So I recently had a small marathon of non-traditionally shot horror movies: found-footage, mockumentary, even video calls.
I started with "Host" because yes, I was kinda curious about the whole "second scariest movie ever" but also because I love movies that are deeply engraved in their times so a horror shot through Zoom during the pandemic was calling to me.
Turns out it's actually pretty good in an unexpected way, especially considering how short it was. Was it scary? Not really, but I might be a little desensitized. It was well paced, the actors did play their roles well and while there were some plot holes, the story was compelling.
What really caught me though, it was the non-horror part. The video call per se, the friendly interactions were stunning. It was exactly how people talked at the time, it felt like watching real friends interacting and I loved it.
Similarly, when it came to "Strange Frequencies: Taiwan killer hospital" the horror elements were terrible but the whole reality tv/ documentary facade? It almost made me check whether I got the wrong movie. They acted the hell out of that which made the rest of the movie even more disappointing. I liked the publicity stunt of keeping the actors identity as their character though.
Speaking of publicity stunt I went back to the first really famous found-footage horror movie itself: "The Blair Witch Project". Now, I rewatched this really hoping to like it. After all, it is a pillar of the genre and it did change horror movies irrevocably but, it didn't work for me. I realize I might not find this particularly scary because I have been exposed to found footage horror made after this one with better budget and technology but, for me it was the characters. While the first two movies built their characters interactions as realistic as possible, even if the characters could feel stereotypical at times, the Blair Witch Project focused a lot more on the creepy uneasy vibe.
I did enjoy the choice of keeping the malevolent entity a mystery to the end. One of the first movies that anticipated the subtle shift that started in the 2000s between horror that could be fought and horror were the enemy was invincible, inescapable and incomprehensible.
Lastly I watched The Bay and I loved it. The lighting, the voices, footage going from professionally shot scientific reports to a video call, to a police car dash cam, it all felt like the kind of vaguely conspiracy inspired documentary you find on your TV at 3:00 am when you cannot sleep. I enjoyed more than I thought I would, scientific inaccuracies and terrible CGI included.
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