had dominated the market for so long. Others found them to be so at one time, but feel that the market is flooded with these films, and that quality is declining. Whatever one might think of them, there are plenty of found footage horror films to sort through out there, and it’s useful to have a guide. That’s what Cheap Scares: The Essential Found Footage Horror seeks to deliver. The book gives an overview of the genre. Though it hasn’t been around that long, there are already plenty of tropes in found footage, some of them very effective, some of them downright hilarious, whether intentionally so or not. From long, lingering shots of nothing to incredibly engaging first-person chase sequence, there’s really no way to predict what you’re going to get from these films, and that’s part of their charm. From well-made, coherent films such as The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield to films that spark impassioned arguments about whether they’re brilliant or utterly incompetent, you’ll find plenty to choose from here. The book focuses on the style and the storytelling elements of these films rather than on the technical details, which are covered in so many other places. If you want a better understanding of what makes these films work—or you’re just not clear on what happened after you’ve sat through one of these films—this book should prove useful. Cheap Scares: The Essential Found Footage Horror isn’t another excuse to bash this fad in filmmaking and, within the pages, you’ll likely discover that there are some really innovative and sometimes chilling elements to these films that make them worth watching.

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