Online fears in cinema mode: Desktop horror as adaptation

Existing scholarly work on desktop horror predominantly looks at key examples of such films as updates of the found footage horror subgenre; thus, it highlights the similarities and/or differences between the two generic modes. Even though, this work employs a comparative analysis and offers illuminating interpretations about how the films metaphorically address their context, desktop horror has not been examined from the perspective of adaptation studies. Moreover, these studies do not attach particular importance to the making of this type of films. Building on recent work in the field of adaptation studies, and by placing emphasis on the image making processes used to put together the mise en scène of Levan Gabriadze’s Unfriended (2014) and Rob Savage’s Host (2020), the article’s main aim is to illustrate how the films can be read as adaptations. More precisely, I argue that the films perform a dual adaptation process; firstly, by engaging with Kate Newell’s understanding of the ‘adaptation network’ I discuss Unfriended and Host as contributions to a collection of texts that revisit the generic formula or ‘premise’ of found footage horror; secondly, I explain how the films ‘reproduce’ the visuals of online communication and transform elements of found footage horror to better serve a mode of filmmaking dubbed ‘screenlife’. Finally, the article demonstrates that focusing on how desktop horror films are made, and not only on how they exploit anxieties associated with modern communication technologies, invites a fruitful re-examination of existing theoretical considerations in the field of adaptation and digital cinema studies.