Found Footage: Extension of Reality in Horror Genre

Abstract

The article reviews a tendency of a horror genre to reach greater realism that can be traceable during its whole history. At present horror tries to achieve maximum realism by the use of either films with explicit and credible screen violence or pseudo-documentary form, that is known among film critics and scholars as “mockumentary”. This article notes an existing contradiction between definition of mockumentary as “documentary mockery” and use of this term with regard to grim quasi-documentary horror films. For the most part the research pays attention to found footage, a sort of mockumentary that has already become a well-established horror subgenre since 1999. The article reviews definition and main features of found footage on the basis of comparative analysis of films. It is observed that use of conventions of reportage and amateur filming increases viewer’s emotional feedback. Golden age of found footage and growth of its popularity are determined by advance of digital technology, increased accessibility of editing process and development of Internet that has totally changed a conception of horror. Found footage subgenre reflects all these processes and shortens the distance between author and spectator as much as possible.

Keywords:

cinema studies, horror, mockumentary, pseudo-documentary, found footage, limits of reality, Internet