Found footage films have been a part of the horror genre for some time now. Cannibal Holocaust kicked off the sub-genre in the eighties with Blair Witch Project truly popularizing the story-telling device in the late nineties. Of course, movies like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield have continued to utilize the found footage aspect over the past few decades.
Despite the technique being utilized for nearly half a century, it still maintains its popularity, at least amongst paranormal horror fans. Antoine Le's Followed hit theaters during the COVID market and managed to snag the number one spot at the box office for weeks, proving there is still a demand for found footage films.
We chatted with the stars of the film, Tim Drier, Matthew Solomon, Sam Valentine, and the man who made it all possible, Antoine Le. The director has now shed light on a lot of strange things that happened behind the scenes when we asked him about his personal paranormal beliefs.
If you're interested in listening to the audio portion of the interview with Antoine Le and Tim Drier, you can do so via the podcast player below! We have also included our chats with the stars of the film, Matthew Solomon and Sam Valentine, throughout the article.
Literary Joe: This goes for both of you guys. I'm curious about your own paranormal beliefs?
Tim Drier: Sure, sure. Oh yeah. There's stuff going on out there.
Literary Joe: That's kind of what your character believes too. I mean, your character's superstitious. Probably the most out of everybody there. Do you feel like that reflects from your real life then and how you think?
Tim Drier: Yeah, it was an easy transition to get into Christopher, and all the role entailed for me was to stay as present as possible and react to everything else that was going on around me. And you don't even need to see something, I feel like, to believe it. I don't think I've had any firsthand paranormal experiences outside of just that gut feeling and that overwhelming fear that puts that look on your face, like trouble that takes your breath away.
Literary Joe: Where the hairs just kind of stand up on the back of your neck?
Tim Drier: Yeah. You know, and it's just something that you don't encounter on an average day. Yeah. It's out there.
Literary Joe: What about you, Antoine?
Antoine Le: I'm a believer, but I'm a skeptical believer in the sense that I'm spiritual. So I do believe there are spirits and things like that out there. I have never experienced it, at least personally, I'm talking about like seeing a ghost, something like that. However, though, there are unexplainable things that happen.
Case and point, in our movie, Followed, there were bizarre things that happened on set that we couldn't account for in terms of why that was the case. So, one of the scenes is that the prop head just fell. And that moment wasn't planned, but it was part of the movie. In the elevator sequence, there was a point where the lights start to flicker; it was not planned. And there are other things behind the scenes; hopefully, one day we'll release.
There was one sequence where Mike is putting the drone in the basement, and as he does it, he makes it light up. It's okay, little baby. He's talking about his drone, right? It's a little baby. Nothing happened on set; it was fine because we had 20 people there. Everything was fine. But when we were editing it, when Mike says it's okay, little baby, I kid you not, we hear loud as day, a noise of a baby crying. Now here's the question. What the heck did that noise come from? Right? Because it was so loud. It wasn't just a faint one. It was really loud as if the baby was right there on set. Now here's the thing. If the baby was on set, all of us would have heard it. Right? All of us because obviously, you know, we get all the sounds with everybody on set. So how come none of us heard anything whatsoever, and it only materialized when we were cutting the film, which again, up to this day, we have no explanation. We'll probably cut it into the deleted scene or the behind the scenes stuff. And that and amongst other things that happened after the movie was over.
For example, I went to a friend's place of work, and he's a security guard at the building. And then we were talking about the movie, and we were making fun of the quote-unquote ghost in the film. And all of a sudden, all of his monitor went out. Like I kid you not, just like in a found footage film. I was basically making fun of the ghost, the fake ghost, and whatnot that we were talking about, then all of his monitor, it just had that glitchy effect, and it was gone. And then my buddy had to say, dude, this building is haunted. You got to apologize. And I was like, oh shit. And I did apologize in a sense. And then it went back on, right?
So those are the things that, do I have an explanation for that? No, I don't. But I haven't seen one myself. My parents have, my mom has, my uncle, everybody that told me their encounters or whatnot, but I've never seen it. So that's what I'm saying that I am, I am a believer, but I'm a skeptical believer. I do want to see a ghost in real life.
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
What do you guys make of these comments from Antoine Le and Tim Drier? Please share your thoughts with us in the usual spot!
When aspiring social media influencer “DropTheMike” is offered a lucrative sponsorship to grow his channel, he's joined by his video crew on a visit to one of the most haunted hotels in America, where he'll give his audience a horrific night of thrill-seeking the likes of which they have never seen before. What begins as a fun investigative challenge including the infamous Elevator Ritual quickly descends into a personal hell of true evil, begging the timely question: how far would you go to pursue internet fame?
FOLLOWED is inspired by real events at the Hotel Cecil in downtown Los Angeles, and is part of a growing list of “Screen-Life” films – films whose stories are told by way of a computer screen recording. The award-winning feature is the first horror film to do so entirely through a series of YouTube-like vlogs.
Followed released on Tuesday, and you can check the film out here.