"Pokémania": 1999 MSNBC Pokémon News Report

THE RISE AND RISE OF FOUND FOOTAGE HORROR

The sub genre of found footage is a staple in the contemporary horror world. With hits like Paranormal Activity (2007) and its sequels, REC (2007) and Sinister (2012), it’s almost hard to imagine the horror cinema landscape without found footage horror. But back in 1980, the concept of “found footage” as a genre within horror was new and different, a contrast against the calculated and choreographed slasher films and monster movies of the time.  Cannibal Holocaust was released in 1980 to much furor. With graphic depictions of sex and violence (most notably the actual on screen deaths of numerous animals), the film immediately caused uproar on its release. The film follows a crew of filmmakers visiting the Amazon to obtain footage of the cannibal tribes living within the rainforest. When the group goes missing, a second group is sent out from America to search for them and on arrival, they find their tapes. Although a portion of the film is seen in a conventional motion picture style, the tapes are given to us as if they were real documentary footage. The tapes detail every terrible detail of what happened to the first film crew in true shaky camera documentary form.

Due to the controversial nature of the film, Cannibal Holocaust was banned across the board within weeks of its premiere, but not before making $2 million at the box office. Holocaust isn’t the most financially successful film within this genre but it is certainly the zeitgeist of found footage horror. Despite its cinematic release being cut short, Holocaust was one of the most circulated films during the “video nasty” era of horror that followed the 1984 video recordings act, resulting in Cannibal Holocaust and numerous other banned films being circulated via illegal VHS copies.

Unusually, the genre didn’t see any significant new entries during the course of the 1980s, despite the controversy surrounding the film, no filmmakers jumped at the chance to cash in.  Films like Alien Autopsy (1995) became popular but weren’t financially successful due to the fact that their distribution was done almost entirely on pirate copies and they did not receive cinematic releases. Japanese import Gineua Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985) became notable due to the belief that the killings in the film were real, resulting in an investigation into snuff films. Despite this attention, the film was only available outside of Japan on pirated copies.

Finally, at the end of the 1990s, the genre finally began to pick up where Cannibal Holocaust left off.  The Last Broadcast (1998), which follows a group of documentary filmmakers who search the woods for a creature they call the “jersey devil”, and the fate that they encounter. Shot on a shoestring budget of $900, The Last Broadcast went on to make $4 million during its box office run.  What is most notable about the film is the fact that it is shot entirely on a standard camcorder, a unique feat for any genre, not just horror.  Like Cannibal Holocaust, the film went on to enjoy success on video, but unlike its predecessor, the home video success of The Last Broadcast was more legitimate.  The original 1999 DVD release sold 2 million copies, and numerous other releases of the film on DVD and Blu –Ray have since followed. Although not as well known as some of the other films of the genre, The Lost Tapes reignited the found footage horror market and showcased it as a viable option for filmmakers. The fact that the film was so cheap to make only heightened the appeal.

After the success of The Last Broadcast a year earlier, the release of another found footage horror could’ve almost been predicted. But the success and impact of the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project was unprecedented.

The film follows a film crew making a documentary about the fabled “Blair witch”, a hermit who kidnapped several children in the 1940s in the woods surrounding the town of Burkittsville, Maryland. Composed entirely of found footage, the audience is told that the film crew was never seen again, and that the footage was found in a car abandoned near the woods.

The marketing of The Blair Witch Project was something that has since been emulated by countless other films. It is notable for being one of the first films to use viral online marketing successfully, releasing short snippets of the film and faux crime scene photos on the official website. The website began to gain notoriety due to the fact that so many people believed the story to be real, leading to much anticipation when the release of the film was announced. On a budget of $350,000, The Blair Witch Project made over $250 million during its first cinematic run. The film has since been re-released in 2013 in the US has fared well on the home video market.

Hot on the heels of the success of the film, a sequel was produced. The Blair Witch: Book of Shadows was released in 2000. Less well received than it’s predecessor and essentially a re-tracing of the story explored in the first film, Book of Shadows still managed to gross $47 million at the box office. Book Of Shadows took a similar approach to Cannibal Holocaust in that it was largely a standard horror film, with found footage elements thrown in. It revisits the town of Burkittsville in the time following the release of the first film. It essentially looks into the Blair Witch Project as a film within a film; with new characters looking into the footage from the first film whilst also incorporating found footage from their own documentary.

Following the release of The Blair Witch series, there were numerous independent films trying to get in on all the found footage action. My Little Eye (2002) was one of the first British ventures into the genre. The plot concerns a group of six people living in a mansion being filmed at all times in a Big Brother type scenario. Strange things begin to happen around the mansion, all documented by the cameras. In a terrifying reveal, the audience discovers that no one is intended to win the game, and that the six people have been brought to the house to die whilst people watch via the internet. Following the release of The Blair Witch Project, its understandable why StudioCanal would have faith in such a project. With a budget of $3 million, the film went on to make $9.3 million at the box office.  Whilst not the runaway success that The Blair Witch was, My Little Eye further drove home the point that found footage horror could yield a decent profit from a relatively small budget.

 Meanwhile, an underground culture of found footage horror began to cultivate. The August Underground series (2001 – 2007) followed number of psychotic characters on senseless killing sprees, all caught on video camera. Although never cinematically released, the films have enjoyed success on DVD and Blu-Ray, due to the attention the films have received because of the realistic deaths portrayed, leading many to believe they were witnessing actual murders.

The next big move for the genre came with REC (2007), a Spanish horror film following a television news reporter filming a fire crew for the night as they become caught up in a series of paranormal events in a apartment building they’ve been called through. In the same vein as The Last Broadcast and The Blair Witch, REC utilizes the shaky camera technique to it’s fullest. REC was a colossal success for the Spanish horror industry, with a budget of $2 million; REC went on to gross $35 million.  An American remake was made a year later titled “Quarantine”, starring Jennifer Carpenter. With a budget of $14 million, Quarantine made $41 million at box office and spawned a sequel, Quarantine 2 (2011) t. Meanwhile REC has gone on to spawn 3 sequels of it’s own. With REC 2 (2010), REC 3: GENESIS (2012) and REC 4: APOCOLYPSE (2015) bringing the Spanish franchises total gross to $49 million.

The J.J Abrams film Cloverfield (2008) was another smash success for found footage horror and also a return of the monster film. Constructed from staged shaky camera footage of an unseen monster attacking New York, Cloverfield made almost seven times it’s $25 million budget, with a total gross of $170 million. The film utilized a similar marketing strategy to that of The Blair Witch Project, leaking snippets of the film online without actually unveiling the title until a week before its release. Needless to say, it paid off.

But in 2009, the biggest found footage horror since The Blair Witch Project hit the silver screen. Paranormal Activity originally hit the festival circuit in 2007 but was eventually re-cut and edited for a cinematic release. Constructed from video camera footage of a couple concerned their house is haunted, Paranormal Activity was a smash success. With a viral marketing campaign that showed footage of people’s reactions to the film in special advance screenings, word of mouth allowed Paranormal Activity to gross $190 million at box office, with a tiny budget of just $15,000. Thus far, Paranormal Activity has spawned 3 sequels which interlink with the first film and a spin off, the franchise has grossed $428.6 million, making it not only the most commercially successful found footage franchise to date, but its also one of the highest grossing film franchises of all time. Found footage horror is here to stay.