The document discusses several influential found footage and handheld camera horror films from 1960 to 2009 including Peeping Tom, Cannibal Holocaust, The Blair Witch Project, REC, Cloverfield, and Paranormal Activity. These films pioneered the use of handheld cameras and faux documentary styles to create immersive and realistic horror experiences for audiences. Many of these films went on to find major commercial success despite low budgets.
2. Peeping Tom
• Peeping Tom is about a young man murders women, using a movie
camera to film their dying expressions of terror.
• Peeping Tom was one of the first handheld Camera Horror movies to be
made.
• Due to technological advances in the late 1950’s home portable cameras
became available.
• Peeping Tom is one of the first films to show the direct link between Horror
and Pornography due to its sexual themes.
• The film was largely influence by the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo although
Vertigo was much more commercial because of its lack of gore and large
distribution.
1960
3. Cannibal Holocaust
• Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian exploitation film filmed in the
Amazon Rainforest, the movie tells the story of four documentarians
who journey deep into the jungle to film indigenous tribes which they
discover to cannibals
• When the film was released seemed so realistic that the director was
charged with murder of several actors.
• The film was band in most countries due to its graphic depiction of
gore, several violence and the inclusion of six genuine animal deaths.
1980
4. The Blair Witch
Project
1999
• The Blair Witch project is presented as a documentary pieced
together from amateur footage, filmed in real time.
• The Blair Witch Project bears many similarities to the 1998 film The
Last Broadcast. Both are faux-documentaries dealing with
characters who set off into the wilderness in search of legendary
figures and vanish; the endings are quite different.
• The Blair Witch Project had large scale advising, including a ground
breaking campaign by the studio to use the internet to suggest the
film was a real event.
• The Blair Witch Project grossed $248,639,099 worldwide compared
to its final budget which ranged between $500,000 and $750,000
making the film the third most successful independent film.
5. REC
• REC is a Spanish horror movie which uses shaky camerawork to create a
realistic “found footage” effect.
• The film was so popular that the film was remade practically shot for shot in
America retiled Quarantine.
• Quarantine did not have as positive of an reaction as REC did, however it
did have success at the box office as its gross profit was $41,319,906.
• REC is said to be the scariest Spanish film ever made critics have said that
"Out of all the “shaky-cam” films... this one is arguably the best."
2007
6. Cloverfield
• The film follows five young New Yorkers attending a going-away
party on the night that a gigantic monster attacks the city.
• Cloverfield has been called a 9/11 allegory by many critics and
viewers, as the film shows the destruction of New York City and
shows New Yorkers fleeing Manhattan surrounded by smoke and
debris.
• The film grossed $40,058,229 on its opening weekend, making it the
most successful January release to date.
2008
7. Paranormal
Activity
• The film centres on a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are
haunted by a supernatural presence in their home; it is presented in
the style of "found footage," from a camera set up by the couple in
an attempt to photograph what is haunting them.
• The film had a budget of just £15,000 but the film grossed
$193,311,485 worldwide.
• Paranormal activity used an internet advertising campaign in which
they got visitors of their website to vote the movie to come to their
town or city.
2009