Week 8: “Why I Love Found Footage Films”
It is my opinion that the sub genre of found footage films
has been given a bad name of late due to the numerous mediocre films bombarding
both the theater and the VOD and online streaming platforms. I love the found footage film; I always have
ever since I saw The Blair Witch Project
(1999) in a full capacity theater at a midnight screening. I had seen other films in this genre before
this film but this was the very first one I was able to see with such a large
audience. The film really had no effect
on me because, unfortunately, I was raised on horror films and its pretty damn
near impossible for me to find one that will scare or terrify me but this film
terrified the audience. People really
got into this film. They really believed
what was happening to the characters and believed that what they were watching
on the big screen was real. The film affected
them in a way that few other horror films ever had. Audience members screamed and laughed and
even yelled back at the characters on the screen. Here in lies the real effect that a found
footage has on its audience – it feels all too real. If the film doesn’t feel real then the illusion
of the found footage film is lost and it fails.
Now, one of my favorite films of this genre is Man Bites Dog (1992). This film was unlike anything I had ever seen
before. The closest film to this is Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). Both films are raw and uncompromising and
both stay with you long after the credits roll.
Another early found footage film is Cannibal
Holocaust (1980) which is not only the best example of an early found
footage film but also the crowning achievement of the cannibal films. This film is actually an amalgamation of the
found footage and traditional film but it comments on the nature of both in
such a way that it leaves the audience polarized after what they just
watched. Early films in this genre
tended to do this but that is not the case anymore.
I should also mention the little film The Last Broadcast (1998) which pre-dates Blair Witch Project but is not nearly as affective. Although both films touch on some of the same
themes Blair Witch is the film most
affective in grabbing hold of the audience and never letting go. The
Last Broadcast is just a pale imitation (even if it was released first).
The early ‘00s saw a huge list of noteworthy films from REC (2007), Diary of the Dead (2007), Paranormal
Activity (200), Cloverfield
(2008), The Poughkeepsie Tapes
(2008), Quarantine (2008) and Welcome to the Jungle (2007), to name a
few. Some of the most effective for
audiences were presented as raw one-take films – i.e. Cloverfield, REC, and its American remake Quarantine. This was a time
when the genre was at its most effective and audiences were standing in lines
for the latest found footage film.
Some of the reasons for this is that these films were
produced on very small budgets, didn’t rely on name actors and presented old
ideas in a new and entertaining way that seemed more real to the audience.
By the ‘10s the genre was relying on a tired formula despite
presenting new ideas. After several Paranormal Activity sequels and a glut
of knock-offs like Grave Encounters
(2011), Paranormal Entity (2009), Paranormal Asylum: The Revenge of Typhoid
Mary (2013), 7 Nights of Darkness
(2011), Paranormal Incident (2011), The Amityville Haunting (2011), Apartment 143 (2011) and Greystone Park (2012), to name a few,
the genre was never the same and couldn’t recover. It still can’t.
If you haven’t noticed there have been a huge glut of the
ghost and paranormal found footage film but there are plenty of other films
that decided to tackle other monsters like zombies in The Zombie Diaries (2006), Bigfoot in Willow Creek (2013), exorcism and demons in The Last Exorcism (2010) and The
Devil Inside (2012), trolls in Troll
Hunter (2010), space in Europa Report
(2013) and Apollo 18 (2011), the
underground in As Above, So Below
(2014), Frankenstein (and his monster) in The
Frankenstein Theory (2013) and Frankenstein’s
Army (2013), cannibals in Chernobyl
Diaries (2012), pregnancy in Devil’s
Due (2014), giant creatures in The
Bay (2012), Egypt and the pyramids in The
Pyramid (2014), and even crazy fanatics in The Sacrament (2013).
When a found footage film is successful it touches upon our
primal fear by presenting them in a more realistic manner than the traditional
film. This is why audiences adore
them. These films appeal to audiences
that would not normally go see a horror film.
Over the last few years we’ve seen the genre delve more into spectacle
and by so doing this lose their sense of realism and once that is gone they are
no longer an effective film but just another horror film that just looks
cheap. Films like The Pyramid and Frankenstein’s
Army and Troll Hunter appeal to
the horror fan but not to the casual film goer, whereas Paranormal Activity and The
Last Exorcism appealed to a larger audience. If the genre is to survive it needs to return
to the state of realism that it relies upon for its effectiveness.
As horror fan, I love Europa
Report just as much as I love The
Sacrament. The bad CGI took me out
of The Pyramid and The Frankenstein Theory was just atrocious
on all levels. Devil’s Due was a cheap-man’s Rosemary’s
Baby whereas The Bay was a
real-life cautionary tale in the vein of the original Japanese Gojira.
To some Apollo 18 was about
killer moon rocks and Cloverfield
gave people motion sickness but I enjoyed both of these films tremendously for
each of their own unique way of telling a story.
Maybe one day I’ll put together my list of all-time
favorites but until then just know that like most genres, the found footage film
is just in a downward position but it can return to the top at any moment and
since I’m looking forward to this year’s Paranormal
Activity: The Ghost Dimension I hope this happens sooner rather than later.
