Shaky cam bonanza: the glory of Found Footage

Many people associate found footage with cheap productions, shaky cams, night vision and panting. Others feel found footage films creep under the skin as relentless first-person narratives without music.

Found Footage actually has its roots in Victorian classic horror literature: texts consisting of found diary entries, letters, manuscripts. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is actually such a text, and Edgar Allan Poe wrote a short story called 'MS. found in a bottle' in 1833. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) is another example.

It's called epistolary literature.

The Horror Rookie Academy had a Found Footage Friday the other day. Below you will find a wonderful list of film tips within this genre that is both loved and hated.

Enjoy!

Tittel	År	IMDb
The Bay	2012	5,7
Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Night	2010	5,1
American Zombie	2007	5,0
OCCULT	2009	6,5
Gonjiam: haunted asylum	2018	6,4
The monster Project	2017	4,5
Diary of the dead	2007	5,5
U.F.O	1989	5,4
Host	2020	6,5
Butterfly kisses	2018	5,9
Troll Hunter	2010	6,9
Digging up the marrow	2014	5,8
Shopping Tour	2012	4,4
Behind the mask: the rise of Leslie Vernon	2006	6,7
The borderlands	2013	5,8
Deviil's pass aka The Dyatlov Incident	2013	5,7
Subject	2022	5,6
Malibu Horror Story	2023	6,4
Deadstream	2022	6,4
Man bites dog	1992	7,4
The McPherson Tape	1989	5,4
Apollo 18	2011	5,2
Cannibal Holocaust	1980	5,8
The taking of Deborah Logan	2014	6,0
Evidence	2012	5,0

Others are checking out:

Automotive horror!

The term automotive horror , also referred to as "car horror" or "highway horror," refers to horror fiction where the primary source of dread, isolation, or violence is directly linked to vehicles and the culture of the open road. It essentially exploits the psychological terror of a machine turning malevolent or the vulnerability of being isolated on a desolate road. Automotive horror utilizes several distinct concepts to create terror: The Sentient/Evil Vehicle: The car itself is the monster. Christine (1983), anyone? It's often possessed, cursed, or supernaturally alive, acting with malevolent intent to kill, terrorize, or corrupt its owner. The topic of evil cars represents Technophobia , an underlying theme where technology, which is supposed to represent freedom and convenience, instead betrays you. Turns on you like a dirty street whore in the night. The Highway Hunter: The vehicle is simply a tool used by a human serial killer or psychopath who us...

32 Liminal horror movies

Let's begin with the beginning: what in the world is "liminal" - and "liminal horror"? The word liminal itself is defined quite differently by different sources, but the essence is as follows: - a state/position at or on both sides of a threshold/border - a transition between states or the initial phase of a process of change As far as I understand, Liminal horror points to both this and at the same time to what is called liminal spaces , which are: - areas and architecture that lead you from something to something else, and which are not intended as anything more/other. Corridors, underpasses, aqueducts, airports, queues, waiting rooms... 'Non - destinational places', as my husband called it when I tried to explain it. Apt term! 😍 - Emotionally, liminal spaces are, for example, grief and growing up - Psychologically and socially, it's is 'nothing' between different feelings or states: the state of post partum and detox are two examp...

Body horror!

A truly unsettling and fascinating subgenre indeed, body horror (also known as biological or organic horror) is a type of horror fiction where the primary source of terror comes from the grotesque or psychologically disturbing violation, transformation, degeneration, or destruction of the physical body. It often plays on deep-seated anxieties about physical vulnerability and loss of control over one's own body. A key element is that the body's violation is usually not the result of immediate or initial violence, but rather a loss of conscious control over the body due to mutation, invasion, decay or scientific interference. The horror often centers on an individual watching their own body betray them, change, or collapse, rather than being hunted by an external creature. Guillermo del Toro famously described body horror as the "betrayal of the flesh." The genre intentionally invokes intense feelings of physical and psychological disgust, pushing the limits of what the...

The origin of the Horror Rookie Academy

The Horror Rookie Academy has been operational for 15 straight years now! Good heavens, it's almost unbelievable. It's time for a little look back at the origin of the Academy. When I was little, my dad worked as a captain in foreign trade, and my brother and I used to join the boat during the summer holidays. (It was a simpler time, before the age of HSE...) Norwegian seafarers are so lucky to have the Norwegian Sailor's Church (Sjømannskirken) which works for their well-being. The Sailor's Church used to run a library service on Norwegian ships, providing books and films for the sailors. Either someone responsible for such things at the Sailor's Church was a horror and sci-fi lover, or their insight into the contents of the films of the time was so-so: the library cabinet onboard the boat was filled with the VHS tapes that basically made me the horror fanatic I am today. Jaws, Frankenstein, The Shining, Poltergeist, Rosemary's Baby, The Thing... All of which w...

Uplifting horror with merry violence!

