Found Footage Horror and the Evidentiary Effect

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While Aldana Reyes argues the genre should be defined entirely through style, her analysis remains concerned with narrative absorption. (Reyes 2016, 124).

2 Heller-Nichols (2014), Formenti (2020), Roscoe (2000), and Rhodes (2002) all highlight a similar paradox between the realist conceit of the genre, and the reflexivity of the aesthetics. Christina Formenti argues the paradoxical nature of the genre fuels the affective project of the genre. The realist aesthetics simultaneously pull the viewer in and exposes the limitations of the camera as an instrument of revelation, and by extension, nonfiction filmmaking more generally (Formenti 2020).

3 Jane Roscoe (2000) makes a similar claim about the investment and distance created by the documentary aesthetics of The Blair Witch Project.

4 My definition of realism is indebted to Roland Barthes’s “Reality Effect,” which claims that the use of description in literature collectively denotes the impression of reality (1986).

5 The Blair Witch Project (Dir. Sanchez and Myrick 1999) was reported to have generated countless physical reactions and complaints by audiences. Many theaters screening Cloverfield posted warning signs stating that audiences would not be able to receive due to motion sickness. (Elsworth 2008; Wax 1999)

6 Lifted from avant-garde film practices, the modern found footage horror film is a far cry from the works of artists like Bruce Conner and Joseph Cornell. Though avant garde found footage traditionally refers to the artist’s practice—the recycling or manipulation of footage shot by someone else—the horror’s reappropriation of the term foregrounds the material premise of the genre.

7 Discussions of found footage often link the aesthetics to narrative absorption and identification (Reyes 2014; Raimondo 2014; Grant 2013; McKeweon 2019; Surace 2019). More often than not, these works argue the style creates the feeling that the viewer is located in the film by identifying with the camera or a character.

8 Of course, contemporary viewers do not need to have direct knowledge of these documentary traditions. Rather, they can have familiarity with nonfiction practices that have developed since the rise of verté and observational documentary, such as amateur news footage, or amateur video circulated online (Wetmore 2012; Heller-Nichols 2014). Nonetheless, these arguments presuppose a familiarity with the rhetoric of nonfiction material.

9 Examples of films that feature rewatching footage include [REC], Quarantine, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (Dir. Jung 2018), and across the Paranormal Activity franchise.

10 Paranormal specialists, scientists and doctors can be found in the Paranormal Activity franchise, [REC] and it’s sequels, The Bay (Levinson 2012), The Blair Witch Project, Cannibal Holocaust (Deodato 1985), The Last Broadcast (Dir. Avalos and Weiler 1988), Lake Mungo (Dir. Anderson 2008), Noroi (Dir. Koji 2005), among many others.

11 My argument invokes Andre Bazin’s theory of photographic image, where he famously claims “No matter how fuzzy, distorted, or discolored, no matter how lacking in documentary value the image may be, it shares, by virtue of the very process of it’s becoming, the being of the model of which it is is the reproduction; it is the model” (Bazin 2005b, 14).

12 Any film concerned with investigation will typically play with the problems associated with night vision. Examples can be found in [REC] and Quarantine sequels, as well as The Blair Witch Project, Blair Witch (Dir. Wingard 2016), Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, the Paranormal Activity franchise. Glitching has also become a staple of found “desktop” films, such as The Den (Dir. Donohue 2013), Unfriended (Gabriadze 2014), Unfriended: Dark Web (Dir. Susco 2018), Host (Dir. Savage 2020).

13 Drawing upon documentary scholarship, Adam Hart (2019) makes a similar claim about how found footage cinematography foregrounds horror’s focus on the vulnerability of the spectator, however he does not link it to broader theoretical arguments regarding instrumentality and evidence.

14 Because found footage often showcases the breakdown of the camera, the genre has been compared to mockumentaries that reveal the fallacy of the truth claims of documentary cinema (Formenti 2020). However, unlike many “deconstructionist” mockumentaries, the fictional nature of found footage does not necessarily leave spectators questioning the reality of the images or the status of documentary cinema (Roscoe and Hight 2001, 160–161). The shaky cinematography, uncontrollable camera, and decentered framing all bring the camera to the fore, and undoubtedly raise questions about the instrumental capacity to capture and record. But the aesthetics combined with the fictional narratives do not necessarily prompt spectators to question the instrumentality of the camera or the truth status of documentary cinema.

15 The Paranormal Activity films are perhaps the most famous examples of “operatorless” cameras, however they can be found in any film that incorporates surveillance footage or a sequence where the camera is dropped on the ground or placed somewhere by the cameraperson.

16 Sayad argues the documentary conceit of horror films also relies on “contextualization, narrative, and previous knowledge” of the genre, but I would also extend this to the image production practices (Sayad 2021, 65).

17 Revelatory theories of the camera can be found in the work of Andre Bazin (2005b), Jean Epstein (1977), Bela Balázs (2010), among others. Discussions of the scientific use of the camera as a source of revelation can be found in the historical work of Scott Curtis (2015), Oliver Gaycken (2015), and Lisa Cartwright (1995).

18 Also see Richard Barsam (1986) on American Direct Cinema, where the effect is discussed in terms of a “feeling of being there.”

19 This trope is used extensively in found footage horror films including [REC], [REC]² (Dir. BalagueroTra and Plaza 2008), The Gallows (Dir. Cluff and Lofing 2015), Quarantine, Quarantine 2: Terminal (Dir. Pogue 2011) among many others.

20 Other examples of where the footage appears to be strictly for the spectator can be found in Paranormal Activity when Katie and Micah investigate the attic; the ghostly computer screen that ends Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, and Noroi.

21 This reading borrows from Cecilia Sayad’s claims about the use of decentered framing and lighting in Paranormal Activity, where she argues the film encourages viewers to peer into the depths (2016).

22 This is also echoed by Sayad’s (2016) analysis of Paranormal Activity, where she argues that the film’s use of framing attempts to break down the division between film and reality. Reyes (2014) also argues that the film spectator identifies with the camera itself, placing them within the boundaries of the diegesis. However, such a reading ultimately rearticulates the mechanical objectivity paradigm's prosthetic effect and overlooks the instrumental camera's importance.

23 For example, Sayad describes how the use of framing and long takes in Paranormal Activity cause viewers to pay greater attention to the depth of the image and the boundaries, allowing scares to emerge from the background rather than through violations of the frame, typical to horror jump scares. (Sayad 2016, 58).

24 Other examples of horrifying, long-static shots, can be found in the “room 402” sequence of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, the stage shot in The Gallows (Dir. Cluff and Lofing 2015), or the sequence where the elderly woman approaches from the background of a hallway in [REC].

25 The dopped camera is practically a cliché of the genre, most often found at the end of the film, such as the final shot in Cloverfield (Dir. Reeves 2008), The Blair Witch Project, or the ends of both [REC] and Quarantine.

26 While Sayed offers a formalist account of the genre, she likewise argues that found footage framing and long-take cinematography destabilizes the distinction between the diegetic world and reality, “corroborating the idea that technology can invite the supernatural into the natural world and also expanding the frame to incorporate the space inhabited by spectators” (Sayad 2016, 2021, Chapter 3).

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Mikki Kressbach

Mikki Kressbach is an Assistant Professor of Film, Television, and Media Studies at Loyola Marymount University. Her work and teaching explore the intersection of science, health, and digital media. She is currently completing a book project, Sensing Health: Bodies, Data, and Digital Health Technologies, which examines the aesthetic experience of popular digital health technologies. Her work can be found in The New Review of Film and Television, The Cine-Files, and Television and New Media.