Cults AND found footage? Yes, please.
Folk horror is a dread-filled subgenre full of flower crowns and ancient blood rituals. Films such as The Blood On Satan’s Claw and even Midsommar tap into beautiful aesthetics to mask evil forces waiting to burst forth onto the world. But when there’s an unholy alliance of found footage and folk horror? It’s like my own personal bat signal. While the typical aesthetics of folk horror can’t always be achieved with a first-person perspective, these films make up for that with dread. Alongside the characters, we’re learning and researching about whatever strange cult magic may be at hand. That anxiety permeates each frame as you’re trying to understand just what’s unfolding.
These five films bring two incredible subgenres together into wholly unique films that’ll send chills down your spine.
Webcast
When Chloe Webber (Samantha Redford) starts making a documentary investigating the disappearance of her aunt, she didn’t expect to stumble into her neighborhood’s cult. One night when filming a reenactment with her friend Ed (Joseph Tremain) a young woman sprints out of her neighbors’ house, screaming for help. While her elderly neighbors say it’s their drug-addicted niece, Chloe senses something else is happening here. What follows is a tense film about trying to find the truth. Plus, the cult has incredible flower masks that deserve way more love in the realm of folk horror.
Crone Wood
Sometimes you go on a first date that evolves into a camping trip that evolves into a sacrifice to ancient diety. Danny (Ed Murphy) and Hailey (Elva Trill) go on the world’s wildest first date. It ends with camping in the supposedly haunted Crone Wood. Of course, they start experiencing strange noises and footsteps in the woods. But then the film reveals its twist. Crone Wood is a fascinating subversion of how the naked body is filmed in found footage.
Noroi: The Curse
Folk horror isn’t just a product of Britain. Japanese found footage master Koji Shiraishi directed a piece of folk horror and found footage art with his 2005 film Noroi: The Curse. The film is the literal found footage of paranormal researcher Masafumi Kobayashi (Jin Muraki) who disappeared while making a documentary called The Curse. The footage reveals a descent into horrifying folklore with deadly consequences. And the effects of what’s at hand aren’t just limited to Kobayashi’s camera. Reality show footage and static cameras show that the supernatural presence, Kagutaba, is leaking into the world.
They’re Outside
This found footage/folk horror mash-up is a pretty scathing look at celebrity psychologists who think they can solve everyone’s problems in an episode of their show. In They’re Outside, pop psychologist Max (Tom Wheatley) travels to “cure” the agoraphobic Sarah. She’s terrified of something called Green Eyes that’s supposedly always watching her from the woods. Green Eyes is a local legend, and Max dismisses it as such. But as the evidence begins to stack up, he can no longer deny something strange is happening to Sarah.
Final Prayer
I’ve written about this film previously, specifically in reference to its gut-wrenching ending that makes me nauseous to this day. But more than that, this is a folk horror film masked as religious horror. While the Catholic Church is investigating claims of miracles, we quickly learn this church was built on an ancient Pagan site. This isn’t about Jesus, but about something much older and meaner.
Tags: found footage Found Footage Friday
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