Things rarely go well for people in the movies we like. Things mostly go straight to the black bowels of Hell. (If you know, you know...) So what do you do when you're really into horror movies on the more cheerful side of the spectrum? A little bit of merry violence? You head over to the Horror Rookie Academy and ask the rookies for movie tips! Below you'll find tips that came in response to the following questions: Hey! Does anyone have any tips for uplifting horror? I'd love to have a good dose of happy violence also. Tittel År IMDb Evil Dead 2 1987 7,7 Army of Darkness 1992 7,4 Bubba Ho Tep 2002 6,9 Brain Damage 1988 6,5 Evil Ed 1995 5,5 Return of the living Dead 1985 7,3 Tucker and Dale vs Evil 2010 7,5 The Cottage 2008 6,1 Sightseers 2012 6,5 Severance 2006 6,4 Bad Boy bubby 1993 7,3 Rubber 2010 5,7 Space Station 76 2014 4,9 Motivational Growth 2013 5,7 Teeth 2007 5,4 The Crazies 2010 6,5 Slither 2006 6,5 Deadstream 2022 6,4 Scouts guide to the Zombie apocalypse 20...

Hillbilly vs outback horror!

Hillbilly Horror is an American subgenre, often rooted in the concept of Southern Gothic , where a group of "civilized" outsiders (often young people from the city) venture into remote, rural areas—typically the Deep South, Appalachia, or the Southwest—and encounter a family or group of violent, often inbred, degenerate locals. Key Conventions of hillbilly horror are: Setting: Remote, isolated locations like deep woods, decaying farmhouses, abandoned roads, and dilapidated small towns, usually suggesting an area "forgotten" by modern society. The Villains: The antagonists are typically a family unit , often characterized by inbreeding, physical deformities, cannibalism, and extreme violence. They represent an unhinged, "monstrous" version of the rural poor. The Conflict: It's fundamentally a Clash of Cultures —city dwellers vs. country folk. The horror stems from the characters being stripped of their modern conveniences (like cell service or relia...

103 tips for 80's horror films!

The eighties were nothing short of awesome. This was before the world became dangerous and messed up, so there was a playful sense of ease strongly present. As was the case in eighties horror films too: they are often excellent testaments to an era that never gets old. If it was cool and modern, you could bet you'd find it in horror films. Dudes in cropped tank tops, jocks and prom queens, the noble art of jumping into roofless cars without opening the doors, walkmans, hackers with long coats and head bands... The horror films of the eighties had it all! The Rookies at the Horror Rookie Academy love eighties horror. Flat out loves it. One dark and icy cold week, just as an unholy mist came rolling in from the sea to cover the jagged shores of Scandinavia, the rookies put their weird and wonderful heads together to conjure no less than 103 movie tips for eighties horror films. For your vieweing convenience, of course. We aim to please...

Lucio Fulci films you need to watch!

Lucio Fulci (1927-1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor. With his sharp tongue and a dark sense of humor, his career spanned from comedy via giallo to splatter films of the 1970s and 1980s he became particulary well known and loved for. Fulci made his international breakthrough with Zombi 2 in 1979 (a nominal sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which was called Zombi in Italy). The film featured bold cinematography, tangible atmosphere and a lot(!) of blood and gore. Zombi 2 gave him a reputation as a veritable master of horror, and he followed up Zombie 2 with several other horror films that led to him being compared to Italy's other horror master, Dario Argento. The two never worked together, and Fulci also became known for constantly slamming Argento and his work. An ever so toxic bromance straight out of Hell, I guess. I love you but I hate you but I love you but I hate you, sort of. One dark and stormy evening, an evening of u...

Masks in horror!

Masks are widely seen in horror films. But of course. Hidden identities and a visage without any visible emotions are the stuff nightmares are made of. Or masks made of the skin of a human head... Eeew! Leatherface, Jason Vorhees, Ghostface and Michael Myers were pioneers in the mask game. Those iconic roles have since been followed by a wide array of masked killers in horror. Increasingly cheezy, some might feel -myserlf being among them. The home invasion subgenre has in particular taken masks to its heart. The rookies at The Horror Rookie Academy recently endulged themselves in a Mask Saturday, shining a powerful mental light on masks in horror. Below is the list of 28 movie recommendations that followed. Enjoy! Nr Title Year IMDb 1 Scream 1996 7,4 2 StageFright 1987 6,6 3 Christmas Cruelty 2013 4,4 4 The Collector 2009 6,3 5 My Bloody Valentine 1981 6,3 6 My Bloody Valentine 2009 5,4 7 Onibaba 1964 7,8 8 The Orphanage 2007 7,4 9 Alice, Sweet Alice 1976 ...

Dental Horror!

Teeth are hard, calcified structures in the mouth that are essential for breaking down food through chewing, forming words for speech, and maintaining overall oral health. They are also dreadful sources of pain, an object for torture and things that can get smashed out of your skull in a bloody instant. One starry friday night, a night of icy gusts of wind and of gerenal unrest in the populus, the Rookies at the Horror Rookie Academy decided to dive into the topic of dental horror: the portrayal of teeth in horror films. We decided to limit the topic to mainly human teeth, but since the sphere of horror is a transcendant and messy one, we of course welcomed other types of teeth in horror as well. Tusks, for example. Or simply messed up tooth-related stuff. The films listed below either centers around the topic of teeth or has predominant scenes portraying teeth in them. It is a creepy collection of films, this. Films that make your molars ice and throb just by th...

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