ABSTRACT

This chapter details how spectators are ‘primed’ for the experience of watching found footage horror films. I offer close readings of the techniques employed in the opening sequences arguing that these are essential in encouraging the viewer to respond with specific cognitive activities. By looking at techniques including point of view shots and direct address, I establish how the formal, aesthetic, and narrative strategies encourage the viewer to respond to these films in specific ways such as imagining that the film is a non-fiction text, and imagining who is behind the camera. I build on the ideas of Peter Wuss (2009, 34), particularly on his argument that the first sequences of a film prime the viewer for the rest of the experience of watching the film. Found footage horror films share many similarities in their priming patterns, aiming to convince the spectator quickly that what he or she is watching is non-fiction footage captured by a camera in the hand of, or set up by, a character within the diegesis. This priming encourages the viewer to react with stronger feelings of fear and dread.