Found-footage is one of the most used and abused subgenres in horror movie history, but there is an underrated gem that’s worth checking out. First popularized by the release of 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, the found-footage genre had actually already begun taking roots decades earlier, and had been closely associated with horror since the early 1980s. The controversial Italian film Cannibal Holocaust is perhaps the earliest example of the filmmaking technique being used in a horror context, but it would remain niche well into the late 1990s.
The aforementioned Blair Witch Project was not only the first major example of a found-footage horror film becoming a hit with general audiences, but it also helped to rewrite the rules of what found-footage could be. Integrating readily-available commercial filming equipment, the movie also used viral marketing to blur the line between fact and fiction. The subgenre would get another shot in the arm with 2007’s Paranormal Activity, which also utilized burgeoning camera tech to make things more real. Naturally, a bevy of copycats followed, but one particular film went criminally unnoticed.
An Underseen Classic With Plenty Of Legitimate Scares
The Taking of Deborah Logan arrived on the scene in 2014, and the independently-released found-footage horror flick made a splash with critics, but was largely lost in the deluge of VOD movies that began flooding the market in the early 2010s. The story follows a documentary filmmaker who is chronicling the lives of Deborah Logan and her daughter Sarah, the former of whom is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Things begin to take strange and supernatural turns, and the production falls apart as mysterious forces begin to swirl around Deborah and the crew making the documentary.
Besides being overrun by too much competition, The Taking of Deborah Logan also went unnoticed because of its genre. The found-footage trend was peaking in the first few years of the 2010s with dozens upon dozens of low-budget horror movies attempting to capitalize on the success of the Paranormal Activity franchise. This meant that The Taking of Deborah Logan got lumped in with inferior contemporaries, thus it was relegated to obscurity almost immediately.
Add on top the fact that the story involves a form of possession, and the indie film was immediately dismissed by the mainstream for being too derivative. Ever since the release of The Exorcist in the early 1970s, possession movies have been another popular subgenre, but the 2000s was a particularly ripe time for demons on screen. The Last Exorcism was released a few years before Deborah Logan, and also combines possession and found-footage. Though that film largely flopped, it still left an impression on viewers that the latter film couldn’t shake.
Ironically, The Taking of Deborah Logan director, Adam Robitel, would co-write Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.
The Movie Doesn’t Eschew Proper Filmmaking Techniques
it doesn’t punish the viewer with nauseating camerawork and contrived motivations.
One of the biggest complaints against the found-footage genre is that it often ignores conventional filmmaking techniques in favor of a faster and cheaper production model. However, The Taking of Deborah Logan doesn’t cut corners from a filmmaking perspective, and still has a cinematic quality despite being found-footage. This makes the movie infinitely more watchable, and it doesn’t punish the viewer with nauseating camerawork and contrived motivations. There’s a reason for cameras to be rolling, and it never comes off as unnecessary or forced.
Additionally, The Taking of Deborah Logan actually has legitimately scary payoffs to some of the movie’s biggest mysteries. One of the most common aspects of The Blair Witch Project that is usually borrowed by other found-footage films is its intentionally ambiguous climax, and that has inspired filmmakers to reject any form of satisfying conclusion. Deborah Logan does the exact opposite by delivering a truly shocking ending that still has a narrative function besides just being a frightening twist. The movie also has one particularly horrific scene which sticks with the viewer for days after the film ends.
Related
5 Found Footage Movies That Are Underrated (& 5 That Are Overrated)
Found footage is a highly divisive genre, but it’s possible to pinpoint the movies that are too overrated and those that don’t get enough love.
Finally, The Taking of Deborah Logan is unique because it has something to say. Though the film’s messaging might be surface-level at best, the found-footage horror film still has something to say about trauma, and the degradation of the body through aging. There’s also commentary on the mistreatment of the elderly and the failings of the medical industry to care for some of the most vulnerable in the community. The movie uses these ideas without needing to stop the narrative to explain them, and the pace never falters.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
