Precarious Camera Gazes and Their Articulated Mode of Operation in Horror Mockumentaries

The article focuses on the peculiar employment that in horror mockumentaries is made of the precarious and limited gazes of one or more intra-diegetic cameras, in order to illustrate how, aside from carrying out a veridictive function, these aesthetics simultaneously fulfil various other tasks. In particular, it is shown that, on the one hand, they also operate as a narrative device in support of horror cinema’s traditional modes of storytelling, illustrating how they are used to place us in an ideal fruition situation, to foreground our primal fear of the unknown in a powerful way, and to indicate us when the lives of the protagonists are at risk. On the other hand, always through them is carried out mockumentary’s typical critique to the theories and practices of the documentary film.