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

HORROR TV SERIES

THE KINGDOM (1994-1997)

(Danish title: Riget)

The Kingdom is the most technologically advanced hospital in Denmark, a gleaming bastion of medical science. A rash of uncanny occurrences, however, begins to weaken the staff's faith in science-a phantom ambulance pulls in every night, but disappears; voices echo in the elevator shaft; and a pregnant doctor's fetus seems to be developing much faster than is natural. At the goading of a spiritualist patient, some employees work to let supernatural forces rest.

American horror writer Stephen King developed a thirteen-episode mini-series based on Riget, under the title Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, which was broadcast in 2004. The plot retained many of the elements of Riget, transferring the location of the hospital to Lewiston, Maine, and placing it on the site of a mill built before the Civil War.

Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen, Søren Pilmark, Ghita Nørby, Baard Owe
No. of episodes: 8
Country: Denmark
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5McczZo-u4o

Rating: 9,5/10

THE WALKING DEAD (2010-...)

The Walking Dead tells the story of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse; it follows a small group of survivors, traveling across the desolate United States in search of a new home away from the shuffling hordes of the undead. The group is led by Rick Grimes, who was a sheriff's deputy in King County, Georgia, before the zombie outbreak. As their situation grows more and more grim, the group's desperation to survive pushes them to the brink of insanity. At every turn they are faced with unspeakable horrors- both from the dead, and from the scattered remains of a struggling human populace.

Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Steven Yeun
No. of episodes: 6
Country: United States
Website: http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwpatSeulLs

Rating: 8,5/10

SUPERNATURAL (2005-...)

This television drama is about two brothers, Sam and Dean, who were raised by their father, John, to hunt and kill all things that go "bump in the night" after his wife, Mary, was murdered by something supernaturally evil when the boys were young. 22 years later the brothers set out on a journey, fighting evil along the way, to find their recently missing father who, when they finally meet up with, reveals he knows what killed their mother, a demon, and has found a way to track and kill it. Meanwhile, Sam starts to develop frightening abilities that include death visions, visions of people dying before it actually happens. These visions are somehow connected to the demon who murdered his mother...

Creator: Eric Kripke
Starring: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles
No. of episodes: 115 (6 seasons)
Country: United States
Website: http://www.cwtv.com/shows/supernatural

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmKLq1InbQc&feature=related

Rating: 8/10

MASTERS OF HORROR (2005-2007)

In 2002, director Mick Garris invited some director friends to an informal dinner at a restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California. The original ten “masters” attending were John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, Don Coscarelli,Joe Dante, Guillermo Del Toro, Garris, Stuart Gordon, Tobe Hooper, John Landis and Bill Malone.Subsequently, Garris organized regular dinners with the group and invited other horror and genre directors to attend including Dario Argento, Eli Roth, David Cronenberg, Lucky McKee, Tim Sullivan, Wes Craven,Joe Lynch, William Lustig, Ernest Dickerson, Kat O’ Shea, Robert Rodriguez, James Gunn, Mary Lambert, Tom Holland, Peter Medak, Lloyd Kaufman and others.
In 2005, Garris created and produced an original anthology television series of one hour movies, written and directed by many of the "Masters" which was originally broadcast in the U.S. on the Showtime cable network. In several international territories, the films were released theatrically.

Creator: Mick Garris
No. of episodes: 26
Country: United States, Canada

Rating: 7,5/10

LONG LIVE THE 70s! (2)

SUSPIRIA (1977)

During a night of rain and thunder, a young American ballet student, Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper), lands in Munich to attend a prestigious dance academy in Freiburg. When she reaches the school, she witnesses another student, Pat Hingle (Eva Axén), fleeing the building in a panic. Unable to gain access herself, Suzy stays in town for the night. Pat arrives at a friend's apartment where she is attacked and murdered...

