FOUND FOOTAGE ROUNDUP
If you wanna talk about new frontiers in horror, "found footage" or "handheld horror" seems to be the thing that everyone wants a piece of. Its simplicity is both its strength and its downfall. There's a certain amount of novelty is starting something new, no doubt this was the initial attraction to handheld horror. But, while most horror films put you in the third person, handheld puts you in the first. The video camera makes you a character in the film.
For the filmmaker the appeal is obvious. It's cheap, effective and trendy. Found footage can cut a budget down significantly and when done well gives the filmmaker the bragging rights to gloat over their thriftiness. But just because all this worked well for the Blair Witch Project, and Paranormal Activity doesn't mean it will for every attempted reboot of the vatican/exorcism film. Now I hope that serves as an introduction to my spiel about these two films. I watched them weeks apart but it's hard not to see the similarities. And even though neither thrilled me, I can say confidently that one trumped the other.
So lets get into it:
The Poughkeepsie Tapes was an honorable idea. The film is centered around a series of tapes that have been found in a house in Poughkeepsie NY documenting the twisted escapades of a well disguised serial killer. The film serves as a faux-documentary, cutting back and forth between news segments, the tapes themselves and interviews/ narrations made by the filmmakers. Like I said, it was an honorable idea. Somewhere between a crime-thriller and an anthology film. But despite its good intentions it just didn't manage to find itself in time for an effective ending. In fact, I probably watched this film a couple weeks ago and I don't even remember what the hell happened. The whole thing came out looking more like a PSA for stranger danger than anything else.
But I can also see why a film like this might be brutally disturbing to some. I could never claim this about jump-out scares because those never stop scaring me. Being someone who enjoys horror, though, the kind of scary that you feel in your gut and makes you feel like you need to wash the dirt off your brain is the kind of horror that you block out first.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes certainly banks on that kind of scare. It's extremely disturbing and taps into the audience's sense of dread. But it takes a certain level of investment in a character to make you respond to a film like this. Because this film tried to fit an anthology of brief but disturbing stories, you don't have a chance to really care about what's happend to them (or at least not enough to finish the movie and get on with your life).
There was a good intention behind this movie but it is NOTHING to write home about. Perhaps this is because it tries to fictionalize a character that we know exists. Serial killers are frightening, there's no doubt about that. And I'm not going to argue that this film exploits this real life horror because that would make me a goddamn hypocrite. But what I will say is that ... as immoral this will sound... the serial killer thing has been done. And worse? Real documentaries about serial killers exist. I suppose that is why this one seems so trivial.
VERDICT: Don't bother with this one. If you want to be disturbed the way this film is aiming to make you, watch the A&E serial killer documentary series.
Or on the other hand- don't.
V/H/S has been high on my list for a while. Why? Because it was a FUN idea. The guys over at Bloody Disgusting.com produced an anthology of horror stories. There's a lot of these kinds of things coming out ( ahem, ABCs of Horror) and V/H/S bridges the gap between found-footage and anthology horror quite nicely. I'm inclined to believe that the anthology format is a lasting trend that will ultimately be done to death but for now is refreshing and fun as hell.
Now. Here's what works about this film. There are five segments and each is directed by a separate party. Yes, some are better than others but they all do something unique and surprisingly different from the one before. The key, I believe, in achieving this spooky, and often times hilarious film, is the fact that the people behind the thing are not A-listers. They aren't in it for the money like (God bless his sexy soul), Eli Roth might be. Does their passion for horror rest on the same plain? I don't doubt it for a second. But the industry can shackle you and this is precisely why this team was put at an advantage. These aren't the guys who sell horror movies, these are the guys who watch them, write about them, think about them and understand them. These are the guys who know what actually makes a good horror film and have the freedom to invent on this premise.
To be real, V/H/S was less of a film for me and more of a commentary. It was made for people who know and appreciate a good scare. In the final segment of the film I found myself nodding, slack jawed in amusement. But it never surprised me that I would react this way cause these guys know what their doing, they're doing what all awesome filmmakers do: making a film that they would want to watch.
To conclude, this film is by no means flawless. It's got its moments as does every horror film after the year 2000 but it isn't a film for the critics, it's a film for the fans. And as a fan I approve this message.
VERDICT: Go ahead and watch it.
HONORABLE MENTIONS IN THE FOUND FOOTAGE GENRE:
I want to mention a few found footage films that I GENUINELY enjoyed and want to review in the future so that if I go on another tangent I'll be able to look back and remind myself of these:
REC. (2007) - never bothered with the remake and neither should you.
Cloverfield (2008) - you don't have to agree with this one.
Home Movie (2008) - dark horse is all i have to say.
Undocumented (2010) - high on the list. this movie is awesome.
Chronicle (2012) - not a horror movie per se but completely underrated.
