http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-ingagi.html
Paranormal Activity is definitely not the first movie of its' kind. This website brings to attention the first movie from the genre of "shockumentaries," Ingagi. Ingagi first came out in 1931 and was originally shown as what viewers thought was a documentary about explorers in the African Congo who researched human and animal sacrifice and bestiality between women and gorillas (Harris). The shock value was tremendous as people could not believe their eyes as to how authentic this looked on screen. However, it was later revealed as a hoax. As it turned out, the characters in the documentary were entirely fictional and the footage was a montage of borrowed footage from other movies and documentaries (Paghat).Due to the popularity of Ingagi, it sparked the creation of a multitude of other "shockumentaries" such as Mondo Cane and Faces of Death. It is often argued that the popularity of the these films is due to the high shock value.
It should also be noted that Ingagi reflected the anxieties of American society at the time. Since Ingagi debuted in 1931, it deals with issues about "savages" and people from foreign lands. During this time, novels such as "Tarzan of the Great Apes" were very popular because they dealt with the concept of man versus a savage beast (Paghat).
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