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‘Untitled Horror Movie’ Star Darren Barnet Explains Why Fans Love Found Footage Movies

Showbiz Cheat Sheet spoke with Darren Barnet about his role in 'Untitled Horror Movie' and what it is about the found footage genre that's so appealing to horror fans.

by Lauren Anderson

Published on June 13, 2021

3 min read

Stream ‘Untitled Horror Movie’ everywhere June 15

Untitled Horror Movie is an ironic comedy about creating a horror movie. From the Truth or Dare director comes the story of six co-stars who decide,”How hard can it be?”

Their thoughts quickly change after unintentionally summoning a demonic spirit with an affinity for violence. The stars of Untitled Horror Movie are picked off one vapid actor at a time.

Untitled Horror Movie also stars Emmy Raver-Lampman (The Umbrella Academy), Claire Holt (The Originals), Luke Baines (Shadowhunters), Katherine McNamara (Shadowhunters), and Tim Granaderos (13 Reasons Why). Horror movie fans can stream the flick on VOD platforms everywhere on June 15.

Found footage horror movies are a fan favorite because of their authenticity

During our conversation, Barnet told Showbiz one of his favorite horror movies is the Paranormal Activity series; I’m not proud to say it, but Paranormal Activity really messed me up when I first saw it,” Barnet admits.

Upon his first watch of Oren Pell’s paranormal account, Barnet believed he was watching actual footage from the San Francisco Police Department. “I was like, ‘No way — this is all real?'” he added.

“That really messed me up,” the actor continued. In Barnet’s opinion, most people watch horror movies to feel how he did while watching Paranormal Activity.

“They want to be a little bit disturbed and have a reason to pull the covers up at night,” he explained of the lust fans have for found footage movies that feel authentic. “That rawness and organic nature of found footage makes you feel more like, ‘Oh, wow, this could happen to me type of thing.'”

Found footage filmmaking in quarantine presents unique challenges for the cast of ‘Untitled Horror Movie’

The cast of Untitled Horror Movie play actors who film a movie with their own technology. But in reality, these actors also lived the story they were telling.

With the pandemic at play, the cast shot Untitled Horror Movie in isolation. “Not only are these actors performing in this film,” Simon says in his director’s statement. “They are the cinematographers, the gaffers, the makeup artists, and their own boom operators.”

Slating the takes was the most challenging thing to manage for Barnet. “We all had to be like, ‘Scene five, take one, Charlie’ and then clap and none of us did at the same time,” he laughed.

Darren Barnet in Nick Simon's 'Untitled Horror Movie'

Darren Barnet | R&C

“People were going off like, ‘Is this Charlie or is this Beta? What take is this?'” he adds. “So that was definitely a challenge.”

Despite their lack of coordination, Barnet says he and his cast weren’t ever really stressed about anything behind the scenes. “I’d say the biggest challenge, jokes aside, is just being able to trust myself,” he said, continuing:

I’m not just working as the artist on this. I’m setting up the camera, doing my makeup, [and] doing my hair. So just trusting myself that everything was going to be OK and also be able to act was a big challenge.

Barnet and his cast do an impressive job wearing all of those hats in this movie. Simon calls Untitled Horror Movie his “love letter to the comedy/horror genre.” Stream Untitled Horror Movie everywhere on June 15.