I’ve always loved found footage horror. I never expected that it could be created in a steady, never-ending stream. This is the birth of Doorbell Horror.
The Blair Witch Project (1999) established found footage films as both a commercially and critically legitimate genre, but it had plenty of predecessors. Peeping Tom (1960) pioneered the concept that laid the groundwork for found footage horror, with a cinephile serial killer who filmed his victims as he ran them through with a modified camera knife.
Mondo Cane (1962) holds a special place in film history as a largely staged “documentary” of odd, absurd, and obscene events from around the world. Faces of Death (1978) capitalized on this model as a series compiling graphic footage coupled with staged snuff clips. Cannibal Holocaust (1980) stands as the pioneer of found footage horror as a narrative element for a feature film.
As mentioned before, The Blair Witch Project dragged found footage horror into the mainstream. The Paranormal Activities series, debuting in 2007, would cement it as a legitimate path for accessible horror completely removed from its video nasties origins. This had become mainstream.
The VHS series, group chat horror films, and the 2022 standout of Deadstream have helped bring horror into the current digital age where people live most of their lives online. That brings me to the newest trend in horror cinema. I’ll call it Doorbell Horror.
Across the nation, homes have been equipped with various brands of doorbell cameras that monitor who — or what — approaches the door of their home. This has birthed the online genre of security cam compilations that basically serve as a perpetual-motion machine for terrifying or creepy found footage that is even more frightening than most of what reached the big screen.
It’s difficult to tell how much of this footage is legitimate, but these compilations continue to be posted online and rack up plenty of views. In keeping with the tradition of found footage horror, the legitimacy of any such found footage is second to its effectiveness. This is the newest stage of found footage horror.
And it hits closer to home than ever.
