Found footage is a cinematic technique in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were film or video recordings recorded by characters in the story, and later "found" and presented to the audience. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time , off-camera commentary . For added realism , the cinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are routinely employed. The footage may be presented as if it were " raw " and complete or as if it had been edited into a narrative by those who "found" it.
29-505: Inner Demons is a 2014 found footage horror film that was directed by Seth Grossman. The movie had its world premiere on 13 June 2014 at the Los Angeles Film Festival and stars Lara Vosburgh as a teenage drug addict whose problems may be a result of demonic possession. Carson Morris (Lara Vosburgh) is a former straight-A student who has been using drugs for the past year, having begun shortly after she enrolled in
58-498: A Satanic ritual, which is when she got possessed. Jason returns to the Morris family home with the rest of the film crew and breaks into the house demanding to see Carson. Her parents are initially hostile, but grow fearful after they hear Carson screaming upstairs. With no other options, Jason tries to exorcise Carson himself but is unsuccessful and the demon causes the house's power to go out. Carson, now fully possessed, then picks off
87-400: A prestigious Catholic high school. She has agreed, albeit reluctantly, to allow a film crew to monitor her for an Intervention -esque documentary show as she checks into a rehab clinic. Carson is quickly made a target of ridicule by the other patients, as she has been taking drugs because she believes that she has been demonically possessed. Jason (Morgan McClellan), a production assistant for
116-821: Is in horror films , such as The Blair Witch Project , Cannibal Holocaust , Paranormal Activity , Diary of the Dead , Rec , Cloverfield , Trollhunter , V/H/S , and Incantation , in which the footage is purported to be the only surviving record of the events, with the participants now missing or dead. It has also been used in science fiction such as Chronicle , District 9 , Project Almanac , Europa Report , Gamer , drama such as Zero Day , Exhibit A , comedy such as Project X , mystery such as Searching , family such as Earth to Echo , experimental arthouse such as The Connection , The Outwaters , Masking Threshold , and war films such as 84C MoPic . Although found footage
145-515: Is often claimed to be the first example of found footage. However, Shirley Clarke 's arthouse film The Connection (1961) and the Orson Welles directed The Other Side of the Wind , a found footage movie shot in the early 1970s but released in 2018, predate Cannibal Holocaust . America's Deadliest Home Video (1991), remains a potent use of the format as well as an unsung groundbreaker in
174-405: Is the source of the curse. Ronan returns Dodo to the foster home and travels back to the tunnel in the now-abandoned village. At the altar, she reveals Mother Buddha's face on camera, intending to curse the viewers to save her daughter. She then gets possessed and kills herself. The film ends with a happy and healthy Dodo, implying that the burden of her curse has been shared with everyone who watched
203-472: Is unsuitable, the mother and daughter escape with the help of Ming, the sympathetic manager of the foster home. They bring Dodo to a shrine, where a priest and his wife forbid her from eating for the next seven days, but when runes appear all over her body, Ronan feeds her in desperation. The priest and his wife are violently killed and Dodo deteriorates. Ming goes to Yunnan to visit an elder monk that specializes in translating Buddhist esoteric scriptures and has
232-425: The epistolary novel , which typically consists of either correspondence or diary entries, purportedly written by a character central to the events. Like found footage, the epistolary technique has often been employed in horror fiction : both Dracula and Frankenstein are epistolary novels, as is The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft . In filmmaking , the 1980 cult horror feature Cannibal Holocaust
261-434: The camera currently filming, and it is revealed that his eyes are now pure black, as were Carson's earlier in the film. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 64% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 4.45/10. Much of the film's criticisms stemmed from what the reviewers felt was an overly familiar premise that did not live up to its full potential, and Den of Geek criticized
290-456: The clinic and her family withdraws their consent to have her filmed. Not deterred, Jason follows Carson home and continually tries to get in touch with her family, but is repeatedly sent away by her parents, Beth and Steve (Colleen McGrann and Christopher Parker). It's only when he investigates her "friends" that he discovers that she was being bullied at her new school by her new acquaintances. They decided to prank her by forcing her to take part in
319-548: The damaged tunnel footage professionally restored. After watching the restored footage, he becomes possessed and kills himself. In the footage, it is shown that Dom and Yuan passed disturbing items laid ritualistically throughout the tunnel, which led to the altar of Mother Buddha. When removing the veil from Mother Buddha's face, Dom becomes possessed and dies. Yuan makes it out but is violently killed by unseen forces. The villagers burned Dom's body, and their bodies were also covered in runes. Ronan confesses that she has been lying to
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#1732783540209348-530: The demons. In the end, they singled out the eldest daughter and attacked her until she died of her injuries. The five remaining members of her family were subsequently charged with the offense of "abandoning a helpless person resulting in the person's death". The case was considered one of mass hysteria . Kevin Ko explained that the Mother Buddha, hand gestures, chant, symbols, and everything associated with
377-494: The film crew, is sympathetic and quickly bonds with Carson - even going so far as to believe her claims after her behavior turns increasingly erratic. During all of this Carson also has several displays of supernatural behavior that is captured on camera but only when she is alone. There are suggestions of bringing in an exorcist , however the clinic's physician Dean Pretiss (Richard Wilkinson) thinks that this would be detrimental to Carson's mental well being. When Carson attacks Jason
406-462: The film to encourage the viewer to pray along. The events are shown as found footage in a non-linear manner. The written plot is in chronological order. Six years earlier, a newly-pregnant Ronan, her boyfriend Dom, and Dom's cousin Yuan break a serious religious taboo while documenting a ritual for their online video channel. They visit Dom and Yuan's relatives in a remote clan mountain village, where
