A Genre Worth Finding

The horror genre has been a favorite of mine ever since I was a little kid. I still remember watching Tales From the Crypt on HBO before I was old enough, or seeing Childs Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4-7 and even Leprechaun (don't judge me) while they were still in the theater. As I got older, it became increasingly difficult to identify what was considered scary. In fact, it is different for everyone. I’ll never forget being at the Greenback Cinedomes and seeing the movie poster for The Blair Witch Project. I can still remember the blurb from Peter Travers at the top of the poster: "Scary as hell." Now that's what I'm talking about! I remember begging my mom to take me on opening day. I was beyond excited, which was intensified when I saw the usher handing out "barf bags" to people (due to motion sickness). Up to that point, I'd never seen a movie like it. The fact that this was shot with a hand held camera only made it all the more real. I never saw a "trailer" in the conventional sense. When BWP was advertised on television, it was treated as a real event and that these people were truly missing. Nothing like that had ever been done, to my knowledge. I still love everything about BWP and had hoped that one day other films would follow in the "found footage" format.

Today we're literally flooded with this subgenre of horror. This is largely, if not exclusively, due to Paranormal Activity. When The Blair Witch Project was first released, it spawned a lot of spoof movies instead of imitations. When Paranormal Activity became the most profitable film of all time in 2009, other studios wanted in. It didn't take long before other people figured out that a low budget "found footage" movie could produce a lot more in returns. When lightning struck twice with Paranormal Activity 2 the DVD market was flooded with other similar titles.

What I want to do is look at some of those titles and help people to avoid some of the really terrible ones that are floating around out there, as well as point out what appears to be some solid upcoming films.

Let's start with the bad. I reviewed George Romero's Diary of the Dead a few years ago and was utterly disappointed by just how terrible it was. Romero, having learned nothing, followed it up with Survival of the Dead, which again utilizes a hand held format. I love this subgenre, but when the opening narration explains that "music was added for effect, and to scare you," it isn't looking good. Another film making the festival rounds right now is Atrocious, a film that essentially can be described by looking no further than the title. This Spanish-made film has been geeting decent reviews, and has been hailed for being "terrifying." I managed to see this one, and even at a running time of a little over an hour, it was awful. The basic premise is that a family vacations together on the countryside and is found dead just days later. The movie follows the children as they investigate a local urban legend about a ghost that will guide you out of the forrest if you ever find yourself lost. Not only is this urban legend barely touched upon, but it actually has nothing to do with the actual plot twist or "carnage" that ends the film.



Of course for every few dozen horrible movies you sit through, you manage to find a couple of gems. Noroi: The Curse could be the crowning jewel of J-Horror. I consider the final moments of that film to be some of the scariest I have ever seen. Another great import is the Rec series. Rec plays out like the Spanish 28 Days Later with a virus infecting an apartment complex. The survivors must fight their way out, blah blah blah. Once you make it to Rec 2 (and I highly recommend that you do) you learn that it is nothing like 28 Days Later and nothing like what you imagined it would be. The two most recent films I've seen are definitely worth noting. Grave Encounters begins extremely cheesy and gives the impression that this is going nowhere fast. Think Ghost Hunters meets House on Haunted Hill. The wife and I were quite surprised at how effective this movie was. One thing that creeps me out in these movies is face distortion. Noroi uses it, and Grave Encounters uses it. If you don't know what I mean, take a gander at this.

The other film that I think deserves credit on so many levels is The Tunnel. The film raised money from online donations so that it could be released and downloaded for free. I recommend going to the official website (http://www.thetunnelmovie.net/) and watching it. This "found footage" movie takes a documentary approach with the survivors retelling the events of an investigation into abandoned tunnels underneath Sydney. I don't want to give away too much because the less you know the better, but be warned it is quite effective.

Of course it is always uncertain whether movies like this will be any good, but some of the upcoming released I am keeping a close eye on. Paranormal Activity 3 is a given for me, and I won't go into too much detail on it because it'll be the focus of a future article. Other films I encourage people to watch out for are Unaware, Evidence, Rec 3: Genesis & Rec 4: Apocolypse, as well as Oren Peli's Area 51.