I think it was less the snippiness of an unfun camping trip, and more that awkward, obviously-acting-in-front-of-a-camera manner that you see in a lot of home videos, when a couple is arguing in front of a handyman, etc.
Lived in MD at the time. I have a hard time suspending reality for horror stuff. I waited to watch it until I was at my parents in MT. Watched it alone during a huge thunderstorm. Then went camping alone. Holy shit did that work for serious scarey time.
Honestly the movie just pissed me off. Not scary at all. Like bro y’all had it coming because you’re all just annoying whiny assholes who’d rather scream at each other than actually try to help the situation.
It’s literally an “idiot plot”—story that only moves forwards due to the complete incompetence of the characters—except that not only are they stupid, they’re fucking annoying and shitty people to boot.
“But It’s a classic because it was one of the first found-footage genres and people actually thought it was real” bro if anyone thought the acting in that movie was real, we shouldn’t let them define what is a classic or not
I think most of the people who thought it was real were probably teenagers. But either way, it was still an iconic first, with or without the “that people thought was real” clause.
