At a time in history when the boundaries between (subjective) reality and its media (re)editing, distortion and manipulation—which have never not been fragile—are no longer blurry but sometimes appear at risk of disintegrating altogether, it seems not merely recommended but well-nigh essential to take an in-depth look at a genre that has made such uncertainty its most fundamental creative feature.
Epistolary novels such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula were already conjuring this trick in the 19th century, and while there had obviously been experimental approaches to found-footage, POV cinema and mockumentary during the second half of the 20th century—including the superb Punishment Park by Peter Watkins—Ruggero Deodato’s masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is generally considered the genre’s first encounter with horror-film themes.
During the forty-odd years since this scandalous landmark, the found-footage horror film has enormously diversified. As a regrettably-vague umbrella term, it comprises P(oint)-O(f)-V(view) works as well as mockumentaries and various other tendencies, many of which have also left their mark on our present retrospective.
The Blair Witch Project (1999), for instance: shot on a budget of under $ 100,000 and making more than 250 million at the box office, it is still regarded as one of the most profitable productions in Hollywood history and became a crucial late-1990s phenomenon. The format of the supposedly “real” TV report was chosen both by the Spanish genre smash-hit [REC] (2007) and Ghostwatch, which shocked its BBC audience back in 1992: many believed the mockumentary about a poltergeist to be the real deal.
Then there’s the hyper-brutal and provocative cult-comedy Man Bites Dog (1992), where a truly crazed serial killer is followed by a film crew who increasingly drift towards complicity. One of the most radical and unique entries in this retrospective is delivered in the form of Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers (2009), while the groundbreaking, scary-to-the-max web series Marble Hornets (2009–14) invites us to enjoy a movie marathon. The Japanese contribution to the genre is examined by a double bill featuring the milestone Psychic Vision: Jaganrei (1988)—insufficiently well-known in the West— and Celluloid Nightmares, as well as by the seminal found-footage opus Noroi: The Curse 2005. With numerous little-known, grimy gems waiting to be discovered, our Fake Truths are rounded off by the terrific Troll Hunter and its welcome dose of nimbly epic fantasy.
