Blood, Brews & Popcorn

So I'm back with another entry from Unhinged Pictures, 'Stalking' (2023).

I'm enjoying the movie offerings on this channel so far. They hit the spot for hand held camera work and found footage feel. This latest one was another good effort, I enjoyed it overall and although it starts off a bit slow it does pick up speed later. If you have a slight full-on addiction to the found footage genre like me, these guys are definitely worth checking out. I had one minor little pick about the camera work for 'Stalking,' but I would highly recommend watching this and their other movies and making up your own mind.

The more I see of this channel and others, I'd rather watch more of these indie productions than some of the big budget movies that are under the thumb of corporate interference.

This movie stood out to me the first time I watched it (way back in the day) and still holds up for me. On first watch, the documentary-style film making mixed with the supernatural subject matter instantly captured my imagination in a way that other conventional film-based story telling at the time had not done previously. Even if they technically weren't the first, this film kick-started the found footage genre and made it cool.

We start with a small group of students led by a passionate but naive project leader who together embark on a trip to investigate and document the history of the 'The Blair Witch.' It's a great hook because despite being a work of fiction, we see and experience it all through the characters' eyes, ears and psyches, which makes it feel all the more real and threatening. The raw, unedited reactions of the group, captured on shaky hand-held video, makes the whole experience feel visceral and convincing. It takes us from a place of comfortable distance and drops us into the action where we feel as vulnerable as the characters themselves. I really enjoy this filming style and it remains a firm favourite to this day.

Films like this tap into our conscious (and unconscious) fears of getting lost, losing control and the claustrophobic terror associated with being cornered and unable to escape. It's a study of how people and social structures break down, slowly and insidiously losing reason and the ability to make intelligent decisions, until finally devolving into chaos.

Many film makers have since utilised this style of story-telling to great effect and I'm happy to see it continue to inspire and propel the genre. What are your favourite found footage films and why?