435-505: The film, lightening its effects. The film is inspired by an incident in Gushan District , Kaohsiung in 2005. A family of six had claimed that they were possessed by various Chinese folk religion deities and accused each other of being possessed by demons masquerading as deities. They burned each other with incense , hit each other with sticks and spirit tablets , and splashed feces and urine on each other in an attempt to expel
464-427: The found-footage field - an ahead-of-its-time application of the vérité-video form to the horror/crime genre. The device was popularised by The Blair Witch Project (1999). Found footage has since been used in other commercially successful films, including Paranormal Activity (2007), REC (2007), Cloverfield (2008) and Chronicle (2012). Reviewing V/H/S for The A.V. Club , Scott Tobias notes that
493-401: The genre "has since become to the '00s and '10s what slasher movies were to the '80s." The genre appeals to film producers because of its lower cost, as it is believed the illusion of amateur documentary style allows lower production values than would be accepted on a conventional film. Writer-director Christopher B. Landon , who has made several found footage horror films, posits that
522-402: The genre is likely to extend in the future outside horror. The following entries are notable films in the found footage genre, though some were only partially made in that style. Andolan Films Incantation (film) Incantation ( Chinese : 咒 ; pinyin : Zhòu ) is a 2022 Taiwanese found footage supernatural folk horror film directed by Kevin Ko, who also co-wrote
551-576: The highest-grossing Taiwanese horror film. The film was released in Taiwan on March 18, 2022, and also screened at the Far East Film Festival . In June 2022, Netflix announced that it would distribute the film worldwide on July 8, 2022. As of June 2022, Incantation has grossed NT$ 170,000,000 ( US$ 5,700,000), making it the highest-grossing 2022 film in Taiwan. It became the highest-grossing Taiwanese horror film of all time. On
580-431: The house's occupants one by one, including her own mother after she tearfully admits that Carson is a victim of physical abuse. Jason tries to appeal to Carson one last time and is seemingly successful. However their joy is short lived, as Carson's father enters the room and shoots Carson in the head and then kills himself, believing that she is still possessed. A horrified Suzanne is then murdered by Jason, who then turns off
609-404: The movie's script as being overly cliché. Variety wrote a mixed review for Inner Demons . Fangoria and HorrorNews.net both wrote predominantly favorable reviews for the film, and HorrorNews.net commented that "Character development is conveyed with top notch performances from each of the cast all around." Found footage (pseudo-documentary) The most common use of the technique
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#1732783540209638-524: The religion in the film are all fictitious. Much of the budget was spent on the design and production of the props, especially the large statue of the Mother Buddha. The image of the Mother Buddha incorporated elements from Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism . Incantation was showcased at the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) project market during the 2019 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival before entering production and going on to become
667-455: The screenplay with Chang Che-wei . The film was released in Taiwan on 18 March 2022, and it became the highest-grossing Taiwanese horror film. It received an international distribution from Netflix on 8 July 2022. A woman named Li Ronan implores the viewer to memorize an insignia and chant an incantation to send blessings and lift the curse on her six-year-old daughter, Dodo. The insignia and incantation are interspersed frequently throughout
696-407: The show's producer Suzanne (Kate Whitney) begins to push Pretiss for an exorcist, only for him to state that he wants to transfer Carson to a mental institution. The following day Pretiss gives a much calmer Carson a physical exam and discovers that Jason gave her heroin while she was unconscious, as he now fully believes that the drugs will keep the demons at bay. As a result, Carson is expelled from
725-442: The term "discovered footage" for the narrative gimmick . Found-footage films typically employ one or more of six cinematic techniques — first-person perspective , pseudo-documentary , mockumentary , news footage, surveillance footage , or screenlife —according to an analysis of 500 found-footage films conducted by Found Footage Critic. As a storytelling technique, found footage has precedents in literature, particularly in
754-578: The viewer all along. The priest Ming visited in Yunnan revealed that Mother Buddha is in fact a malevolent entity that was brought from Southeast Asia to Yunnan; if one submits one's name with the incantation, it means one agrees to carry her curse. Instead of conveying blessings, the incantation actually serves to dilute the curse; when more people chant it, the curse spreads out and the burden on those bearing it becomes lighter, with fewer misfortunes befalling them. Mother Buddha's face has to be covered because it
783-410: The villagers practice an esoteric Yunnan religion, worshipping an ancestral deity called Mother Buddha. They spy on the clan preparing a child for sacrifice. The unconscious child, whose body is covered in runes, is left in front of a tunnel that the clan has expressly forbidden the trio from entering. Dom and Yuan enter the tunnel; Yuan shortly emerges, screaming, while Dom's dead body is carried out by
812-426: The villagers. The footage from within the tunnel shot by Dom and Yuan has since become damaged. After Dodo is born, Ronan leaves her at a foster care home and seeks psychiatric help. In the present, Ronan has recovered and is taking Dodo to live with her, feeling ready. However, Dodo is disturbed by a malicious presence and develops a debilitating illness. When social workers arrive to take Dodo away, feeling that Ronan
841-488: Was originally the name of an entirely different genre, it is now frequently used to describe pseudo-documentaries crafted with this narrative technique such as Lake Mungo , Noroi: The Curse and screenlife films such as Unfriended , Searching . The film magazine Variety has, for example, used the term "faux found-footage film" to describe some titles. Film scholar David Bordwell criticizes this recent usage, arguing that it sows confusion, and instead prefers
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