In Post cinema we have been shown the ability to create cinema with the help of technological advancements, I will be focusing on the art of cam cinema which I use to describe the use of web cameras or smartphone cameras in film, It is a genre of film which has taken its roots in found footage classics such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.

The feeling of being under surveillance is a fear and anxiousness we have all experienced but it also represents the modern age of people wanting to constantly film themselves on apps such as TikTok or depend on apps like Zoom in order to communicate with work or school colleagues, these movies connect with us due to a sense of realism with our dependencies of these technologies today.

The film “Host” is a horror movie shot entirely using Zoom, overlapping with the COVID-19 pandemic within the UK. The film mirrors the experience of many during lockdown having to rely on Zoom to speak to family and friends but really being isolated. Steven Shaviro describes horror films… “they modulate the affect of fear through, and with direct attention to, these digital technologies, and the larger social and economic relations within which such technologies are embedded. (Shaviro, 2011) Host starts conventionally by making characters feel relatable in a realistic setting but as it progresses it transforms into “chaos cinema” with the use of special effects such as the glitch screen, elements of CGI as well as the shaky handheld camera which allows the audience the affect of feeling overwhelmed, all seen in the trailer.

As Shivaro says in his book on post-cinematic affect, it describes digital technologies giving birth to “new ways of manufacturing and articulating lived experience.” (Shaviro,2016) While critics seem to disapprove of the chaotic cinema style of Michael Bay, I would argue “Host” uses elements of chaos cinema, while also costing substantially less and essentially making a period piece on how life was in the year 2020. The director of “Host” Rob Savage asks if it is… “helping us work through some of our emotions, frustrations and fears related to the New Normal?”

The new wave of post-cinema filmmaking represents the current dystopian world we are living and the use of technology to create scenes of chaos only enhances our relatability and awe of cinema… it should be embraced by film critics.

From Miles Mitchell

“2.2 Post-Cinematic Affect.” POST-CINEMA, 11 Apr. 2016, reframe.sussex.ac.uk/post-cinema/2-2-shaviro/. Accessed 27 Feb. 2021.

Shaviro, Steven. “What Is the Post-Cinematic? – the Pinocchio Theory.” Www.shaviro.com, 11 Aug. 2011, http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=992.