The gradual decline of the found footage horror movie is not entirely down to oversaturation. There are larger cultural reasons why the format doesn’t totally work anymore, the principle issue being that it’s just not as accurate reflection of our current video culture as it once was. The days of average joes lugging around camcorders, striving to capture every moment of their daily lives on Hi-8 are largely behind us (for which I suspect we should be thankful); today, most of us are more likely to present carefully staged and edited snippets of our lives in short clips shared across social media. Any more extended periods spent on camera are likely to be in face time or webcam chats, more than likely with other online platforms coming into play during this time… and this comparatively novel approach was applied to a horror scenario in 2014’s Unfriended, plus its recent sequel.
Of course, it was inevitable that this new web-based variation on the found footage format would inspire others to take a similar approach, hence we now have E-Demon, a low budget production from writer-director Jeremy Wechter, making his feature debut. It would be easy to dismiss the results as nothing more than a bald-faced Unfriended rip-off, and there’s certain ample grounds to argue it’s just that. Yet while it adopts a similar format – a real-time group Skype chat in which shit goes south spectacularly – E-Demon goes into some rather different, at times intriguing thematic territory.
A prologue scene, setting the whole thing up as a Youtube post, shows an Anonymous-style whistle blower promising to reveal the truth behind a bizarre incident in which a slew of murders occurred simultaneously in four different cities across the US, all in some way related to four individuals who were former college buddies. Next up, we are presented with the found footage in question: a recording of a group webchat between the aforementioned old friends, who it seems make a point of getting together online every so often for a drink and a catch-up. However, it soon transpires their ongoing friendship is based on more than alcohol and conversation: they’re also a bunch of highly competitive and ambitious practical jokers, who back in their college days would go to great lengths to scare the living shit out of one another. As such, when one of their number opens up an old chest in the attic which, according to family legend, carries a curse, the friends are naturally more than sceptical as to the veracity of the strange goings-on that ensue. Yet as weird things start happening in all four screens in the chat group, with strange, uncharacteristic behaviour from their nearest and dearest, the friends must confront the possibility that there really are malevolent supernatural forces at play.
While the aforementioned comparisons to Unfriended are inevitable, E-Demon sets a reasonably distinct stage from the get-go with its introduction of four adults whose social interaction is now for the most part limited to these occasional online get-togethers. The practical joke angle is also an interesting one, as it immediately draws into question just how much of what we are seeing is, within the story world, for real. It seems we’re also getting a hint of commentary on the nature of both horror and humour today, as questions arise is to whether an attempt to scare someone can go too far when venturing into taboo areas. Beyond this, as might be apparent from the title, E-Demon also presents some interesting ideas about how supernatural forces might manifest in the information age (although, in fairness, Buffy the Vampire Slayer explored much the same notion 21 years ago).
So yes, E-Demon does have some cool and interesting ideas, and for those who aren’t familiar with the Unfriended movies it may also seem an agreeably new approach. Beyond this, though, I’d be lying if I said there was anything particularly exemplary about it. The performances are for the most part fine, as is the dialogue, and there are a number of relatively tense and creepy sequences, but there isn’t too much in it that would seem likely to really get your heart rate up or linger in the memory far beyond the end credits (which, I should note, are presented in a creative if almost illegible manner). This new webchat model might be a minor shot in the arm for found footage, but I don’t think it’s enough to really bring the format back to life; and (at the risk of stretching the analogy to breaking point) most horror fans signed the ‘do not resuscitate’ form many years ago now. Ultimately, beyond the split screening, text boxes and the occasional imaginative use of image rendering delay, we’ve still got the same old screaming histrionics and shakey-cam, and if you hated all that in traditional found footage, I doubt E-Demon is going to change your mind. Still, if you can see past all that, E-Demon does play with other, older horror conventions in a reasonably inventive way, and certainly warrants your consideration.
E-Demon is available now in the US on VOD; it’s also currently on theatrical release in Los Angeles theatres, with a run in New York theatres to follow on September 21st.