demented and messed up. George said that the puppets didn’t want to be scanned, because digitally reimagining them was like writing their death warrants. None of the film crew took his warning in the literal sense, and continued with the scanning process. Sam, in the meanwhile, began wandering around George’s warehouse with his camera (there’s a Mr. Fun Size cameo) and stumbled upon one of the behind-the-scenes videos of The Curious Chorus, where it seemed like a young George was covered in blood. George found Sam snooping around; he also noticed that Sam had seen the suspicious BTS video. So, he took Sam, Vanessa, and Chris to the set of The Curious Chorus, got them (and Daisy) to puppeteer the puppets for a fresh episode of the show. That’s when they learned that the puppets were sentient and demonic. They mercilessly killed Vanessa, Chris, and Daisy; and when Sam tried to run out of there, the entire puppet shop came to life and butchered the kid. I think the message of this short is pretty obvious: don’t do digital reimaginings of a genre that’s synonymous with the physical craft that goes into it. I mean, look at the Muppets; they are endearing and fun to watch because they are puppeteered. The same goes for stop-motion animation, hand-drawn animation, or even live-action films and shows. The imperfections in the final products are a feature, not a glitch that should be fixed via digital renders. This is not a dig against 3D animation but, in this case, a key element of the show is the puppet work. Making 3D models of them kills their soul. Realistically, fans of the show would have protested against this abomination, but in this case, the puppets protested (in their own way).

Another Cabin

Another Cabin takes place in a cabin in the middle of the woods where a young kid feeds soup or porridge to his clearly ailing grandmother, but the lady hates the kid and the food. So, she slaps the food out of his hands and whacks him across the face. To deal with the pain, the kid goes to the window and looks outside. He spots a giant in the woods, which proceeds to thrust its tongue into the cabin and consume the grandmother. In an effort to save the old lady, the kid slams the window shut on the giant’s tongue, which forces the giant to retract its tongue. But the giant doesn’t give up; it rips off the roof of the cabin and attacks the old lady again. Surprisingly enough, the old lady uses the kid as a human shield in order to protect herself. However, the giant pushes the kid aside and rips off one of the legs of the old lady. As the kid tries to escape, the injured lady grabs hold of the kid, probably with the intention of trying to sacrifice him again. The kid kicks the lady in the face, freeing himself from her clutches, and then makes a run for it. The lady expresses shock; as if she didn’t see the kid’s retaliation coming after mistreating him all this while. That said, there’s no time to make amends, because the giant consumes the lady. Oddly enough, the giant’s face morphs into that of the old lady, and then it comes for the kid. And when it eats the kid, its face transforms into that of the kid, and then it turns towards another cabin in the middle of the woods. What was that all about? The dynamic between the child and the lady was probably a commentary on how older generations demand respect from younger generations, even though the oldies don’t show an ounce of kindness to the youth. And when the old timers get a taste of their own medicine, they express shock, because that’s the only way they can hide their guilt. The giant probably represents this cycle of hatred and serves as a warning that hatred is going to consume us all. The giant supposedly consumes what it hates, takes the shape of the latest hateful person it has consumed, and then its appetite changes according to the person it has consumed. Based on that theory, the giant might’ve consumed the lady’s son (the kid’s dad); hence, its hatred for the lady. When it takes on the lady’s form, it goes after the kid because she hated the kid. When it takes the kid’s form, it turns to that cabin, maybe because there’s someone in that cabin that the kid used to hate. With all that said, there’s a very thin line between hatred and desire. So, maybe the giant represents desire and only consumes what it lusts for. I’ll let you figure out the rest.