Soundtrack
The Italian rock music band Goblin composed most of the film's musical score. Goblin also composed music for several other films by Dario Argento. In the film's opening credits, they are incorrectly referred to as "The Goblins". The score for Suspiria is considered a unique masterpiece. Like Ennio Morricone's compositions for Sergio Leone, Goblin's score for Suspiria was created before the film was shot.
Goblin frontman Claudio Simonetti later formed a heavy metal band, Daemonia, and the 2001 Anchor Bay DVD release contains a video of the band playing a reworking of the Suspiria theme song. This DVD edition also contains the entire original soundtrack as a bonus CD, long out of print in North America.
Goblin's main title theme for Suspiria was named as one of the best songs released between 1977 and 1979 in The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present.

Director: Dario Argento
Producer: Claudio Argento
Writter: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi
Starring: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini
Running Time: 92 min(Rated), 98 minutes(Unrated)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8zbV_fFkYs&feature=fvw

Rating: 9/10


THE LEGEND OF THE HELL HOUSE (1973)

Physicist Lionel Barrett is enlisted by an eccentric millionaire, Mr Deutsch, to make an investigation into "survival after death" in "the one place where it has yet to be refuted". This is the Belasco House: the "Mount Everest of haunted houses," originally owned by the notorious "Roaring Giant" Emeric Belasco, a six-foot-five perverted millionaire and supposed murderer, who disappeared soon after a massacre at his home. The house is believed to be haunted by numerous spirits; the victims of Belasco's twisted and sadistic desires. Accompanying Barrett are his wife, Ann, as well as two mediums: a mental medium and Spiritualist minister, Florence Tanner, and a physical medium, Ben Fischer, who is also the sole survivor of an earlier investigation. The rationalist Barrett is rudely skeptical of Tanner's Christian faith and spiritual beliefs, asserting that there is nothing but unfocused electromagnetic energy in the house...

Dialogue from the film has been sampled in popular songs by the bands Anaal Nathrakh, Skinny Puppy and Orbital.

Director: John Hough
Producer: Albert Fennell, Norman T. Herman, James H. Nicholson(executive), Susan Hart (executive)
Writter: Novel & screenplay: Richard Matheson
Starring: Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roland Culver
Running Time: 95min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MDF9vZVd_s

Rating: 7,5/10


THE WICKER MAN (1973)

Police Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) is sent an anonymous letter recommending that he investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison, on the remote Hebridean island of Summerisle (a fictional island apparently inspired by the real-life Summer Isles of the Inner Hebrides).
He flies to the island and during his investigations discovers that the entire population participates in a Celtic neopaganism cult, believing in re-incarnation, worshipping the sun and engaging in fertility rituals and sexual magic in order to appease immanent natural forces.

Director: Robin Hardy
Producer: Peter Snell
Writter: Anthony Shaffer
Starring: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, Britt Ekland
Running Time: 88min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FdV-O8o7ok

Rating: 8,5/10


THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)

Mari Collingwood (Sandra Peabody) plans to celebrate her seventeenth birthday by attending a concert with her friend, Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham). Her parents (Gaylord St James and Cynthia Carr) express concern both at the band and Mari's friendship with Phyllis. They let her go, giving her a peace symbol necklace as a gift before she leaves. Phyllis and Mari go to the city for the concert. On the way, they hear a news report on the car radio of a recent prison escape, involving violent criminals by the names of Krug Stillo(David Hess), a rapist and serial killer, his son Junior (Marc Sheffler), Sadie (Jeramie Rain), a psychopath and Fred "Weasel" Podowski (Fred J. Lincoln) a child molester, peeping tom and murderer. After the concert, Mari and Phyllis stroll the streets, seeking someone who might sell marijuana. They find Junior, who leads them back to an apartment, where they are immediately trapped by the criminals. Phyllis tries to escape, then tries to reason with the criminals to let her go and is punched in the stomach and raped...

The story is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres dotter i Wänge", which was also adapted into the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman.

Director: Wes Craven
Producer: Sean S. Cunningham
Writter: Wes Craven
Starring: Sandra Peabody, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred J. Lincoln, Jeramie Rain
Running Time: 91min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W9KPhmYYtg

Rating: 7,5/10

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 (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