Andrew Cull - FOUND: An anthology of found footage horror stories

Contents

FOUND

Eighteen stories

of found footage horror.

Edited by

Andrew Cull and Gabino Iglesias

Published by Vermillion2One Press 2022.

Cover design and artwork by

Ann Shetelia.

Copy editing by

Noel Osualdini.

FOUND. An anthology of

found footage horror.

Editorial and collection copyright 2022

Vermillion2One Press.

Individual stories copyright

of their respective authors.

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 978-0-6487315-2-8

Special thanks to:

Kerrie

Gabino

Noel Osualdini

Steve Stred

BP Gregory

Everyone who submitted a

story for this anthology. Youre

incredibly talented.

You should put this book back.

Return it.

Forget about it.

Dont read it.

Dont

say

I

didnt

warn

you.

SCARY BECAUSE ITS TRUE

WELL, SORT OF

Gabino Iglesias

I love found footage films. Yes, I know that there are a lot of found footage films thatwell, lets just say theyre not great. Also, Im aware of how the grainy, shaky, low-to-no-budget aesthetic isnt everyones cup of tea. That said, when a movieand by that I mean everyone from the writer(s) and director to the actors and the people in charge of soundnails it, few things can compare to a great found footage film. I offer you some favorites just to prove my point, starting with two films that will live in my black, creepy heart forever: Lake Mungo , Savageland , The Taking of Deborah Logan , Trollhunter , REC , The Blair Witch Project , the Hell House LLC movies, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum , Cloverfield , Creep I and II , The Poughkeepsie Tapes , Afflicted Okay, Ill stop now.

I have a few theories as to why there is a certain magic that found footage offers that you cant find anywhere else. Im not going to bore you to death here with academic ruminations about the history of cinma vrit and its unparalleled intimacy, not to mention how amazing the shattering of the fourth wall always feels. No, I want to keep it simple here, so Ill say this: found footage pulls the audiencethose watching and those readinginto a world thats their world, and that closeness, that immediate recognition of almost everything they see or read about, simplifies, at least for a while, the transitioning to the perfect state of suspension of disbelief. In other words, I think found footage is a superb delivery method for horror because it feels real.

If youre reading this (thank you!), I dont think I need to convince you of the power great found footage narratives hold. You already know theyre creepy. You already know they feel like everything is true. You already know youve heard something weird and scary happened to some kid your cousins neighbor used to know, which proves strange things can happen. Also, I think you would agree that, when done well, the found footage aesthetic has the same power when presented in text form. Enter this anthology.

Now, there are several found footage books out there and if we wanted a big discussion, we could say that every epistolary novel or narrative that includes found documents or journals is, arguably, a found footage book, but thats not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is why Im STOKED to bring these stories to you. You see, Andrew and I found each other online, and when you think about it, that gives this book full of weird encounters and discoveries a superb start.

I love found footage films (yes, I wanted to say it again) and had been thinking about putting together an anthology that captured the feel of those movies in short fiction form. I wanted characters finding things, learning about secrets they shouldnt know, unburying things that should be left alone, coming across that box of old tapes in the attic, discovering an audio file that contains something dark or impossible. Yeah, I wanted the weird, creepy, and scary in its most immediate, easily recognizable form. Well, it turns out that, just like many cultures came up with the same things without having contact with each other, Andrew had been thinking about the same thing. In fact, he even had some art for it! He reached out and invited me to co-edit this thingand then some things happened, but that will all be known when were no longer around and someone finds those bloody confessions we recorded

Anyway, Andrew and I talked, we put the submission call together, and we told writers to give their stories, and holy hell, did they deliver! Ive read for many anthologies, and this one was one of the hardest. Sure, some writers missed the mark and a few had old stories they tweaked a bit to send in, but almost everything we received nailed the atmosphere we wanted and possessed the aesthetic we craved. As someone whos been in publishing for a while and has edited a few anthologies as well as been in many of them as a writer, I know that saying reading for this was so hard! is something many editors do, but when I say reading for this anthology was hard, I mean it. If you sent a story and didnt get in, dont feel bad: competition was fierce and we only had so much space we could use.

Im very happy to have worked with Andrew on this little monster and Im beyond excited to share FOUND: An anthology of found footage horror stories with you. I hope you dig every single one of the creepy true stories youre about to read. Why? Because theyre all nonfiction, of course. Happy reading and long live found footage.

Gabino Iglesias. Sept 22.

11/7/19

Andrew Cull

On November 7 th 2019 , a well-known video sharing site (not named for legal reasons) removed the channel of one of its most popular ASMR sleep video uploaders. This removal coincided with an FBI raid on the home of Texas man Boyd Thomas Sinclair. If you follow true crime, youll likely already know that name.

Boyd Thomas Sinclair, aka Sleepyhead_Joe, lived on his familys 200-acre ranch, a cattle ranch that one Fox News reporter described as having been left to rot. At the time the FBI raided the farm, the Sinclairs cattle had been fending for itself for more than six months. The Texas Animal Health Commission would later find that the abandonment of the herd likely coincided with the death of Thomas Sinclair, Sr., Boyds father.

The police investigation was sparked when a number of emaciated cows were found wandering on the road adjacent to the Sinclair property. Theyd broken through the fence in search of food.

The truck driver who almost hit them described the symbols he found cut into their hides as satanic. He took photos on his phone. Youve probably seen those Cattle Carving shots online.

The police attempted to contact Thomas Sinclair about the abuse of his cattle. At this point, they didnt know that he was dead, or that every other member of the Sinclair family, other than Boyd, lay decomposing in various rooms throughout the farm.

***

I first read about the Boyd Thomas Sinclair case in January 2020, which was around the time I began seriously thinking about putting together a found footage anthology. As with all things 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic set my plans back a while, and it wouldnt be until 2021 that Gabino and I really put everything in motion for FOUND.

By that time, Boyd Thomas Sinclair had been found guilty of the murders of all seven members of his family in a case that was as strange as any r/nosleep creepypasta. Almost a year before the cattle were found wandering the road outside the Sinclair property, Boyd claimed he was first visited by one of the smooth-faced men. These featureless beings spoke to Boyd using telepathy, and told him that he had been selected to help avert the onset of the end times.