Heartbeat

Heartbeat followed a couple of vloggers, Maya and Wes, as they ventured into the forests near the Bulgarian border (after one of their subscribers recommended that spot to them) to get to a location which had the number 854 painted on the ground. Upon reaching the location, they found some sort of Russian military bunker there. The entry point to its lower levels was shuttered and locked, which should have been the first sign for the couple to take a U-turn and go back to their car. But they literally hacked their way into the place and kept going deeper and deeper until they reached a room called the Testing Chamber. The Testing Chamber was essentially a sound-proof room, similar to the real-life anechoic chamber in Orfield Labs in Minneapolis, which is supposed to absorb so much noise that you can hear the sound emanating from your internal organs. The longest someone has “survived” in that anechoic chamber is 45 minutes. Going back to the plot, the Testing Chamber had a record player in there, and when Wes (accidentally or intentionally) played it, the one and only door in the room got auto-locked. The door had a latch, but pulling on it did nothing. There was seemingly no service in the room; so, Maya and Wes couldn’t call for help. And then Wes began hearing the sound of his internal organs, which caused him to go crazy, and he killed himself. Maya was about to do the same, but that was when she heard a second heartbeat coming from her body, which meant that she was pregnant with Wes’ child. That gave her a sense of purpose; she knew she had to survive for the sake of her baby. Hence, when she ran out of food and water, she began eating Wes’ flesh. That was when the door opened, and the voice on the tape recorder stated something along the lines of “successful completion of test.” I think that the lock on the door was linked to the tape recorder, and it’s supposed to close when it’s played and it’s open when the tape reaches its end. So, the couple actually had two options: surviving till the end of the tape or fast-forwarding the tape so that they didn’t have to stay in there for the full length of the tape (I don’t know if that was an option). The reason why the couple wasn’t able to figure any of that out was because they were products of the digital world. That was probably the first time they had seen a tape recorder; hence, they didn’t understand that the timer and the key was right before them. No, I don’t think that the tape recorder and the door are unrelated, and someone was remotely controlling the whole thing, because there’s no one there. You can say the subscriber that sent them there might be pulling the strings, but since we don’t see them, I can’t make that assumption. Even if someone was there, what purpose would this test have served? Did the subscriber know about the purpose of this Testing Chamber and sent them in there to die because they hated their content? That’s a possibility. Which leads me to the final message of the short: Don’t go into dubious places for the sake of content, because it might lead to your demise. Yeah, Maya survived the ordeal, but was it worth it?

The Music Of Mr. Sze

The Music of Mr. Sze was told from the perspective of Phillip Howard, a budding documentary maker, with the help of his handicam and his smart glasses. While people would be aware if Phillip was using the handicam to shoot them, they’d be completely unaware that they were also being recorded via the smart glasses. And the subjects of his documentary were himself, the tenants at the ramshackle apartment he was living in, and its landlord, Mrs. Blandi. While all the tenants there were weird, Phillip took a liking to Sze because of his insane violin skills (which he could hear through the walls); so much so that he introduced himself to Sze and asked him if he’d like to play a piece for his documentary. Initially, Sze refused the proposal, but eventually, he agreed to perform for Phillip. He took Phillip to the attic, which was where he lived, and played a beautiful piece of music. After applauding Sze’s work, Phillip put forth a request by humming a tune that he had heard him play once before. That caused the lighting in the room to change, and the windows to bang. Sze got angry and ordered Phillip to stop humming the tune because it was “bad music.” When Sze asked how he knew about the music, Phillip said that he had heard him playing it as the walls and floors were thin. Sze began panicking, and requested Phillip to move to a different apartment; then he shut down the interview and told Phillip to leave his room. Later on, we see Phillip really moving to a different apartment after Sze promised to pay his rent as long as Phillip stayed away from him. The next time that Phillip ran into Sze, he had aged significantly. Phillip tried to entice him into rejoining his documentary, but Sze didn’t respond to him at all. So, when Sze was busy playing his weird music, Phillip snuck into the attic and caught a glimpse of Sze with glowing eyes. When Phillip next ran into Sze, his previously black hair had gone completely white. Phillip questioned him regarding that but Sze refused to answer. So, Phillip broke into Sze’s attic while he was gone and uncovered a massive object that looked like a polyhedral dice. When Phillip peered into it, he entered a portal, and what he saw in there wasn’t very clear. What I got from it was that that object had traveled from one habitable planet to another. When the inhabitants of that planet activated it, a portal opened, and a world-devouring monster entered to consume everything in its path. As the vision ended, Phillip exited the object (the aspect ratio shrinked) and Sze expressed shock at what the kid had done. He opened his window and, as shown in the object, he saw a giant, tentacled creature barreling towards them. He pulled out his special violin and started playing that forbidden music, thereby proving that he used that tune to keep the monster calm or at bay. That maneuver didn’t work this time, and the monster entered the attic and tore Sze into pieces. Then, one by one, it took out all the tenants. Blandi probably died too. The whole house was blown to smithereens. And finally, it got Phillip. So, I guess the main message of the short is not to meddle with something that you don’t understand just because you need content. You might think that you are smart because you have access to technology and whatnot, but your ignorance will undoubtedly lead to a fracture in the balance between Earth and the cosmos. Also, don’t use smart glasses (also known as pervert glasses) in private or public settings. To be honest, I hope that this is what happens to everyone who wears these pervert glasses; they’re an abomination, and everyone who wears them should be treated like a criminal.

