Is found-footage horror dead? – Polygon

In the 2010’s it was clear that the best approach to making a successful horror movie was to present it in found-footage format. In 1999, this mode of storytelling was relaunched. Blair Witch ProjectContinued by Paraactivity Its followers, the technique was all about simulating the idea that a given movie wasn’t professionally filmed, but had somehow captured real events. The technique was created to appear and feel normal footage, but eventually it would become something frightening.

This could increase the intensity of horror movies by creating a more realistic or immersive experience that feels more like a real film. Arguably more important for the bigwigs in Hollywood, found-footage movies’ rough visuals and rip-and-grip production made them cheaper to produce than normal horror fare. But what’s rampant one day in the moviegoing scene tends to become scarce the next. The classic found-footage horror film is mostly dead, although core ideas of the genre remain in various forms of scare storytelling.

The original incarnation of found-footage horror cinema could’ve lasted longer if it weren’t for that fatal flaw of burnout. As with all the digitally manipulated 3D movies that were produced after, it was similar. Avatar’s success in 2009, every studio in Hollywood began to release found-footage movies in the 2000s in the hopes of striking it rich at the box office with the next Blair Witch Project. Because these titles were cheap to manufacture, even the most basic of operations could quickly assemble them. Even the cash strapped Weinstein Company could still produce these titles. Apollo 182011

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With so many found-footage horror movies in the ecosystem, the subgenre’s cliches became glaringly apparent to moviegoers. As a result, the habitual shaky-cam movements became more nauseating than an integral part of the cinematography. Titles like Gallows It was difficult to come up with clever explanations for why characters continued filming, even in chaotic and scary times. This kind of lazy writing, inspiring incessant “Why don’t they put the camera down?!” jokes on the internet, quickly drowned out any potential excitement for new found-footage titles.

It didn’t help that found-footage movies struggled with a “live by the sword, die by the sword” problem. It was the excitement at using relatively new technology like digital cameras that allows you to create movies such as “The Shining.” CloverfieldThis gave these projects an air of realness and made them more relatable. They used tools that were common to most moviegoers. Technology became increasingly integral in everyday life, so it was clear that horror movies based on found footage were perfectly positioned to remain relevant in the international cinematic landscape.

Nowhere was found-footage horror fare’s capacity to be blisteringly current more apparent than in Blair Witch Project. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s film emerged from a decade of cinema where aspiring filmmakers were trying to use minimal financial means to make the next ClerksOder El Mariachi. The perfect method to bring a terrifying horror movie to the 1990s was to capture a group of amateur filmmakers using their camera. Found-footage cinema is the best way to capture that aspect of horror visuals.

Blumhouse Productions

However, the genre’s later entries were no longer technologically or artistically relevant. Particularly, they felt outdated in relation to how other characters recorded strange occurrences. In 2015, there were titles such as Project Almanac were still centered on young characters walking around with big video cameras, but that just wasn’t how people recorded everyday footage anymore. The idea of young people using professional cameras for unusual events feels laughably outdated in the age of Zoom calls and smartphones.

The ever-expanding treasure trove of information on the internet also kept found-footage creators from convincingly swaying moviegoers into believing that what they were watching was “real.” Back in 1999, Blair Witch Project Its whole marketing campaign relied on the assumption that the missing young men featured in the movie were really dead and that clues from their disappearance could be found in the film. This marketing concept that was sustained over months in late 1990s would soon be discredited on Twitter within hours. In 2023, the core appeal of horror films from early found footage has been wiped out by rampant cynicism as well as easy accessibility to Wikipedia.

But that doesn’t mean everything about this style of filmmaking is dead. Some of the tenets that made found-footage a genre are now part of the screenlife subgenre. These films are examples of Not friended, Profile, You are looking forPlease see the following: What’s missingAll of the action takes place on computers screens. The characters are still being filmed by amateur means while facing intense scenarios, but now it’s through screen capture. There’s also a more incidental nature to how characters’ actions are recorded, with protagonists often unaware they’re being filmed.

Many horror films capture the same raw and immersive feel of found-footage movies, but in different ways. Recent horror movies SkinamarinkThrough cinematography that recalls older, gritty home videos, it depicts the inexplicable terrors of suburban life. Kyle Edward Ball was the director. Skinamarink to look like something you’d find on a blank VHS tape in a garage-sale bin. The film is rooted in vintage found-footage tradition of showing something frightening hidden in plain view, which can only be seen through an ordinary camera’s lens.

Image by Shudder

SkinamarinkContrary to its found-footage predecessors it never pretends that the camera is being held by an in-universe character. Spiritual successors to the likes Paranormal Activity have avoided the pretense that audiences are watching “real” people. You are looking for What’s missingJohn Cho and Storm Reid are the recognizable stars that anchor them, respectively. You can also see the opening credits for We’re All Going to the World’s Fair — an earlier grainy, immersive horror movie that captures the same voyeuristic vibe as Skinamarink — introduces lead performer Anna Cobb as making “her feature film debut.” Though FairAlthough it tells its tale mainly through its own YouTube playlists, and Skype calls to share its terrifying story, there is still a clear barrier that separates reality from fiction.

Classic found-footage movies usually explain the presence of a camera by having someone controlling it (like T.J. Miller’s character Hud in CloverfieldOr making clear to viewers that the camera has been attached to a tripod, or another similar object (like in the Paranormal Activity movies). The new horror movies following in their wake aren’t meant to be “real” pieces of footage. This allows directors to be more flexible about what their audience sees. What’s missingBy flipping across the time, “” shows both her mother’s desktop activity and that of the protagonist. We’re All Going to the World’s FairCuts between disturbing videos that Casey (a teenage torturer) watches and JLB (a concerned adult J. Rogers).

Skinamarink goes the furthest with this deviation by framing many of its shots in such an aloof manner that moviegoers can’t even see the faces of the two young protagonists. While certain shots place viewers directly into a character’s point of view, most of the time, SkinamarinkIt is about capturing the main features of suburban homes (toys in the basement, living rooms, and floor) using angles and vantage points that are as unique as the incidents which have occurred.

Image by Utopia

The camera’s positioning is intended to cause viewers anxiety by the contrast between unorthodox angles and the grainy appearance that evokes familiar home movies. These moving choices are in Skinamarink’s camerawork would be impossible to realize if the movie kept the camera permanently locked in a character’s hands.

There is no movie that stays alive, even if there are throwbacks and revivals of old movies. That’s just as true for found-footage horror movies as it is for musicals and Westerns. Check out the latest found-footage movie The Outwaters(See the proof. However, this original version of found footage horror, which dominated the 2010s, has since been discarded. The genre of found-footage horror is now more visual and flexible, but it still captures this dynamic. It’s glaringly apparent what killed the trend, but it’s just as obvious that key facets of the genre are continuing to captivate and frighten moviegoers today. They’re just popping out of the shadows in very different ways.