An essay I wrote for my Horror Cinema class.






Horror films which claim to be derivative from reality have always been exceedingly popular. Ever since the inception of film, filmmakers have tried to promote that truth exists in a fantastical cinematic story. Perhaps the volition to promote truth is the belief that those who believe in even a sliver of truth are likely to become more involved with it, more enthusiastic to see it most importantly likely to encourage others to see it. However, a question lies in why audiences find truth in film to be so captivating. There is evident mass appeal in a story that portrays an event even minimally factual over a story that is evidently fictional. The gimmick of reality, though it may be applied to all genres of film, is especially appealing to audiences in the horror genre. Not only are audiences more excited by the idea that the plot itself or features in the plot actually happened, they indulge in believing that something terrible happened. The way horror films have employed this gimmick of reality have escalated and become perhaps more convincing throughout time, sometimes causing controversy and panic. The gimmick has matured from inserting an inter-title at the beginning of the film that might claim that “This movie is based on a true story” or “the events which you are about to witnessed actually occurred ….” to employing aesthetic methods that not only tell the audience that what they’re watching is real, but to make them doubt that it’s not.

The history of truth-based film is as old as the medium of film itself. The Sergei Eisenstein film Battleship Potemkin was one of the earliest films based on true events. Eisenstein employed the lure of truth to portray a political ideology he (rightfully) found to be extremely telling through a catastrophic, devastating event which occurred twenty years before he made the film. Although the inspiration and backbone of Battle Potemkin’s plot can hardly be marginalized into being called a “gimmick”, Eisenstien nonetheless portrayed horror and agony to an audience to convey a larger idea and to attract viewers into witnessing the dread the film portrays and which still holds weighted significance to this day, even in front of an audience desensitized by films that would come decades later like Cannibal Holocaust. The most revealing point of this early inception of truth-based horror/dread films is that film does not always have to be a mode of escaping reality. In horror and dread we find ourselves attracted to the notion of reality so that we can feel more immersed in the film, rather than being separated by its falsities we immerse ourselves in the sliver of reality the film begs to portray. I admit that comparing Battleship Potemkin to Cannibal Holocaust in any regard is a stretch, and although they share only the nature of reality lending itself to the film as a focal point for horror there probably aren’t any more similarities between them. However, Cannibal Holocaust would later engage with the method of transference of political ideology shown through a horrific cinematic lens that Battleship Potemkin is also famously noted for. Cannibal Holocaust, despite harsh scrutiny that the filmmaker is too politically inconsistent, is nonetheless a commentary on the ethically deprived media that sensationalizes death for ratings.

Cannibal Holocaust being the first “found-footage documentary” horror film made inspired horror films, especially those within the “found-footage” genre, for decades to come and one of the most notable being The Blair Witch Project. Juxtaposed, Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project are both found-footage “documentaries” that employ the aesthetic attributes of the documentary film to portray an image of reality. Some of these documentary-style devices used in “found-footage” films are, as Julian Petley lists: “shaky, hand-held camerawork, 'accidental' compositions, crash zooms, blurred images, lens flare, inaudible or intermittent sound, direct address to the camera, scratches and lab marks on the print” and are all used throughout both the Blair Witch Project and Cannibal Holocaust to enforce the illusion of reality and obscure the indications of craftsmanship. These documentary-like characteristics not only gave the aesthetic illusion of reality to the films, but also compensated for the lack of special effects. Although both treated the film to create even further evidence of truth, each film employs actual documentary shooting differently. The Blair Witch famously had the actors use a hand-held camera to shoot nearly the entire film themselves, improvised much of the script and were left largely uninformed of the “supernatural” events that would befall them every night. Cannibal Holocaust, however, was meticulously crafted to appear as a genuine documentary film and all of it's technical shortcomings were artfully disguised by cinematic mechanisms mentioned. Although Cannibal Holocaust does not fall into the description of art-dread like that of The Blair Witch Project, it does however represent a parallel cinematic representation of unflinching torture and throughout the film, just as in The Blair Witch, the film is teeming with ominous clues that tell the audience that something awful is going to happen.

