DEEP DIVE: (Almost) Found Footage

This is a watch at home, discuss in person event. Join me to discuss 3 horror films that either pre-date found footage or have found footage elements without fully being classified in the genre.

I'm a massive horror fan but I still consider myself fairly new to the found footage genre. There are still quite a few classics I've yet to see and there are films like The Blair Witch Project which I really didn't get on my first watch, but have since come to appreciate over time. With that film specifically, I think my issue was that I could never really buy into the central framing, the idea that people watching it in 1999 thought it was real. I've since come to appreciate other aspects of that film that are terrifying, mainly the way it portrays social breakdown when friends are trapped into a corner, but I still struggle with found footage where the ostensible goal is to scare the audience into thinking what they're watching is real.

Nevertheless, there is something undeniably enticing about the formal language of found footage. I love how the use of VHS or lower-quality digital footage in general distances you from the material. It makes what you're watching appear quite alien, playing into the most fundamental fears of the unknown. I've found that there are quite a few films I love that I consider cousins of found footage in a formal sense, but which don't technically fit the label. Some of the films I've selected for this deep dive employ brief but effective found footage techniques to create an eerie cosmic dreamscape, while others utilize faux-documentary formats to achieve the immediate realism that found footage is often trying to go for.

Please try to watch all three films before the discussion, but you're still welcome to join if you’ve only watched one or two. If you have trouble finding any of them, shoot me a message and I will help you out!

Prince of Darkness (1987, John Carpenter)
A priest discovers an ancient canister containing a strange liquid in an abandoned church. When a group of graduate students and scientists are tasked with studying it, they unknowingly unleash an evil force waiting to destroy all of humanity.

• Rent on Apple TV, Amazon or YouTube

Ghostwatch (1992, Lesley Manning)
For Halloween 1992, the BBC decides to broadcast an investigation into the supernatural, hosted by TV chat-show legend Michael Parkinson. Parky (assisted by Mike Smith, Sarah Greene & Craig Charles) and a camera crew attempt to discover the truth behind the most haunted house in Britain. This ground-breaking live television experiment does not go as planned, however.

• Rent on Apple TV, Amazon or YouTube
• Watch for free on Internet Archive

Lake Mungo (2008, Joel Anderson)
After 16-year-old Alice Palmer drowns at a local dam, her family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of a psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice’s secret past emerges.

• Rent on Apple TV, Amazon or YouTube
• Stream for free on Tubi