Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Sarah Appleton, Phillip Escott
Much like 3D, found-footage filmmaking is a technique that initially
drew in audiences before they quickly grew exhausted by the sheer number
of movies employing the device. For roughly a decade beginning around
2007, found footage movies were unavoidable, with everyone from
Hollywood moguls like JJ Abrams to your film student cousin knocking out
an example of the form. So over saturated was the market that the mere
mention of found-footage is enough to cause most cinephiles to now roll
their eyes.
With their feature documentary
The Found Footage Phenomenon, directors Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott argue the
case for the sub-genre that shined briefly and burned out slowly.
They've assembled an impressive roster of talking heads, mostly indie
filmmakers behind the key titles of the movement. Among them are
Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project), Rob Savage (Host), Dean Alioto (The McPherson Tape), Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust) and
Stephen Volk
(Ghostwatch).
Like any sub-genre, there's always been a debate around what exactly
constitutes a found-footage movie. Appleton and Escott fail to narrow
down a definition, and by citing Orson Welles' Mercury Theater radio
production of 'The War of the Worlds', they seem to suggest that
anything presented as "real" qualifies. It makes sense then that they
heavily discuss BBC's infamous Ghostwatch, yet there's no mention of its precursors like the fake British
science show Alternative 3 or the string of 1980s and '90s
American TV movies that presented themselves in the form of news
broadcasts (Without Warning, Countdown to Looking Glass, Special Bulletin). As the doc sticks almost rigidly to the horror genre, there's no
credit given to Spinal Tap and its many clones. Aside from
the pandemic hit Host, movies like
Unfriended
and
Profile, which play out on laptop screens, are strangely ignored.
Appleton and Escott tend to stick to focussing on the movies involving
the filmmakers they're interviewing. This means we begin with
Cannibal Holocaust but skip a full decade to 1989's
The McPherson Tape. The latter movie's director, Dean Alioto, provides some of the
documentary's greatest insights, and it's nice to see him acknowledged
as a key figure in a movement many mistakenly believe began a decade
later with The Blair Witch Project.
Coming so soon after the exhaustive folk-horror overview
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, The Found Footage Phenomenon is defined as much by its
omissions as its inclusions. It's understandable that a lot of time be
spent on The Blair Witch, but despite that movie being a massive hit, it didn't really
kickstart the found footage wave. That would come a decade later with
the release of Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity, which truly led to a rash of imitators and its own series of
diminishing sequels. It's quite baffling how little time is devoted to
Peli's film, and no acknowledgment is given to the ongoing franchise it
spawned.
While a little too enamoured of the sub-genre, Appleton and Escott's
film is certainly worth a watch for horror fans thanks to the insights
provided by the featured filmmakers. But if you're sitting down with pen
and paper expecting to add a bunch of titles to your to-watch list ala
Woodlands…, you may end up with a largely blank sheet by the end as it sticks to
several key works and refuses to expand on its own loose definitions of
the sub-genre.
