Why do shaky, surveillance-style clips of an endless yellow hallway make an impossible maze feel more believable?

Answer: They make the footage feel like evidence

They remove all uncertainty about what is happening — Almost the opposite. These clips preserve uncertainty: why is the camera here, why is the hallway endless, what is outside the frame? That uncertainty is made tolerable by documentary-like cues. The viewer gets just enough evidence to keep investigating.

They make the footage feel like evidence ✓ — Right. Found-footage horror pretends the camera is part of the event, so shaky framing, surveillance angles, timestamps, and off-screen gaps feel like evidence rather than polish. The Backrooms web videos used that logic for an unreal space. The trick is not better proof; it is a familiar proof-format placed around something impossible.

They show the monster clearly and in focus — No. Found-footage fear often works by not showing the threat cleanly. If the monster is centered and well lit, the clip starts to feel more like normal fiction. A partial camera record makes the viewer scan the frame and imagine what the camera missed.