Found-Footage Horror and the Frame's Undoing

This essay finds in the found-footage horror cycle an alternative way of understanding the relationship between horror films and reality, which is usually discussed in terms of allegory. I propose the investigation of framing, understood both figuratively (framing the film as documentary) and stylistically (the framing in handheld cameras and in static long takes), as a device that playfully de-stabilizes the separation between the film and the surrounding world. The essay’s main case study is the Paranormal Activity franchise, but examples are drawn from a variety of films.