Sin #19: Is It Real?

The “mockumentary” has become an intriguing and popular genre since it’s an effective medium to draw viewers into stories that somehow could be true. Recently we’ve seen horror films using the same techniques to elicit a queasy feeling of dread and mystery (crating a low budget phenomenon like “The Blair Witch Project” or the recent “Paranormal Activity”). Curiously, the popularity of these movies has also created a backlash in which some audiences claim to be sick and dizzy at the hand-held approach and frustrated at the lack of a proper explanation and resolution.

The low budget films resort to primal fears; fears of the dark, strange noises or isolation (I recall a very effective movie called “Open Water” about a couple forgotten on the vastness of the ocean gradually realizing nobody is going to come back for them). This approach to horror is way more effective than the serial killer stalking teenagers on hostile places or the endless American retreads of Japanese films featuring eerie children.

“Mockumentaries” can also be very effective as comedic works. Like the movies of Christopher Guest, who uses the genre as a way of satirizing social stereotypes. Take his “Best in Show, for example. It’s an absolutely hilarious mockery of dog pageants and their owners. In it we meet the different characters and their relationships with their dogs.

Since most of the dialogues feel improvised (although I’m pretty sure everything is very well rehearsed) we believe it as a documentary and laugh at the absurdity of the character’s personalities. Guest has done other movies but “Best in Show” is his funniest and most endearing.

“Mockumentaries” are strange pseudo documents of life (said to be the only new genre that cinema created). In the hands of proper filmmakers they can be terrific entertainment, although they can also be responsible for abominations (like the horrible “Cannibal Holocaust” which managed somehow to garner a cult following). It all depends on the credibility of its premise and their performers really.