FOUND FOOTAGE GENRE TIMELINE

1980 CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST

A New York anthropologist named Professor Harold Monroe travels to the wild, inhospitable jungles of South America to find out what happened to a documentary film crew that disappeared two months before while filming a documentary about primitive cannibal tribes deep in the rain forest. With the help of two local guides, Professor Monroe encounters two tribes, the Yacumo and the Yanomamo. While under the hospitality of the latter tribe, he finds the remains of the crew and several reels of their undeveloped film...

Cannibal Holocaust achieved notability because its graphic violence aroused controversy. After its premiere in Italy, it was seized by a local magistrate, and Deodato was arrested on obscenity charges. He was charged with making a snuff film, due to rumors that some actors were killed on camera.

Director: Ruggero Deodato
Writter: Gianfranco Clerici
Starring: Robert Kerman, Carl Gabriel Yorke, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, Luca Barbareschi
Running Time: 96min
Country: Italy
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ-Xp6VC7RQ

Rating: 6,5/10

1999 THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

Three film students travel to Maryland to make a student film about a local urban legend... The Blair Witch. The three went into the woods on a two day hike to find the Blair Witch, and never came back. One year later, the students film and video was found in the woods. The footage was compiled and made into a movie. The Blair Witch Project...

The film relates the story of three young student filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams) who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch, and subsequently go missing. The viewer is told that the three were never found, although their video and sound equipment (along with most of the footage they shot) was discovered a year later. This "recovered footage" is presented as the film the viewer is watching.

Director: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez
Writter: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez
Starring: Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams
Running Time: 86min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZu1cTg-xUM&feature=related

Rating: 9/10

2007 PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

In 2006, Katie (Katie Featherston) and her boyfriend, Micah (Micah Sloat), are a young couple who recently moved into a two-story tract house in suburban San Diego, California. Katie claims that a ghostly presence has haunted her since her childhood and believes that it has followed her to their new home. She hires a psychic, Dr. Fredrichs (Mark Fredrichs), who assesses that she is being haunted not by a ghost, but by a demon...

Originally developed as an independent feature, the film was acquired by Paramount Pictures after representatives attending to a screening were impressed by it.

Director: Oren Peli
Writter: Oren Peli
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Running Time: 86 min., 99 min.(Director's cut)
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074

Rating: 8/10

2010 THE LAST EXORCISM

The evangelical Reverend Cotton Marcus was raised by his father to be a preacher. He agrees that the filmmaker Iris Reisen and the cameraman Daniel Moskowitz make a documentary about his life. Cotton tells that when her wife Shanna Marcus had troubles in the delivery of their son Justin, he prioritized the doctor help to God and since then he questions his faith. Further, he tells that exorcisms are frauds but the results are good for the believers because they believe it is true. When Cotton is summoned by the farmer Louis Sweetzer to perform an exorcism in his daughter Nell, Cotton sees the chance to prove to the documentary crew what he has just told. They head to Ivanwood and they have a hostile reception from Louis's son Caleb. Cotton performs the exorcism in Nell, exposing his tricks to the camera, but sooner they learn that the dysfunctional Sweetzer family has serious problems...

It was announced that a poster for the film was banned in public UK places, due to the nature of the poster (described as "offensive", "distressing", and "unsuitable for public viewing") which received 77 complaints, of which two people claimed the girl in the poster seemed to have "suffered a sexual assault". It was then decided the advert was not allowed to be seen again in that format.

Director: Daniel Stamm
Writter: Huck Botko, Andrew Gurland
Starring: Patrick Fabian, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum
Running Time: 87min.
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NcYXzZCQsE

Rating: 7/10

LONG LIVE THE 70's! (1)

DON'T LOOK NOW (1973)

Don't Look Now tells the story of a couple, Laura (Julie Christie) and John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) whose young daughter has recently drowned in a tragic accident at home. Their grief puts a sudden pressure on their marriage.
Seeking a change of scenery and an opportunity to work through their loss, they take a "working vacation" to Venice, where John has been contracted to restore an ancient church. While John attends to this project Laura is befriended by two strange elderly sisters, one of whom is blind and claims to be in psychic contact with the Baxters' dead daughter. Laura is drawn to the sisters, but John finds their influence on her unsettling and suspects them of deceit. The ensuing drama is set against a subplot involving a serial killer who has eluded the police. John catches glimpses of a child-like figure in red raingear who resembles his dead daughter, although the figure vanishes whenever John pursues it. He begins to question his own sanity and that of his wife as Laura appears to be completely under the command of the sisters, who in turn suggest that John shares their gift of a "second sight"...

