Even so, the camerawork seems to defy horror conventions. So where did this come from? Is it just a new thing and I'm completely off-base with it being something that came from that older era? Or are there some examples of films that pioneered this technique that current filmmakers are paying homage to?įilmmaker: You’ve said in other interviews that you were going for an “objective” camera, but the camera movement seems designed to point the eye in a specific direction. Most of the 80s horror I'm familiar with (Re Animator, Evil Dead 2, American Werewolf in London, Fright Night etc.) don't seem to use the slow zoom. I've seen Halloween many times and don't notice many, if any zooms in that film. The John Carpenter Halloween influence is very obvious, but more so with the slow gliding steadycam stuff and music. My question is, what are some films from the late 70s/early 80s that are the biggest example of this technique?

The slow zoom technique always gives me chills and I'm seeing a lot of modern indie horror using it.

Here is a compilation of exactly the types of shots I'm talking about in It Follows. I just mean like locked down, slow zoom ins if that makes sense. It's noticeable because it's not the type of thing you see in many movies nowadays, really seems like a retro technique. One thing in particular I've noticed is the use of slow zooms in. From the pacing to the themes to the music.

It seems that in the past decade of so of horror films we are starting to see a real late 70's/early 80's influence on the style of horror. I'm sorry if I can't explain this well enough to get good answers, i'm not very good at describing filmmaking techniques but I've noticed something amongst recent horror films that has got me curious. So I'm kind of obsessed with horror movies right now and in particular I'm fascinated by the camerawork in the movies mentioned above.

Horror movie about zoom