Movies
Gimme Skelter (V)
“If the leaps and bounds that Scott Phillips has managed to take behind the camera from STINK OF FLESH to GIMME SKELTER are any indication of what we might expect from him in the future—assuming he stays away from scripting any further films like WEDDING SLASHERS—then the future looks bright indeed for this filmmaker as well as for genre fans.”
What if Charlie Manson had a bastard son? And, what if one day junior decided to follow in Daddy’s footsteps? An interesting idea or simply a wild story made up by a psycho in order to get others to carry out his dirty work? In GIMME SKELTER—the second feature from STINK OF FLESH director Scott Phillips, no one ever “really” finds out if the leader of this new family is Charlie’s son but that doesn’t stop his followers from reigning a night of terror on a small New Mexico town in this low-budget Grindhouse shocker.
In a town of less than a hundred it’s hard to keep things under wraps. And when doofy dude Todd (Mark Chavz) cheats on his gorgeous girlfriend Jonda (former Miss Teen USA Jillian Parry) with a strange new arrival Brass (Jaymi McNulty) he finds himself thrown out of the house and thrown into the worst night of his life—as he discovers his new lover is actually a cult follower whose gang (including Troma veteran Trent Haaga) has just arrived and is planning to kill everyone in town before the dawn.
GIMME SKELTER wittily borrows it’s title from a one-two punch of post-flower power bloodshed—The Rolling Stone’s track Gimme Shelter gave it’s name to the Maysles’ cinematic document of the tragic Altamonte concert and the Beatles classic Helter Skelter which Author/Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi famously appropriated for his book about the Tate-LaBianca murders. Those two seminal events were watershed moments in the end of American innocence. With Watergate, Vietnam, The Watts Riots and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy the landscape of the United States would be forever changed. This change was echoed in cinema as well and the rise of the Grindhouse era was in full effect delivering nihilistic classics like LAST HOUSE OF THE LEFT and their ilk. With GIMME SKELTER, its apparent that Phillips is attempting to capture a little of the grit, grime, sleaze and cheese that made the 42nd street theaters and dumpy drive-in double features so fascinating. And interminably he manages to capture the overall vibe that filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino managed to miss in their respective productions.
Since GIMME SKELTER has no major budget to speak of, and the sets and dusty desert setting are Spartan and unpopulated, the film often looks and feels like an authentic old school 70’s genre flick. The violence is appropriate, the nudity is random and unnecessary and the idea of a “Charlie’s Family” collection of cultist killers is absolutely authentic to the period (just a few years ago an even more interesting reproduction SLAUGHTERHOUSE OF THE RISING SUN arrived on DVD shelves). With those things going for it the film is a huge leap forward for Phillips—as STINK OF FLESH was a much more typical regional microbudget zombie film. GIMME SKELTER actually has a lot of heart and talent both in front of, and behind the lens, including a very naturalistic performance from Gunnar “Leatherface” Hansen as one of the local townsfolk. For a part-time actor like Hansen who is generally cast as one of the Heavies or as a caricature (as in BRUTAL MASSACRE) it is amazing to see him deliver a letter-perfect performance as an everyday average guy caught in an intense situation. Even though he might play it a little too close to the chest when the shit starts to hit the fan, the fact that the big man turns in such a nuanced and restrained performance (compared to what is typically asked of him) is nothing less than a revelation here.
If the leaps and bounds that Scott Phillips has managed to take behind the camera from STINK OF FLESH to GIMME SKELTER are any indication of what we might expect from him in the future—assuming he stays away from scripting any further films like WEDDING SLASHERS—then the future looks bright indeed for this filmmaker as well as for genre fans.
Found footage movies rely on immersion and a particular kind of suspension of disbelief in order to scare viewers, so it stands to reason that playing along with the “kayfabe” of it all is necessary for these movies to be effective. However, despite being something of a purist when it comes to in-universe recordings, I’ve come to accept that traditional productions can benefit from the occasional injection of found footage thrills.
For instance, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation makes genius use of the analog gimmick in order to trap us in the titular rooms alongside our main characters before effortlessly switching back to a more cinematic language. In honor of these dynamic films that manage to combine the best of both worlds, today I’d like to share six other hybrid horror movies that successfully incorporate found footage into their scares!
For the purposes of this list, “hybrid” horror movies are defined as any flick that shifts between diegetic recordings and traditional filming techniques for a significant amount of time (or at least for pivotal scenes).
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own hybrid favorites if you think a particularly freaky one was missed.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Internet critics may have overstated the influence that Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast had on The Blair Witch Project, but the found footage subgenre still owes a huge debt to this underrated piece of avant-garde filmmaking. However, while the movie sets itself up as a documentary about the disappearance of a group of cryptid-hunters attempting to track down the Jersey Devil, things take a darker and much more grounded turn towards the final act.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the jarring shift in perspective actually helps to sell the idea that everything we’ve seen before the finale was an attempt at using filmmaking to manipulate the public perception of a “real” incident.
Not bad for a movie with a $900 budget!
4. Cam (2018)
When you consider just how much the internet affects our daily lives, it’s strange that we don’t see Screenlife elements pop up in more movies these days. For instance, Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber’s highly underrated Cam only works as a freaky parable about online sex-work because it masterfully balances Madeline Brewer’s intimate moments with highly immersive segments within cyberspace.
While one might argue that the entire film could have been produced as a Screenlife experience, the hybrid approach allows the filmmakers to explore our main character’s life beyond the screens – with the duality of modern human existence actually becoming a recurring theme in the story.
3. Banshee Chapter (2013)
Most of H.P. Lovecraft’s popular stories were told in the epistolary format (where the text is presented as an in-universe compilation of letters or personal notes), so it makes sense that a spiritually faithful adaptation of his work would incorporate elements from the modern-day equivalent to epistolary fiction – found footage!
That’s why Blair Erickson’s Banshee Chapter is such an effective scare-fest, as this hybrid adaptation of From Beyond -retold through a conspiratorial lens as it references MK-Ultra and even secretive numbers stations- immerses viewers in a mind-bending tapestry of Cosmic Horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
2. The Deep House (2019)
The underwater setting does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Deep House, with the film being especially uncomfortable if you’re already scared of tight spaces and being deprived of oxygen. However, even the universally unsettling elements of the flick only work because the POV often shifts into claustrophobic footage courtesy of our main characters’ GoPro cameras.
Telling the story of a couple of YouTubers who encounter a haunted house at the bottom of an artificial lake while vacationing in France, The Deep House’s first-person exploration sequences contain some of the film’s scariest moments. In fact, I’d argue that the movie didn’t even need ghosts, as becoming trapped in the titular House already sounds like a fate worse than death.
1. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
My personal favorite instance of filmmakers successfully managing to combine traditional cinematography with POV filmmaking, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is proof that the two formats can co-exist if the right story comes along.
After all, what better way to conclude a mockumentary all about reality getting increasingly more cinematic than by ditching the found footage gimmick altogether during the finale? Not only does this shift in presentation work on a conceptual level, but it also elevates Behind The Mask into a proper Slasher, which is probably why we’re so excited for that long-overdue sequel!
You must be logged in to post a comment.