Director: Nicolas Roeg
Producer: Peter Katz
Writter: Screenplay:Allan Scott, Chris Bryant, Story: Daphne du Maurier
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland
Running Time: 110min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYICwstBwnM

Rating: 10/10


THE TENANT (1976)
(French: Le Locataire)

Trelkowski (Polanski), a quiet and inconspicuous man, rents an apartment in France where the previous tenant, Simone Choule, attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself out of the window and through a pane of glass. He goes to visit her in the hospital, but finds her all bandaged up and unable to talk; she instead lets out a disturbing cry upon seeing him before she dies afterwards. Trelkowski meets Simone's friend, Stella (Adjani), at the hospital. He tries to comfort her but dares not say that he never knew Simone, pretending instead to be another friend of hers. They leave together and go out for a drink and a Bruce Lee movie Enter The Dragon, where they fondle each other. However outside the theater they part ways.
As Trelkowski occupies the apartment he is soon unreasonably chastised by his neighbors and his landowner Monsieur Zy (Douglas) for hosting a party with his friends, making too much noise in general, not joining in on a petition against another neighbor, etc. Trelkowski attempts to adapt, but is himself disturbed by the frequent sight of his neighbors standing blankly in the toilet room (which he can see from his own window) and the discovery of a hole in his apartment with a human tooth stashed inside...

Director: Roman Polanski
Producer: Hercules Bellville
Writter: Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski, Novel: Roland Topor
Starring: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet
Running Time: 125min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmhIMbdecEU

Rating: 10/10


THE CHANGELING (1980)

The story is based upon events experienced by writer Russell Hunter while he was living in the Henry Treat Rogers Mansion of Denver, Colorado.

Scott stars as Dr. John Russell, a composer living in New York City, who moves cross-country to Washington state following the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident while on a winter vacation in upstate New York. In suburbanSeattle, Russell rents a large, old, and eerie-looking Victorian-era mansion and begins piecing his life back together. However, Dr. Russell soon discovers that he has unexpected company in his new home when a poltergeist, the ghost of a murdered child, haunts the house...

Director: Peter Medak
Producer: Chessman Park Productions, Tiberius Film Productions
Writter: Russell Hunter, William Gray, Diana Maddox
Starring: George C. Scott, Trish VanDevere, Melvyn Douglas, John Colicos
Running Time: 115min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jZDq8sK6a8

Rating: 9,5/10



THE BROOD (1979)

The Brood was named 88th on the "Chicago Film Critics Association's 100 Scariest Movies of All-Time". The film was Cronenberg's first major success.
A novelization was written by Richard Starks.

An unconventional psychotherapist (Oliver Reed) has created a technique called "psychoplasmics." He encourages his patients to "go all the way through it" and allow their negative emotions (rage, fear, etc.) to cause their bodies to undergo (usually radical) physical change. A man who was verbally abused by his father develops welts over his body as a way of expressing his pain. Another patient develops lymphatic cancer, supposedly a manifestation of his self-hatred. In the case of the principal characters, it causes a woman, Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar), to parthenogenetically birth strange, mutated children and, via a telepathic bond, have them act out whatever negative emotions the mother is feeling at the time...

