Webcam
2011 · 8m · USA
Directed by Stefan Haverkamp, Jan Jaworski, Branden Kramer, Tom Kropp
Tones: dark, provocative, tense
Shot entirely through a webcam's POV, the film follows a young woman who discovers someone has been watching her through her own device. A surveillance-horror film that made 8.9 million people paranoid about their laptop cameras.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Eight point nine million views on a film shot through a webcam about someone watching you through a webcam. This is the short that taped over its own lens and then asked who's watching. Four directors, zero fancy cameras, maximum paranoia.
Entire film as webcam POV — the format IS the horror, collapsing viewer and voyeur. 8.9 million views worth of paranoia, even if the screen-life sub-genre has since calcified the trick.
Eight and a half million views because the entire format IS the horror — webcam POV collapsing the distance between viewer and voyeur. Pre-Unfriended, and the surveillance-paranoia mechanic is brutally simple and effective.