10 creepy and funny mocumentari movies

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

"Blair Witch", "Borat", "Real Ghouls" and other pictures, only pretending to be true.

1. Zelig

• USA, 1983.
• Comedy.
• Duration: 76 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

Leonard Zelig is a human chameleon. He has an extraordinary ability: he knows how to change his appearance, transforming into anyone who stands in front of him.

Usually filmmakers shoot in the mocumentari genre for the sake of believability. But Woody Allen adopted this technique to create a comic effect. In an effort to achieve the full 1920s newsreel feel, the director combined live action and archival footage with historical characters.

The result was not only one of the most interesting mocumentari experiments, but also a parable about consumerism in a society where everyone is so eager to become similar to each other that they lose their own uniqueness.

2. This is Spinal Tap

• USA, 1984.
• Comedy, musical.
• Duration: 82 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 9.

When Rob Reiner's pseudo-documentary about the nonexistent band Spinal Tap was released, not everyone realized that it was a parody. The director traced and ridiculed the path of a typical popular musical group: rise, world fame, decline in public interest and decline.

All of this was so reminiscent of the stories of real glam rock and hard rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s that many viewers took the film at face value. By the way, Spinal Tap eventually took on a very real life of its own. The actors, who played the roles of musicians, continued to play together after filming and even released three albums.

3. A man bites a dog

• Belgium, 1992.
• Crime, drama, comedy, horror.
• Duration: 95 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 5.

Benoit Patar is a wonderful guy. He is well-read, educated, caring, loves his parents, versed in art. But he is also a cruel and cold-blooded killer. The members of the film crew, following on his heels, themselves do not notice how they turn into accomplices in crimes.

This film was jointly written and directed by graduates of the Belgian film school. Initially, they conceived to make a short film, but they came up with so many ideas for murders that in the end they came out a full meter. The film, shot for a pittance, became a cult all over the world and influenced the young Quentin Tarantino.

4. The Blair Witch: Coursework from the Beyond

• USA, 1999.
• Horror.
• Duration: 81 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 5.

A group of film students travel to the woods to film a documentary about the Blair Witch. The guys almost immediately get lost, and then it starts to seem to them that someone is leading them in more circles and does not allow them to get out.

Low-budget "Blair Witch" has earned crazy money at the box office thanks to a competent PR campaign. Directors Daniel Mirik and Eduardo Sanchez invented the legend of the witch and launched a website about her - they made every effort to make viewers believe that the events were on the screen.

Moreover, the directors spread a rumor that the actors from the film really died. They were hidden from journalists, and at the Sundance Film Festival, leaflets were even handed out about the disappearance of these people.

Again, the tape had a tiny budget and did not allow for visual excesses. Therefore, the audience had to catch up with anxiety in other ways: a shaking camera, sincere emotions of the actors and an atmosphere of thickening despair, which was hard not to believe. And the impression that these techniques made proved that what frightens people most of all is not monsters and blood, but the unknown.

5. Borate

• USA, UK, 2006.
• Comedy.
• Duration: 84 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 3.

Kazakhstani journalist Borat Sagdiev travels to the United States to film a documentary. However, when he arrives in the country, he finds himself a more worthy goal - to marry Pamela Anderson.

"Borat" was invented and staged by the shocking inventor Sasha Baron Cohen. He also played the main character. Some of the episodes in the film are directed, but at the same time, almost all the minor characters are not actors, but the most ordinary people forced to answer provocative questions.

The authors' harmless tomfoolery offended a lot of people, and in some countries the film was even banned. Some scenes were filmed at all at the risk of the crew. For example, the performance of the "anthem of Kazakhstan" to the tune of the American one so angered the patriotic crowd that Cohen and his colleagues almost had to flee from the stadium.

6. Paranormal activity

• USA, 2007.
• Horror, thriller, detective.
• Duration: 86 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 3.

Katie's girlfriend has been haunted by a ghost since childhood. At her boyfriend's house, she feels uneasy again. The guy, armed with a video camera, decides to shoot evidence that something otherworldly actually lives next to them.

"Paranormal Activity" was the start of Oren Peli's film career and for some time brought mocumentari back into fashion. True, after the release of the film, Peli himself focused not on directing, but rather on producing.

He filmed "The Apparition" in his own house, did editing and special effects personally, and his friend and girlfriend played the main roles. The rest of the actors can be counted on one hand. As a result, the film cost only 15 thousand dollars, but at the box office it shot so powerfully that it was followed by sequels and even spin-offs from other countries.

7. Reporting

• Spain, 2007.
• Horror, science fiction, fantasy, action, thriller, detective.
• Duration: 75 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 4.

Journalist Angela Vidal dreams of filming a sensational report. Having learned about the night fire in a residential building, she leaves for the scene. But it turns out that something worse is going on there - the inhabitants of the building are infected with a zombie virus.

Initially, "Reportage" did not even want to be released for wide distribution. Nevertheless, the film collected a huge box office, and in the United States almost immediately shot its frame-by-frame remake called "Quarantine".

To get a credible reaction, directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza did not let the actors read the script to the end. In particular, none of them knew that a firefighter would collapse from the top floor. All this provided the tape with chilling credibility.

8. Monster

• USA, 2007.
• Horror, fantasy, thriller, detective.
• Duration: 81 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 0.

Several young guys gather at a party to see off their friend Rob Hawkins, who is relocating to Japan on duty. Everything is going well, but then something strange begins to happen in the city: power outages, an earthquake, explosions. The heroes, taking their camera with them, are trying to survive in the midst of this madness.

Producer JJ Abrams hosted one of the most famous viral campaigns in film history in support of Monstro. The film was promoted exclusively on the Web, without disclosing either the title or the details of the plot. To attract attention, a special site was created, where from time to time there were clues to the backstories of the heroes.

To further whet the interest of users, the authors threw fake news into the media space about the alleged attack of a certain monster. This approach paid off, and "Monstro" collected an excellent box office.

Later, the film launched the whole Cloverfield franchise (this is how the name of the first film sounds in the original, just the Russian distributors decided to replace Cloverfield with a more sonorous "Monstro"). It is unusual that all these tapes were filmed in different genres and are connected with each other in an extremely conditional way.

9. I'm still here

• USA, 2010.
• Drama, comedy.
• Duration: 108 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 2.

The famous actor Joaquin Phoenix is going to give up acting and devote himself to music, but at the same time he steps on every possible rake. The audience did not immediately realize that Casey Affleck's debut film was a production. In the ironic mocumentari, Phoenix plays himself, and many really believe that the actor intends to leave his career for hip-hop.

Part of the filming was the appearance in 2009 on the television show David Letterman. There Phoenix hosted Joaquin Phoenix full interview on David Letterman / LCA Exclusive / YouTube himself as weird as possible: he showed up uncombed and with a shaggy beard, answered the host’s questions in monosyllables, and at the end took out the gum from his mouth and stuck it to the table. After the film was released, the actor returned to the Letterman show and apologized for last year's visit.

10. Real ghouls

• New Zealand, USA, 2014.
• Comedy, horror.
• Duration: 85 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

A group of documentary filmmakers go everywhere with the company of vampires living in the suburbs of Wellington, New Zealand. Ghouls have a hard time in the modern world. They are forced to hide, it is difficult for them to look for food. Almost their biggest problem is getting along with other vampires in the same house.

This cutest comedy was directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. They also played the ghouls Viago and Vladislav in the film. In addition, the New Zealanders wrote a stunning script for her that pokes fun at vampire movies from Nosferatu to Twilight.