Digging-up the Literary Roots of Found Footage Horror

On January 8th 2020 a writer went missing. All we found was this article…

Everyone is familiar with ‘found footage’ movies. The cinema going public has been there and seen that for decades (The Blair Witch Project / Paranormal Activity / Cloverfield / Rec / Unfriended / etc.) Whenever you came into it, everyone remembers their first time but barely remember the many subsequent times they have seen the phoney documentary device since. It’s a strange genre. When it works, it really works. When it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. There’s no ‘meh’ with found footage like traditional movies. It’s usually love it or hate it, provided you can even remember it.

As with all things in popular culture, there’s always plenty of sequels and knock-offs spawned by the few good examples that land a commercial hit with audiences. There’s also no sign of found footage stopping anytime soon. It’s a format that’s made its way into TV shows, TV movies and of course, still cropping up in the cinema each year.

Found footage is regularly declared dead. It is regularly revived. Has irregular hits, regular misses, but is quite exceptional in so far as no other genre gets buried and rises from the grave so frequently. Except magic and magicians, who suffer similar booms and slumps in popularity, maybe.

But have you ever wondered where it all began?