The controversial Cannibal Holocaust (1980) followed Professor Harold Monroe as he travelled to the treacherous jungles of South America to seek the whereabouts of a film crew who disappeared while making a documentary on the primitive cannibal tribes that lived there. After finding the remains of the crew at the home of one of the tribes, he also discovered several reels of their undeveloped film. With this, the concept of found footage in cinema was born - a concept that would develop into one of the most loathed, overused and uninspiring sub genres in filmmaking. The Blair Witch Project achieved cult status because of its original take on the horror genre, letting audiences see through the eyes (or lens) of the films characters for a feature length period for the first time. Clever and convincing viral marketing combined with the documentary style format to uncomfortably blur the lines between fact and fiction, making everything that bit more terrifying. Since then, horror has latched on to found footage like a really clingy girlfriend and refuses to let go despite the fact that the relationship between the two is about as stale as a year old loaf. Other genres have dabbled in found footage to different levels of success, but franchises like Paranormal Activity are seemingly never ending. There are verging on unlimited reasons why found footage should stay as lost as Tom Hanks in Castaway, but heres five big ones...
5. A Series Of Cheap Jump Scares Does Not A Horror Film Make
There are plenty of elements of a successful horror film. Use of soundtrack, suspense and impact is very important when it comes to truly scaring an audience and some would argue that psychological horror is far scarier than anything visual. Most found footage films, however, rely far too heavily on cheap visual jump scares which may provoke a reaction in the moment, but dont make the experience particularly memorable. Paranormal Activity had a few decent scare ideas, like the footprints in the talcum powder and Recs fumbling around with night vision in the dark got a lot of peoples hearts pounding. Its just unfortunate that instead of using the found footage format to put characters in scenarios like these that couldnt be replicated to the same effect in regular films, a lot of them resort to sudden changes in perspective to reveal something that looks a bit scary. There is some potential for horror in found footage, it just seems that no one can be bothered to tap it for more than a scene or two.
4. No One Uses Handheld Cameras That Way. Ever.
There are very few people in this world that when faced with a perilous situation involving ghosts, monsters or zombies would pick up a video camera and document every single thing that goes on around them. Cloverfield forces Huds constant life-risking use of a handheld camera by making him repeatedly scream People have to see this! every time anyone questions why hes filming things even though its established that theres pretty significant TV news coverage. No one would do that. In George A Romeros highly unnecessary venture into found footage Diary Of The Dead, after escaping a zombie infested hospital and realising hes left his camera charger behind, instead of escaping with the rest of the group the camera wielding buffoon runs back for it. No one would do that. Similarly, in Paranormal Activity 3, Dennis films everything that goes on in his life ever, including himself editing video footage. No one would do that. Essentially, found footage is something that would never exist in reality because no one would make the footage in the first place. And with that in mind, it can never be in any way convincing.
3. On That Note, Its Far Too Difficult To Stay Convincing
One of the major difficulties in making a found footage film is maintaining believability and consistency. Chronicle is a prime example of this. A new spin on the found footage idea, it introduced the concept to the superhero genre, following a group of kids as they come to terms with having telekinetic powers after coming into contact with a big glowing thing that isnt explained whatsoever at any point in the film. With a films characters having the ability to move things with their mind comes the unique opportunity to have them make the camera float up and around them. The films lead role, Andrew, does this a lot, having the camera float just over his shoulder. However, despite the fact that no one but his two closest friends know of his superpower, no one seems to find it surprising. One scene in particular where this is most obvious is when a masked Andrew approaches three friendly local junkies and demands their money. Junkie #1s reply is Whos that? Is that Andrew?! and not the more reasonable response of How the hell is that camera floating behind your head?!. If a found footage film forgets its a found footage film for even a split second, all credibility and believability is lost, along with the concentration of any intelligent audience.
2. TOO MANY SEQUELS
Sequels often spawn off the back of a films successes, which is an entirely reasonable process. Found footage films are generally only successful, however, for all the wrong reasons. Not because they were in any way groundbreaking, or because they involved fantastic cast performances, but because the general publics expectation of them is that theyll be the most involving cinematic experience theyve ever encountered. An expectation which, given the fact that they never are, is completely unfounded. It seems that people will never give up though, and as long as found footage sells out cinema auditoriums, franchises like Rec and Paranormal Activity will continue to churn out horribly average sequels in the quest for that extra bit of cash. Even The Last Exorcism, which to be honest didnt even do that well, will soon see a sequel purely because of this reason. Sequels should only be made if theyre intended to further a quality story that people are fond of, not to repeat everything that people liked in the original in a different setting because theyre gullible enough to pay for it all over again.
1. Itd Save Cinema Staff A Lot Of Work
Many people get car sick, sea sick, travel sick, whatever. Its considered fairly normal. When youre in a moving vehicle, at least. The constant swaying, zooming in and changing focus in some found footage films is enough to make even a weather hardened sailor gag, so its no surprise the amount of people who end up throwing up an hour or so in. Cloverfield was one of the worst for this. Although arguably one of the best examples of a coherent and interesting found footage film, while working in a cinema myself I saw many of its victims, including the palest man Ive ever seen fall to the floor on his way to the toilet. Cinema staff have a tough enough gig as it is. The amount of crap that gets left behind after a sold out screening of anything can take ages to clean. They could really do without the additional vomit that found footage brings. Got any other reasons why found footage should be left well alone? Want to stand up for a found footage film you love? Leave your comments below! After begrudgingly leaving the position of Chief Vomit Cleaner at an undisclosed cinema chain, Fareed Athman writes for
Appliances Online . Hes really boring, but if you really want to you can follow his adventures on Twitter @athmaf