This Weekend’s Film Festival Contemplates Faux Docs

This past January two horror films were released using a hand-held documentary style. The faux doc style has been used in many genres for years, including dramas like LENNY and crime tales like GANG TAPES. Horror films, particularly, have used the "found footage" approach ever since Ruggero Deodato's controversial cult gore fest CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. In recent years, the mockumentary has grown in favor due to the wonderful work of Christopher Guest. So this edition of This Weekend's Film Festival cuts between the terrifying and the humorous to look at how faux docs help bring realism to their productions when the technique is used effectively.

When it comes to found footage horror films, the most well known example is THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Three student filmmakers get lost in the Maryland woods while filming a documentary on a local legend, the Blair witch. The footage begins with typical interviews and information about the legend, but as the day progresses into evening, the nerves of the students become frayed due to strange occurrences in the woods, which they find themselves hopelessly trapped in. The raw, black & white, first-person cinematography transports the viewer into the harrowing experience of these young people. Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez play on common fears that everyone has experienced, creating a growing and relentless tension. Driven by raw performances and the eeriness of the half and not seen, this simple story provides continued chills because it taps into primordial emotions. As I said in my original review, "[BLAIR WITCH] has me on the edge of my seat every time, because it's not what we see on the screen that necessarily scares us, it’s what the film conjures vividly in the viewer’s mind that has us gripped with fear."

Making a career out of the mockumentary, Christopher Guest's WAITING FOR GUFFMAN begins our Saturday doubleheader. Never hamming it up for laughs, this subtle satire uses the documentary format to skewer fame and America's obsession with the famous. Guest stars as Corky St. Clair, a Broadway never-was who has come to small town Missouri to wow the locals with his faux Big Apple experience. Guest finds wonderful subdued performances from his regular collaborators Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock. As I said in my original review, "Guest doesn’t make the production a disaster, but amateurish in all the classic ways. His attention to detail is magnificent, capturing the sentimentality and low production values of local theater." The documentary style allows Guest to set up his scenario well and delve into the oblivion that lies in the minds of his clueless characters. While we laugh at these amateur thespians throughout the film, Guest allows us to care for them too. So when the Broadway agent Guffman shows up for their big performance, we hold our breath awaiting his honest opinion. Dreams don't need talent to be attempted.

The closing Saturday film is one of the two doc-style horror films that arrived in theaters this year. Horror master George A. Romero reinvents the zombie genre that he created with his classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, moving the story of DIARY OF THE DEAD back to the onset of the living dead invasion. Like BLAIR WITCH, the story begins with film students shooting in the forest. This time they are making a fictional horror film when they hear word of real horrors taking place across America, where the dead are coming back to life and eating the flesh of the living. Director Jason Creed (Joshua Close) doesn't stop filming, wanting to capture the truth for the world to see. Romero's keen eye for the current social landscape captures the YouTube generation of skeptical conspiracy junkies very well. Romero makes us question what truth really means when it's being viewed through the lens of a camera. As I said in my original review, "While the faux doc style has been used many times before and DIARY traverses many of the same points, it’s Romero’s attention to how and why the video is being used that makes it special."

Opening up the Sunday lineup, Rob Reiner's THIS IS SPINAL TAP created the mockumentary as we know it. Following the C-level heavy metal band Spinal Tap, the viewer hears the egotistical thoughts of its members David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). As I said in my original review, "Reiner and his band of merry melody mockers are not just satirizing rock stars, but anyone whose main goal is to seek fame, while pretending to be an artist. This is all done with perfect attention to detail for the various rock clichés, from their overactive libidos to their diva-like demands." Filled with classic scene after classic scene, the cast perfectly portrays the tensions between "genius" artists in the same band, striving for the spotlight. All the more hilarious are the not-so-subtle sexual innuendoes in their song lyrics coupled with their diminishing notoriety. Reiner uses the documentary style as a why to easily get into the clueless minds of his character, while spoofing rock documentaries in general.

CLOVERFIELD, the New York City-set monster movie that hit theaters in January, closes this week's lineup. Michael Reeves' film puts us on the ground level of a Godzilla-like invasion. Seen through the eyes of the typical nameless citizens fleeing the carnage, this film uses the documentary style to make the story more intimate and believable in comparison to Romero's use of the style as part of his social commentary. Reeves gives his talented cast deeper characters than one would expect from a horror film, giving us people we can care about. As I said in my original review, "This is a monster movie, but its more so a survival movie. It’s also a simple love story." The lead character Rob (Michael Stahl-David) loves his longtime friend Beth (Odette Yustman), but troubles have pulled them apart. Mixing genuine character tension with the raw power of the disaster tale, CLOVERFIELD grips the viewer reminding us that style rarely creates substance, but style that aids the story's substance is invaluable.

So this week we get a lot of scares and laughs, hopefully making up an entertaining weekend of film viewing. Please tell me what you think of these picks. As always, it's that time where you head to the video store, update the Netflix queue, check out Zap2It.com for TV listings in your area or purchase the films on DVD at the below links and in the process help support this site.