Director: David Cronenberg
Producer: Claude Heroux
Writter: David Cronenberg
Starring: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle
Running Time: 92min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSfZunKpRVM

Rating: 9/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (5)

The Baby's Room (spanish: La habitación del niño) (2006)

In Spain, the sports journalist Juan has a perfect life with his wife Sonia: they have just had a baby and moved to an old house that needs to be repaired in a fancy neighborhood. When Juan's sister and her husband visit the couple, they give them an electronic nanny to monitor the baby's room. During the night, Juan and Sonia hear voices in the room but they do not find anybody. On the next day, Juan hires an alarm system for the house and a monitor to observe the baby's room. When Juan sees a man in the room, he gets a knife to protect his son. However, Sonia believes her husband is insane and moves to her mother's house. Juan investigates the happening with the former journalist Domingo, who explains him the paradoxical experiment Schrodinger's Cat and the existence of parallel worlds...

Director: Álex de la Iglesia
Producer: Estudios Picasso, Filmax, Telecinco, Castelao Producciones
Writter: Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Álex de la Iglesia
Starring: Javier Gutiérrez, Leonor Watling, Sancho Gracia, María Asquerino,
Running Time: 77min

Rating: 9/10

CALVAIRE (2004)

Marc Stevens is a suave but arrogant up-and-coming pop singer, who makes his living performing light pop ballads and easy listening tunes at retirement homes and other small venues around Belgium. En route to perform on a Christmas special, he wrecks his van-- which doubles as his home-during a thunderstorm and is stranded deep in the woods. Lost, cold, and succumbing to the elements, Marc is rescued by a local, an emaciated young man named Boris, who takes Marc to a nearby abandoned inn and then deserts him there.
Marc quickly discovers that the sole occupant of the inn is its former proprietor, Mr. Bartel, an amiable old man who now lives there as a hermit of sorts. Claiming to be a retired standup comedian, Mr. Bartel welcomes Marc to stay as long as he likes, even offering to tow and repair Marc's van as a sign of brotherhood between professional entertainers. Marc accepts the offer, but retains his arrogant demeanor, refusing to speak with Mr. Bartel about his own career or personal life. The next morning, Mr. Bartel tows Marc's van into the front yard of the inn. Marc informs Mr. Bartel that he is going for a walk, at which point Mr. Bartel suddenly becomes paranoid and aggressive, warning Marc not to travel into the nearby village. Marc agrees, but nevertheless pays a visit to a nearby farm, where he witnesses a family voyeuristically watching a teenage boy have intercourse with a calf, calling the experience "so tender". Meanwhile, rather than repairing Marc's van, Mr. Bartel begins snooping through the portion of it in which Marc lives, stealing an envelope of amateur pornography presented to Marc by one of his fans.
That night, Mr. Bartel becomes even more aggressive, working himself into a frenzy while recalling his adulterous wife who abandoned him years before...

Director: Fabrice Du Welz
Producer: Michael Gentile, Eddy Géradon-Luyckx,. Vincent Tavier
Writter: Fabrice Du Welz, Romain Protat
Starring: Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon
Running Time: 88min

Rating: 7/10

REC II (2007)

Dr. Owen, an official from the Ministry of Health and a Grupo Especial de Operaciones (GEO) team, equipped with helmet-mounted video cameras, are sent into a quarantined apartment building to control the situation. After encountering some of the infected, Owen uses religious mantra and rosary to fight them off. It turns out that Owen is actually a priest sent by the church to get a blood sample from the Medeiros girl and aid the other priest in charge of her. When they get to the penthouse, they find out that the infected can travel all around the building through the air ducts. The Medeiros girl is nowhere to be found. Larra, one of the GEO officers goes into the air duct and finds a sample of her blood – the only one that the original priest took from her. Owen then performs a religious rite, and the blood spontaneously combusts, confirming that it is the blood he's looking for; however, the rest of the blood also sets on fire and Larra drops it, rendering it useless. They must then get a blood sample from the Medeiros girl. Jennifer's father, who was outside getting medicine for his daughter (the infected girl from REC), manages to convince a firefighter to take him into the building. Moments before the building is quarantined, three teenagers named Tito, Mire and Ori are messing around on a roof. When the police quarantine the building, they find them and escort them out to the street. The teenagers gain access to the sealed building through the sewage system; however, police have seen them and seal their exit...

Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
Producer: Julio Fernández
Writter: Jaume Balagueró, Manu Díez, Paco Plaza
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Jonathan Mellor, Óscar Sánchez Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Pablo Rosso
Running Time: 85min

Rating: 9/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (4)

SESSION 9 (2001)

The Danvers State Hospital has been closed since 1992. Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) is the owner of The Hazmat Elimination Company, a small asbestos removal company. When he hears that the hospital needs asbestos removal, he makes a bid to remove them, ambitiously claiming he can finish the job in just two weeks in order to get the contract; as he is in desperate need of money. He is also a new father, and the stress of work and parenthood have been causing problems between Gordon and his wife, Wendy. As Gordon initially tours the asylum, he comes across a dark hallway with an eerily illuminatedrestraint chair in the middle. He hears a ghostly voice say, "Hello.... Gordon."
Gordon's team is small, but eclectic. Mike (Stephen Gevedon, also the film's screenwriter) is a law school drop-out, who knows the most about the asylum in the group. Phil (David Caruso), Gordon's second in command, is filled with bitterness after losing his long-time girlfriend to Hank (Josh Lucas), another team member who likes to rub that fact in Phil's face. Because of this, Phil has taken up smoking Marijuana. Hank dreams of leaving his job to run a casino. Jeff, Gordon's nephew (Brendan Sexton III), is the youngest member of the crew, and suffers from severe nyctophobia.
The job affects each of the men in different ways. While checking on an electrical problem, Mike discovers a box marked "evidence" in a file room in a tunnel. Inside, Mike finds a collection of nine tapedsessions with former patient number 444, a thirty-seven year old named Mary Hobbes from 1974. In between working, he listens and becomes increasingly engrossed in the interviews, which detail her multiple personality disorder. Two of Hobbes' personalities are harmless and child-like...

Director: Brad Anderson
Producer: John Sloss, Dorothy Aufiero, David Collins, Michael Williams
Writter: Brad Anderson, Stephen Gevedon
Starring: David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, Brendan Sexton III
Running Time: 102min

Rating: 9/10


NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957)

In England, Professor Harrington approaches Dr. Julian Karswell, the leader of a satanic cult, promising to call off an investigation of the cult if Karswell would call off "what he has started". Karswell agrees. After learning that a parchment given to Harrington has disintegrated, he ushers Harrington out. After Harrington arrives at his home, a demon materializes in the woods and approaches Harrington. Fleeing in his car, Harrington crashes into a telegraph pole which causes falling power lines to electrocute him.
Dr. John Holden arrives in England to attend a convention where Harrington had intended to expose Karswell's cult. Holden is informed of Harrington's death and that the only link between it and Karswell's cult is an accused murderer, Rand Hobart, who has fallen into a catatonic stupor. While Harrington's collaborators consider the possibility of supernatural forces, Holden rejects the idea as superstition.
Following Harrington's notes, Holden visits the British Museum's library to examine books on witchcraft. A book Harrington requests is discovered to be missing. He is approached by Karswell, who offers to show Holden his own copy at his mansion. At Harrington's funeral, Holden meets the dead man's niece, Joanna, who provides him with Harrington's diary. The diary reveals Harrington's increasing fear of Karswell's power. Holden remains skeptical, but goes with Joanna to Karswell's mansion the next day...

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Hal E. Chester
Writter: Charles Bennett, Hal E. Chester, based on a story by M.R. James
Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Athene Seyler
Running Time: 95min

Rating: 8/10


RAVENOUS (1999)

In an opening prologue during the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848), a United States Army officer, Lieutenant Boyd, freezes in battle while his unit is massacred. Playing dead, he is transported along with the other dead, with his commanding officer's blood dripping into his mouth, back to the Mexican headquarters. In a moment of sudden bravery, he captures the Mexican command. He is promoted to Captain for his heroism, but his commanding officer realizes he is a coward and transfers him to the remote Fort Spencer in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
After Boyd joins the seven other inhabitants of Fort Spencer, a stranger named Colqhoun arrives...

Director: Antonia Bird
Producer: Adam Fields, David Heyman, Tim Van Rellim
Writter: Ted Griffin
Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, David Arquette, Neal McDonough
Running Time: 100min

Rating: 8.5/10