THE FOUND FOOTAGE PHENOMENON

Our own found footage horror film shot at the BIFFF office – prominently featuring a half-eaten cheese sandwich and a Troll cardboard cutout – is trapped in post-production hell, so we’ve settled for this very insightful documentary on the genre. A genre that is as reviled as it is revered by horror buffs, but we’re betting that even haters will find much to like in this journey throughout the genre’s history that directors Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott track from Orson Welles’ WAR OF THE WORLDS in 1938, via the Mondo faux-documentaries and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST to the golden era of the genre in the 90’s and 00’s, without forgetting more recent works. The line-up of interviewees is basically a who’s who in found footage filmmaking: Eduardo Sánchez (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT), Jaume Balagueró ([REC], Silver Raven and Audience Prize BIFFF 2008), André Øvredal (TROLL HUNTER, BIFFF 2011), Kōji Shiraishi (NOROI: THE CURSE), Rob Savage (HOST, BIFFF 2021) and many others. More than simply an overview of films, it shines a light on what exactly it is that makes these often cheaply-made flicks so popular and how they tap into the cultural zeitgeist by closely monitoring the social and technological changes in our society. Yes, we’ve never before written this seriously about found footage!