# horror, fantasy, or sci-fi presented in a documentary style like "house of leaves" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 6, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923 "2007-06-06T00:42:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/1 "2007-06-06T00:42:46Z")
I’m one of those people that really goes for _verite_ when it comes to fiction - especially things that are less likely or impossible to occur in this reality. One of the reasons that _House of Leaves_ is such a legitimately scary book is the documentary style in which the horror story is told - no sprawling metaphors, no flowery language, just an academic or impartial exegesis of a (fictional) film that caught some ridiculously supernatural things in its footage. “The Blair Witch Project” or “Cannibal Holocaust” are similar film examples. What’s some other horror, sci-fi, fantasy, or etc. that takes a similar “documentary” approach and achieves a similarly heightened result? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/2 "2007-06-06T01:46:09Z")
I haven’t read House of Leaves, haven’t seen Blair Witch Project or Cannibal Holocaust. “So what are you doing in this thread?” you might ask. I’m here for clarification. Are you looking for horror, fantasy and SF books and movies that have been presented as fact? Like **World War Z**? Or like **Carrie** , which is kinda sorta like that because the story is told using newspaper articles, interviews, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/3 "2007-06-06T02:01:21Z")
Both, really - anything that assumes a greater level of “realism” than the average novel. “Carrie” is really much more of a novel that occasionally busts in with one of those things; if the _entirety_ of “Carrie” was told through interviews, newspaper clippings, etc. as though it were a nonfiction book about something that really happened, that would be more in line with what I’m after. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/4 "2007-06-06T02:01:48Z")
If you’re fine reading your entertainment, **Dracula** does this. The whole story is told through letters and newspaper articles and whatnot that tie the events together as a story. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/5 "2007-06-06T02:02:48Z")
I’m actually looking for books foremost. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/6 "2007-06-06T02:08:56Z")
Herman Wouk’s **The Lomokome Papers** is told as if it was the publication of collected jottings of the First Man on the Moon, who describes a utopian society he finds there (although it has dystopian elements as well, and the same story was told in an episode of Star Trek TOS, although that may have been coincidental). The papers are presented with gaps (some sheets were supposedly lost), and everyone on Earth thinks the descriptions are some sort of Nitrogen-narcosis-like hallucination. But they don’t know where the astronaut is. Similarly, Margaret Atwood’s **The Handmaid’s Tale** purports to be a spoken diary, transcribed from audiocasette tapes (I “read” it unabridged on audiotape, which was therefore an odd experience). Daniel Keyes’ **Flowers for Algernon** is written in the form of Charley Gordon’s diary. (I think the expanded novel was, as well, but I’ve only read the short story). There are plenty of examples of that sort of thing – Fred Saberhagen’s **The Dracula Tapes** , Gore Vidal’s **Julian** (which isn’t “fantastic”, but is pretty odd), and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/7 "2007-06-06T07:28:37Z")
One of the reasons that the Navidson record in House of Leaves works so well may be down to the woeful backstory (about the bloke in LA) providing significant contrast. The documentary feel to the story about the house really comes off the page relative to the other bollocks that he’s writing about, which is full of flowery language and swirling metaphors. Maybe he did this on purpose? I agree with you that it’s a very impressive piece of horror writing. I assume the two stories are interlinked? I’m normally pretty keen to go digging for clues in this sort of book, but couldn’t face a re-run of the adventures of Johnny whats-his-name in LA. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/8 "2007-06-06T08:19:18Z")
Yeah, the Johnny section of “House of Leaves” is one of the dumbest, worst things I’ve read. After a while, I just began to assume that it was intentionally “bad nineties horror novel” in order to provide a contrast to the “Navidson Record” section, which is one of the most legitimately **scary** things I’ve ever read - I got to the point where I couldn’t even read it in the _day time_ if I was home alone (and I’m not normally freaked out by stories that I read). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/9 "2007-06-06T12:06:21Z")
A lot of Lovecraft’s Mythos stories are in this sort of style - letters, newspaper clippings, expedition reports. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/10 "2007-06-06T12:21:35Z")
Probably not exactly what you’re looking for, but **The Silmarillion** by J.R.R. Tolkien is written as sort of a cross between _Bulfinch’s Mythology_ and the Bible. Lots of events, lots of names, and very little dialog. In fact, all of Tolkien’s posthumous work is presented as collections of myths rather that straightforward novels. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-fantasy-or-sci-fi-presented-in-a-documentary-style-like-house-of-leaves/406923/11 "2007-06-06T13:22:24Z")
I’ll break out of the “book” restriction & still cite a movie, the power of which is that it looks like a well-done home movie: _Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer_.