Premature Burial

Premature Burial showed a devout Christian woman going to the church and then to the morgue, where she worked as a coroner along with her male colleague. She submitted some report to him and, moments after that, the man headed to his car, supposedly with the intention of going home. But he never made it home, because the woman injected him with a drug that knocked him out cold. When some students saw the man lying on the ground, the woman approached him and pronounced him dead. She put his body in the morgue and pretended to use his body for a public autopsy. Once everyone was convinced that the man was dead, she sewed his mouth shut, performed an open casket funeral, put a baby monitor in the coffin, and then sent him packing to the cemetery. When the woman heard the man waking up in his coffin, she went to the cemetery with a shovel. As she approached the cemetery, we saw a flashback where it was revealed that the man had assaulted the woman. Hence, she took her revenge by faking his death, shoving him into a coffin, and forcing him to dig himself out of the ground. However, just when the man thought that he had achieved freedom, the woman arrived at the cemetery, beheaded him with a kick, and then buried him again. The man died twice for taking advantage of the position that he held at his workplace and for being a demon disguised as a man. I suppose this “music video” (I didn’t understand the lyrics, I am sorry) shows how a narrative can be built around an incident to show a woman as the villain and the man as an innocent victim; whereas the truth of the matter is that the man is the villain and the woman, at least in this case, is avenging herself. The fact that she is taking revenge all on her own also seems like a commentary on the failures of the legal system and God. The woman can’t hope for the law to ensure that she’ll get justice. She prayed to God, but He didn’t come down to protect her. Hence, she had to take matters into her own hands. Does this mean that every woman should take matters into their own hands since every institution that’s supposed to make society a safe place is failing? I’ll let you be the judge of that. 

Deathtone

Deathtone was centered around Lydia, the daughter of a famous musician and a talented musician in her own right as well. Two months after losing her father, she sought to honor him in some way. That’s when she came across his old tapes, one of which had a message specifically for Lydia. In that recorded message, Lydia’s dad said that if she followed his instructions while creating this “perfect” track, he’d get to be a part of her life forever; also, apparently it was important for Lydia to record the whole track-creation process (it’s a clumsy way of integrating the found-footage gimmick). Initially, Lydia used regular instruments for the musical number, but she felt like they weren’t hitting the mark. After doing some drugs, her mind opened up. Lydia began luring unsuspecting people to her studio so that she could tear them apart in creative ways and use the sound of their screams and their limbs tearing apart to make musical beats (it’s kind of like the Sound of Violence). One of her murder sessions was interrupted by Detective Sharpe, who wanted to talk to her about the serial killings happening in her neighborhood. Lydia obviously feigned ignorance, and then tried to lure Sharpe into her trap. Since Sharpe respected his job, he didn’t end up becoming one of her victims; he just gave her his card and took off, thereby allowing Lydia to continue slaughtering people. When more people started to disappear from Lydia’s neighborhood, Sharpe paid her another visit, and this time he asked her if he could take a look inside just to make sure that she wasn’t up to anything suspicious. Lydia didn’t let him in, maybe because she wasn’t properly equipped to take him down. She told him to come back with a search warrant. 

In V/H/S/Mixtape’s ending, Lydia worked on the last musical piece she needed to make to complete the track, which involved her impaling herself in the recording studio and essentially dying by suicide. By the time Sharpe returned with that search warrant, Lydia had already done the unthinkable. While Sharpe went away to call the forensics department, Lydia used her final breath to hit play on the final product; she herself said that it was perfect. I guess this short takes a very puke-inducing approach to show what it takes to make art. Music is usually deemed a one-person job, but it involves the blood, sweat, and tears of numerous people who go unnoticed. So, in an attempt to create that perfect song, Lydia kills her “instruments” and desecrates the artform that’s an integral part of her and her dad’s lives. On the brighter side, the final product is still “human,” and not artificial. That said, this short does beg the question: Is it worth it to sacrifice yourself and several others in the pursuit of perfection, especially if you can’t ever enjoy the fruits of your labor? I don’t think it is but feel free to disagree.

GWAR Is [Interstitials]

The GWAR interstitials were a mystery to me. Usually, these segments have an overarching plot, but the ones in V/H/S/Mixtape were a total mystery to me because it seemed like a compilation of the band just doing whatever. The first short featured Grodius Maximus doing stuff in his bedroom that I can’t explain here without getting the website banned. The second short played out like a demented version of an ’80s dance workout video; again, I can’t really explain what she was doing in it because it’s too graphic. In the third segment, Balsac the Jaws of Death, Beefcake the Mighty, and Jizmak Da Gusha just fooled around with VHS tapes. In the fourth segment, Blöthar the Berserker pretended to not remember his lines, Balsac the Jaws of Death seemingly ate a human corpse, and Sawborg Destructo interviewed the Horror of the Cosmos (who ended up sending Sawborg Destructo on a cosmic acid trip). In the fifth segment, Beefcake the Mighty and Jizmak Da Gusha talked about the concept of found-footage movies (and then Beefcake proceeded to rip off the face of the guy that brought them a pair of severed feet) while Blöthar the Berserker talked about infernal sounds. And the seventh and final segment had Bonesnapper the Cave Troll munching on the entrails of his human prisoner. Make of that what you will.

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