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Found footage horror movies

Discussion in 'Sensorium' started by Beren, Feb 21, 2014.

  1. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I'm somewhat ambivalent about this emerging sub-genre.

    It very often is the easy way out, both in terms of how much work they have to put into directing and production, but also in terms of budget.

    It is also very easy to do wrong. Liked the first Paranormal movie. Every sequel since then has devolved into a tired regurgitation of the same things over and over again.

    When it's done right, the results can be quite pleasing. I've heard good things about Rec, but I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. The two Grave Encounters movies aren't by any stretch of the imagination perfect, but wow did they ever create an atmosphere that, while not outright scary, is definitely creepy and unnerving.

    And I just saw another one, the Bay, about mutated isopods that start off as microscopic larvae in a Maryland town's drinking water and, well ... I should probably stop there.

    Anyway, what do the rest of you think about the genre itself? Any good recommendations? I'm an occasional horror fan that doesn't mind the odd flick to interrupt my usual fare.
     
    Beren, Feb 21, 2014
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  2. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Not exactly horror, but did you ever see Chronicle? Kids discover something unusual underground that causes them to develop telekinetic powers. One has serious emotional problems due to his life situation, so you can imagine what happens as he gets more and more powerful. I'm a bit ambivalent about it because it starts slow, but it just builds and builds through the movie until the end is pretty spectacular.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Feb 22, 2014
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  3. henkie

    henkie Hammertime Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Horror is not exactly my thing and the shaky cam versions even less so, so I don't think I have any suggestions for you.

    Saw the trailer for Chronicle and it didn't quite appeal to me. Seemed a bit too angsty.
     
    henkie, Feb 22, 2014
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  4. dogsoldier Gems: 7/31
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    I like the "found footage" idea. Especially for horror films. It can go a long way towards injecting mystery into the story. Of course, the one that kind of started it all was Blair Witch Project, back in the 90s, I think.

    Lots of horror films seem to rely on the "found footage" idea more and more these days--like Sinister, for instance, which isn't a found-footage horror film, exactly, but a more traditional horror film that uses the found footage idea inside it's narrative construct--i.e., what exactly is depicted on the Super-8 footage that has been mysteriously stashed in the protagonist's attic.

    Re: Chronicle, I liked it (maybe I liked the idea of it more than I actually liked the execution), but yeah, re: Henkie's comments, by the end I was turned off by the angst in it.
     
    dogsoldier, Feb 22, 2014
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  5. Paracelsi

    Paracelsi Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I like the concept when well executed, but among the stuff already mentioned it also seems to be the easy way out in terms of acting and how intelligently horror is presented. The blatant lack of any rational reaction and contingency planning to how the "horror" in these movies is introduced (and not just because all/some characters have emotional issues - what I mean is grace under fire) makes many of them rather formulaic ie panicked/irrational solutions->bigger problems->everybody dies/some other horror ending. They just keep adding morbid scenes/themes and other confusing stuff with sequels but everything else is mostly the same.

    In the first Paranormal Activity movie, for example, I always wondered why they didn't bother to get a a priest (really? they knew a "demonologist" but not an actual priest? I'm sure the catholic church would have been all to happy to send an army of their faithful in there if one of their guys confirms the presence of supernatural stuff) or why they didn't just advertise to the public at large that their house was (apparently) haunted. For me it was a massive ???-moment in this age of Twitter, Facebook, reality TV and viral videos. I was willing to forgive that though until I saw roughly the same thing being repeated in PA 2.

    Chronicle was one of the movies that I thought handled how the situation should have escalated rather well. A lot of angst, yeah, but that's just a theme. Despite several overly emotional scenes I thought in general it was well done.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2014
    Paracelsi, Feb 23, 2014
    #5
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