A new entry, Willow Creek, opens in select theaters and on VOD today. Within the last six months, I’ve seen 12 found footage films – that is to say 12 film I either wanted to or needed to see out of the, I’m certain, couple of dozen that have been released this year on VOD and DVD.
It’s obvious this sub-genre isn’t going away.
Independent filmmakers like the appeal of grabbing a handful of unknown actors, a camera or two, a flimsy script and “run ‘n gunning it.” It’s cheap, moderately easy and it satisfies any instant gratification they might have since the turnaround is so fast. On a studio level, we’re not seeing that many found footage films get pushed through the pipeline on as regular a basis as on the independent front. Devil’s Due (a dud) arrived earlier this year and at the end of the summer we’ll get As Above, So Below from Universal. I’m aware of a handful of studio horror films in development that are rooted in found footage. And, Paramount keeps beating the Paranormal Activity drum (part 5 arrives this fall). Still, the cost is relatively cheap (relatively, studios throw more money at found footage films than what some of the indie guys invest in their productions) and the risk is somewhat low. For those very reasons – and the fact that it has been going steadily since Paranormal Activity – found footage will live on.
But I have to tell you…I’ve been hit with found footage fatigue in a big way. My colleague, Brian Collins over at Badass Digest, echoed a similar sentiment last year. He just got tired of it faster than I did.
This is a big deal coming from me, the guy who always looked at the sub-genre as an innovative way to re-ignite other sub-genres. Got a vampire? Found footage that shit! A creature feature? Found footage might liven things up! A serial killer? Give him a camera and let us see his diaries!
Now, I cringe when I sift through a festival program or my Netflix queue and read a synopsis that indicates the story follows “a camera crew,” “a documentary team” or “a girl or guy with a camera.” I breathe a heavy sigh when a movie I know little about begins with the familiar sound pop of a camera being turned on and our first image is someone staring directly in the camera as they take the lens cap off or present a slate or introduce us to a crew. As Randy said in Scream, “There’s a formula to it, a very simple formula!” And this formula has been driven into the ground (to the point where Collins and I even flirted with the idea of doing a sarcastic response to these films with our own called Found Footage Abandoned Hospital Horror Movie: The Movie – we got so far as a “generic” poster, seen above.)
I go into a film open-mindedly every single time, however, I’m not seeing found footage stretch its legs. Progress has slowed. Filmmakers are getting lazy. Moreover, I’m questioning why some these films are even found footage in the first place. Some of the stories would do better as a traditionally-told narrative and, as a found footage effort, they’re instead saddled with the same tacky FX (found footage filmmakers seems to think “shaky cam” means they can slack on the quality of the CG FX) and poor storytelling logic as their contemporaries.
If found footage is going to stick around, if it’s going to defy rumors of its death, something about it has to get me excited again, because I’m one step away from checking out of it completely.
