Man with a Video Camera

Ruggero Deodato was hardly a darling film maker, so his passing last month was something of a pleasant shock receiving coverage in various mainstream media circles. Notorious, Italian jungle horror, Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is often credited as the grandfather of found footage films. So realistic was its depiction of human savagery, thanks to the cinéma vérité technique, Deodato wound up facing murder charges. Despite signing a contract to keep a low profile for a year, his cast members were urged to come to his rescue and prove his innoncence.

We've had the likes of Ghostwatch (1992) and The Last Broadcast (1998), but it wasn't until the massive success of The Blair Witch Project (1999) when the format became a mainstay for the following decades. Blumhouse Productions became a lucrative company, largely attributed to its Paranormal Activity franchise. The format also birthed various shaky cam ridiculousness like a poorly designed kaiju monster running amok in New York being told from a human perspective. The gonzo style found footage film was being applied to various outlandish concepts and wasn't leaving any time soon.

Without further ado, here's a selection of personal favourite found footage films:

[REC] (Jaume Belagueró & Paco Plaza, 2007): One of the greatest horror films of the noughties. What starts off as a filler "And finally..." news report for a late night TV crew, escalates into an utterly terrifying survival horror. Not going to lie, I still feel a little uneasy sitting in the pitch dark watching this film; very few films have ever made me feel like that. The film spawned a franchise; its follow-up sequel also being another strong contender, in my opinion.

Lake Mungo (Joel Anderson, 2008): A mockumentary that serves equally as a slowburn mystery as well as a supernatural chiller. One of the highlights from the period of the mid to late 00s that was  something of a mini-renaissance for Australian horror. 

Trollhunter (André Øvredal, 2010): Remarkable film that crosses fairy tale legend with the real world. This incredible mockumentary is amongst the greatest films of the 2010s, for this humble blogger.

Grave Encounters (The Vicious Brothers, 2011): A film that was probably based on that time when comedienne Jo Brand spent the night in a derelict mental hospital. Along with some well executed scares and its creepy atmosphere, what makes Grave Encounters such a stand out was it was the first example I had seen of the time limbo effect; a feature that was ripped-off by that mostly mediocre Blair Witch (2016) requel.

The Bay (Barry Levinson, 2012): Who would have thought that one of the best ecological horror films to come along in ages would be by the same bloke who gave us Rain Man (1998)? So much fun seeing how this escalates into a horrific epidemic disaster. 

The Borderlands (Elliot Goldner, 2013): Of the small wave of Vatican related films that cropped up during the 2010s, Brit horror, The Borderlands was the best one I watched. Gordon Kennedy from Absolutely (1989 - 1993) plays one of the two Vatican's investigators sent to a remote English church to disprove the supernatural occurences. The Borderlands contains one of the most memorable film horror endings from the last ten years.

The Den (Zachary Donohue, 2013): While the horror yoots were clamouring over internet horror, Unfriended (2014), The Den aka Hacked, went completely under the radar of most folk. A cyber-horror that does a superior job of propelling fear and paranoia than any supernatural revenge by a girl who shat her kecks.

V/H/S/2 (Various, 2013): A vast improvement over its predecessor. If only the rest of the subsequent sequels in this anthology series were just as good. Arguably, the best short film is Safe Haven, co-directed by Gareth Evans from the masterful The Raid action films.

As Above, So Below (John Erick Dowdle, 2014): AKA Lara Croft and the Philosopher's Stone. Subterranean set horror can offer a lot of atmospheric dread, and having this located in the famous catacombs and caverns below Paris makes it an enthralling experience. The only memomarable offering in this vein by a major studio.

The Taking of Deborah Logan (Adam Robitel, 2014): A documentary crew charting the plight of an elderly woman with Alzheimer's Disease, get something all the more unexpected. It's harrowing enough seeing the disease's ravaging effects on people, but something else entirely seems to be affecting Deborah.

Jeruzalem (Doron Paz & Yoav Paz, 2015): The weakest film listed here. Part shameless advertisement for Google Glass and part Judgement Day. The end of the world is unfolding in the ancient city of Jerusalem, but not before the viewer has to tolerate a vacation video for a huge chunk of time that feels like a Jet2 holidays commercial. Makes you thankful that it’s Armageddon time, innit?

Deadstream (Joseph Winter & Vanessa Winter, 2022): Already covered this film last month. If Deadstream hasn't already convinced you it's a spirtitual successor to Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981) then you only have to compare its trailer with that recently released, dull looking one for Evil Dead Rise (2023). Just when I thought found footage was out, the Winters pull me back in.

In summary, found footage films have been an insightful cultural phenomenom: a perfect example of people's love for voyeaurism, running parallel with the rise of reality television; simultaneously, they've also put us in a role akin to a bored guard during night watch and having to stare at a CCTV console. Interested to see where this format will go in the forseeable future with the progression of technical advancements in video capturing and streaming tech.