This post is both about and not about a movie. On a recent weekend I tried to watch The Houses October Built. I found it on a free streaming service (with commercials) and settled in. I’ve been looking for good movies to watch in October for many years, and this one seemed to have promise. Then a couple of things happened. But first, the idea: a group of friends want to find the most extreme haunted house attraction in the country. Fine and good. Their banter is appropriate, and engaging. But thing one: the backdrop is again in part of the country where the leaves don’t change dramatically. Like Halloween, it has the Southern California feel. Not the truly spooky mid-Atlantic, upper Midwest, or New England autumn. This is, for me, an integral part of the Halloween, or October experience. It’s one of the reasons I could never move to the south.
Thing two: as a found footage movie, the camera motion made me physically sick. Now, I don’t want to give up on “found footage” films. I really liked The Blair Witch Project. Perhaps because one of the missing campers was a film student, the camera motion wasn’t extreme. I do remember newspaper reviews when it came out saying that some people left the theater ill because of it. Since then, however, found footage has become a standard horror trope. Some of it is quite good. The Houses October Built joins VHS Viral, Amish Witches, and even Avatar 3D, as films I could not finish watching because of too much camera motion. Other movies have come close. I’m sure the condition I have has a name. Since it mostly affects me these days when watching movies, I see no reason to go under the knife to fix it. But the fact is, the nausea after it sets in lasts for more than a day. The insidious part is that I notice I’ve entered that realm suddenly, usually because a movie, like The Houses October Built, are engrossing.
If enough people read this blog I’d call this a plea to movie makers—the camera does not have to move constantly to make your film scary. You are, in fact, limiting your viewership by at least one fan by making it utterly unwatchable. No movie is worth being physically ill into the next day. I have a friend whose favorite type of horror movie is found footage. I often can’t discuss this with him because I’m often afraid to watch them. And really, does anybody else appreciate that the trees are part of what makes the fall spooky?