Author: Dominic Duquiatan
Koji Shiraishi proves his sincerity and devotion to the found footage subgenre in his 2012 low-budget mockumentary Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! File 01 – Operation Capture the Slit-Mouthed Woman. While it’s beyond question that Shiraishi has made an indelible impression on the horror subgenre with his immortal Noroi: The Curse (2005), his undermined respect for
The Phoenix Lights might be one of the most intriguing pieces of UFO conspiracies on the internet. On March 13, 1997, thousands of people spotted the formation of unidentified lights in the night sky of Phoenix, Arizona, and across Nevada and Mexico. The bizarre phenomenon, which the army explained to be a military exercise consisting
Creepy things attract curious people. This is how Isaac Rodriguez packaged his latest found footage offering A Town Full of Ghosts at first glance. The idea of interrupting the creepy seclusion and quietness of a deserted place just excites the inner adventurers among us all. Historical tourist spots alone are proof that we are suckers
Rumor has it that musicians sell their souls to the devil and worse represent Satan through their songs. It was a ridiculous idea that still scares the bejesus out of anyone who hero-worship such personalities. Then, the idea stretched out through code deciphering videos that took over Youtube ages ago, spurring both negative and positive
Plenty of film enthusiasm is oriented toward the Universal Monsters; from Dracula to the Invisible Man, these otherworldly creatures bear diverse frights that reflect man’s primal fears or the horrors of being humans. This innate profundity from the monster films allowed us to connect with them. And with our yearning for them, the devils fueled
“We are the children. It’s a pleasure to receive you.” Remember how we always question why alleged alien abductees live to tell the story but don’t have the evidence to support their claims? It’s a bummer to hear how desperate they sound, and yet we cannot sympathize with them. Some of the alien-centric found footage
The found footage film subgenre still has it. I never knew a FF film could be as profound as it is scary, given that its restricted legroom can only do so much. But going back years ago, this exact curtailment made The Blair Witch Project (1999) an exemple of how horror could thrive in the
The Internet Age has transformed us in so many ways, even down to the way we tell stories to keep pace with advancing technology. Our fledgling fixation on screens has spawned another branch in the found footage horror subgenre that explores the possibilities of conceit while reflecting on how the internet shrinks or expands our
Asian horror is both a treasure trove and a rabbit hole. When you find a gem that’s too good to not be seen, you can’t help but dig deep until you drown in a chock-full watchlist. That is how I felt when I first saw The Butcher (2008), a found-footage pseudo-snuff film from South Korea.
A mockumentary framing offers a nice spin to the found footage genre. While most found footage films are shot and arranged in an amateur fashion to preserve their realism and home video sense, mockumentary is its counterpart. Here, the believability of the horror comes from one’s flair in crafting conceivable documentation of something purely fictional.