No matter how fond you are of epistolary storytelling, there's no denying the effect that these approaches have had on the horror genre. Famously depicted by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in writing and The Blair Witch in film, this form of delivery can be divisive, but for some, it also represents the peak of horror delivery systems. So why is it that these movies are held in such high regard by their fans, and what is it that so effectively allows them to keep our heart rate pumping?
Embracing Reality
In some modern forms of horror, appealing to the viewer requires big budgets, big effects, and big-name actors. Found footage, on the other hand, often goes in the exact opposite direction. It's common for these films to have shoestring budgets, minimal effect work, and actors with few credits to their name. It might seem contradictory, but all of these elements work in found footage's favour. The reality of home camera movies is that they look cheap. You'll never mistake Dad's videos for professional footage, and this idea gives it a tangibility that professional cameras and lighting can't produce. From here the scariest things we see aren't always bombastic, again, it's often the exact opposite.
Real horror, real violence, can be detached, routine, and banal. Rather than being shocked at a spectacle, we can find ourselves horrified at affronts to routine and our comfortable assumptions of safety. As for big actors, well, it's hard to put yourselves in the shoes of a protagonist as a real person if you've seen one of the other actors shooting lasers at supervillains in outer space.
Found footage films use the necessities of their production to their advantage, and they're far from the only form of entertainment to adopt this approach. Going on the other side of the spectrum, consider entertainment as demonstrated by bingo slots. These are games that don't need to reflect the origins of hardware game systems, yet titles like Wild Depths and American Gods still implement skeuomorphic elements from physical machines. Like found footage, it's about building a connection, and knowing which key elements should be relied on.
The Power of Imagination
A filmmaker can spend years of effort working with most creative industry professionals and dedicated focus testing groups to develop what they consider the scariest monster possible. Yet, as soon as we see what the creature is, much of the terror is lost. No matter the effort, no matter how deeply a design builds on existing fears, a physical form is a limitation.
When it was released to theatres in July of 1999, many people considered The Blair Witch project to be the most terrifying film they'd ever seen. Now, more than 20 years later, there's a huge proportion of the moviegoing audience that maintains this belief. Despite this popularity and the fear, we never learned the appearance of the eponymous witch.
The truth is, no matter how good your design is, the intrinsic fear of the unknown as made possible by the human brain is more powerful. When we can't categorise a fear it reaches deeper into our subconscious. Good found footage understands this aspect of our psychology, and it works within those bounds.
With the subgenre still holding a place within the horror sphere, we still can't but feel found footage films often struggle to live up to their potential. That said, the few standouts are easily among the most disconcerting experiences many of us have ever had in the imagined world. That is, provided the works are really those of fiction.
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No matter how fond you are of epistolary storytelling, there's no denying the effect that these approaches have had on the horror genre. Famously depicted by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in writing and The Blair Witch in film, this form of delivery can be divisive, but for some, it also represents the peak of horror delivery systems. So why is it that these movies are held in such high regard by their fans, and what is it that so effectively allows them to keep our heart rate pumping?
Embracing Reality
In some modern forms of horror, appealing to the viewer requires big budgets, big effects, and big-name actors. Found footage, on the other hand, often goes in the exact opposite direction. It's common for these films to have shoestring budgets, minimal effect work, and actors with few credits to their name. It might seem contradictory, but all of these elements work in found footage's favour. The reality of home camera movies is that they look cheap. You'll never mistake Dad's videos for professional footage, and this idea gives it a tangibility that professional cameras and lighting can't produce. From here the scariest things we see aren't always bombastic, again, it's often the exact opposite.
Real horror, real violence, can be detached, routine, and banal. Rather than being shocked at a spectacle, we can find ourselves horrified at affronts to routine and our comfortable assumptions of safety. As for big actors, well, it's hard to put yourselves in the shoes of a protagonist as a real person if you've seen one of the other actors shooting lasers at supervillains in outer space.
Found footage films use the necessities of their production to their advantage, and they're far from the only form of entertainment to adopt this approach. Going on the other side of the spectrum, consider entertainment as demonstrated by bingo slots. These are games that don't need to reflect the origins of hardware game systems, yet titles like Wild Depths and American Gods still implement skeuomorphic elements from physical machines. Like found footage, it's about building a connection, and knowing which key elements should be relied on.
The Power of Imagination
A filmmaker can spend years of effort working with most creative industry professionals and dedicated focus testing groups to develop what they consider the scariest monster possible. Yet, as soon as we see what the creature is, much of the terror is lost. No matter the effort, no matter how deeply a design builds on existing fears, a physical form is a limitation.
When it was released to theatres in July of 1999, many people considered The Blair Witch project to be the most terrifying film they'd ever seen. Now, more than 20 years later, there's a huge proportion of the moviegoing audience that maintains this belief. Despite this popularity and the fear, we never learned the appearance of the eponymous witch.
The truth is, no matter how good your design is, the intrinsic fear of the unknown as made possible by the human brain is more powerful. When we can't categorise a fear it reaches deeper into our subconscious. Good found footage understands this aspect of our psychology, and it works within those bounds.
With the subgenre still holding a place within the horror sphere, we still can't but feel found footage films often struggle to live up to their potential. That said, the few standouts are easily among the most disconcerting experiences many of us have ever had in the imagined world. That is, provided the works are really those of fiction.