Review: Shudder’s ‘The Found Footage Phenomenon’ Doc Entertains but Just Scratches the Surface

The Found Footage Phenomenon is now available to stream on Shudder

Found footage horror is a sub-genre that has a devoted fan base. These stories feel like there are real stakes for the people involved and invoke robust responses from their viewers when done well. Now streaming on Shudder is the documentary The Found Footage Phenomenon, written and directed by Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott. Taking us through the history of the art form with film footage and interviews from many of the pioneers whose films captured the zeitgeist of their audiences. 

Found footage is a cinematic technique in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were discovered in film or video recordings. The events captured are sometimes from one person’s point of view while the actions unfold around them. 

The origins of the “found footage” have roots in classic horror literature. Bram Stroker‘s Dracula is told exclusively through correspondence between our protagonists as if we’ve come across letters and journal entries never meant for our eyes. Mary Shelly‘s Frankenstein has sections that are uncovered notes. The infamous War of the Worlds radio play from Orson Welles was entertainment that captured the audience off guard and caused hysteria in some regions. Fiction aligned with truth has always effectively walked that line of reality versus fantasy. 

The Found Footage Phenomenon touched on the genre’s beginnings when it wasn’t even defined. Movies like Peeping Tom (1960) put the audience in the POV of the killer, making the camera dangerous. The Mondo films from Italy traveled the world, opening audiences to horrors far beyond their communities. In response to the travesties being captured in Vietnam by war journalists, we got films like Cannibal Holocaust from director Ruggero Deodato, who wanted to replicate the brutality fed into homes during the nightly news. 

As home movies grew in the populous, chronicling family events became commonplace for many people. A safe domestic experience in the mind of society at the time. Director Dean Alioto talks about his UFO abduction movie The McPherson Tape from 1989, which takes the home movie setting to terrifying places. The film is still widely hailed as one of the first actual found footage horror movies. Out of England, Lesley Manning‘s Ghostwatch (1992) used real-life BBC news programs as inspiration to trick the viewers as the presentation was something familiar and welcomed. 

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Timing is everything of course, especially with the blockbuster Blair Witch Project (1999), the internet was still in its infancy. Director Edwardo Sanchez and his team were able to market the movie with their website, that only added to the believability and lore. When the events of September 11th unfolded, so much of the footage captured were by people on the street with video and phone cameras. National trauma gave way to the “torture porn” craze in cinema with the success of Saw and Hostel. Movies like Megan is Missing  (2011) bridge the gap between the filmmaking styles. Suddenly directors were pushing the envelope and seeing what they can get away with. 

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (author of Found Footage Horror Films) is the standout interviewee in the documentary. She speaks on several subjects, but the one that resonated with me is the exploitation vs. storytelling aspects of found footage. Are the filmmakers trying to make a statement, or are they just being cruel for cruelties’ sake? It’s a valid argument. Can a filmmaker make a boundary-pushing or uncomfortable subject matter become a discussion? Or will their presentation of a taboo subject matter only serve to alienate and disgust much of the audience? It’s a question that can be asked of films in general.

Found footage has spikes and dips rather than cycles like traditional horror has. The advances in technology are directly intertwined with the reemergence of new found footage entries. Cheaper cameras, home security cams, mounted rigs, YouTube, and cell phones all allowed a more expansive group the chance of the DIY filmmaking experience. Even during the pandemic, the use of Zoom became the norm for communication amongst friends, family, and businesses. Rob Savage’s Host used the new communication tool as the backdrop for his breakout horror hit. 

For every Paranormal Activity, we get hundreds of imitations that never see the light of day outside of streaming services, which is also a new advancement. As Hollywood jumped on the trend with movies like Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead, smaller competing films were either bought out, shelved or buried as imitators despite being made earlier. A realization that left a bad taste in my mouth. Only briefly noted is the idea that despite the success of a few, the genre isn’t very respected by critics. A big part of the dips is that upon release, something like a Blair Witch Project becomes fodder for parody almost immediately in pop culture.

With the success of recent docu-series such as Cursed Films and Horror Noir, I would have enjoyed this as a series instead. Focusing on a decade for each episode, examining the filmmakers themselves and their influences, and diving into some of the campier examples of the genre that audiences embraced without the box office to back it up.

However, I found The Found Footage Phenomenon to be highly entertaining and informative. There will be many viewers who may not be as familiar with these titles as others, and I think it will open avenues to explore. I hope this documentary is successful and they can dive deeper in a follow-up film. There is so much “lost” footage out there, just waiting to be discovered. 3.5/5

You can check out the trailer for The Found Footage Phenomenon below and the film is now available on Shudder. Be sure to follow ScaryNerd for all things horror, sci-fi, fantasy and everything in between.

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