Cannibal Holocaust, being perhaps one the first of its kind, not only had characteristics that of a rough-cut documentary film but also weaved the imagery between real death and the fake death to create a portrait of undeniable and captivating reality. Petley describes how the scene in which the turtle is killed, disemboweled and eaten which is shot entirely unconcealed is followed by the scene in which Miguel’s leg is hacked off. These scenes of real and staged violence that construct the film are purposefully interwoven to serve as a realistic backdrop to the fictional death scenes. This exploitation of real death permeates the fictional cinematic space and creates an atmosphere of unsettling reality which lends itself even to the crafted scenes of death. Another notable example of this in the film is when the real atrocity footage which is shown to the television producers titled The Last Road to Hell is claimed to be inauthentic and staged by the character Allen to appear realistic and catastrophic for ratings. Ironically, the footage used to fabricate The Last Road to Hell in fact does depict real death. The fact that aside from the the animal death footage, the portrayal of real death in the film is immediately dismissed as fake and presented in an undramatic, inartistic way invokes the social commentary that the film is engaging with surrounding the sensationalism of death and the distortion of reality in the media. The fact that real death depicted in the film is treated with such nonchalance and without cinematic mechanics is a comment on how the reality of death and suffering in the world is obscured and even undermined by it's sensationalism in the media. Audiences are desensitized to real atrocities as a result of the constantly assault of violent, exploitative imagery perpetuated by the news and media.

Cannibal Holocaust may mostly consists of “found-footage” but a portion of the plot still takes place in the city, a far distance away from the horrors taking place in the “found-footage”. This shifting between unforgiving, foreign jungle and familiar, over-occupied city provides some pockets of minimal comfort scattered throughout an otherwise extremely distressing ambiance. This is also a symbolically comparative shift which asks the audience whether there really is a stark difference between the tribal cannibals and the morally devoid television producers who are willing to exploit anything for monetary gains. The Blair Witch Project, however, has little social commentary to offer but instils in the audience a captivating feeling of dread throughout the film by completely immersing us with what is onscreen. The lack of cut-aways and conventional plot insertions as well as the relentless camerawork puts the audiences in the forest with the actors, feeling the fear, mystery and dread that they feel. Although completely unlike Cannibal Holocaust, there is very little physical manifestation of the characters fears, the audience still finds itself expecting the worst the happen. This impending and lasting feeling of concern and irrational fear of the supernatural is what attributes the overall feeling of dread in the film. The terrifying finale of The Blair Witch would hardly be scary on it's own but is appropriated by the “realistic” and supernatural happenings which occur throughout the film.

The documentary-filmmakers in Cannibal Holocaust and those in The Blair Witch Project are parallel in their arrogance and ignorance, invading a foreign place without any adherence to the forces (whether it be supernatural witches or violent cannibals) that live there. This provides an undeniably realistic backdrop for the horrors about to be unveiled in each film. In modernity, individuals in highly-industrialized societies have become more and more ostentatious and self-assertive in exploring and exploiting the unknown and mysterious, putting ourselves in vulnerable situations with the arrogance that we will always succeed. In both films, the characters of the filmmakers are not only selfishly determined and assertive to make their way into the unknown and exploit it for the sake of media coverage but disregard the lives and space of those they are invading. This specific egocentric disposition of the filmmakers adds yet another hint of realism to the film. After all, all real documentaries must intervene and permeate some form of life, whatever the subject, in order to unravel and publicize it's mystery, lending itself to at least a fragment of arrogance on the part of the filmmakers even if they might treat their subjects with the utmost respect and compassion (unlike the filmmakers in Cannibal Holocaust). An even further investigation of the intrusive nature of documentary film points to the heart of reality television and its exploitation of commonplace human interaction and conflict.

Both Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project used media stunts outside of just the aesthetic tools employed within the film to promote the films supposed reality. Shortly after Cannibal Holocausts release Ruggero Deodato was arrested for indecency and then accused of murder after the public found the the special effects a bit too convincing. What was used as the strongest evidence against him and the most unnerving fact about the films distribution was the public absence of the actors in the film. Deodato had the actors sign a one-year contract forbidding them from being in the public sphere in order to enforce the gimmick that the film was real, or that it at least portrayed real death (aside from the Long Road to Hell footage) a marketing ploy that The Blair Witch Project would adopt decades later with similar (but less condemnable) reception. In addition to also having the actors sign an agreement of absence from the public, the filmmakers and producers of Blair Witch Project produced a slew of supplementary “documentary” footage surrounding the pseudo-legend of the blair witch including interviews with the inhabitants of Burkittsville and the friends and families of the actors in the film which was featured on a website one could visit throughout the films box-office run.

Although differing in content and levels of extremity, The Blair Witch Project and Cannibal Holocaust successfully utilizes the illusion of reality to draw in audiences and diminish the sense of comfortable fantasy one indulges in when watching films. Their effectiveness lies in that each preys on one's sense of humanity and compassion, but also our inherent voyeurism. Through portraying a “raw” representation of how the unknown forces of nature and supernatural react when they are pushed into exposure by pioneers of modernity and media, forces that we yield to as well, we become engulfed in the terror of that projected reality over which we have no control as long as we believe it.