Found footage is an ideal technique for the horror genre. It gives filmmakers the freedom to add realism in a way that can be truly terrifying. Generally, they do not require a high budget or a large cast or crew, and as a result, countless found footage horror movies have been made. To add to the realistic aims of this genre, unknown actors are often cast in the lead roles and much of the cinematography is done by the actors themselves. The first of its kind came in 1980 withRuggero Deodato’sCannibal Holocaust, a hugely controversial and graphic horror movie thatfooled some audiences into thinking it was footage of real murders. Since the subgenre was popularized in 1999 – and then re-popularized in the mid-2000s – many non-horror movies have been shot in found fotage style such asChronicleandProject X, but the style seems tailor-made for the horror genre. Here are 12 of the finest:
1The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez
A true found footage masterpiece, no one can question the impactThe Blair Witch Projecthas had on the subgenre. It cemented a formula that is instilled to this day and has inspired several rip-offs and spoofs.Its magnificent marketing campaignlisted the three leads –Heather Donahue,Michael Williams, andJoshua Leonard– as missing, and staged police reports were posted to the movie’s official website, which reported on their disappearance. The actors did not appear on any talk shows or promotional materials for the film and Donahue’s mother even received sympathy cards. Even after all these years, it remains perhaps the most effective found footage horror movie ever made.
It opens with a description explaining the footage was found a year after three film students disappeared while making a documentary on the Blair Witch legend. The movie brilliantly sets up the legend with several interviews with the town’s locals, and each character’s reactions to the stories are interesting to note. For those who listen and watch closely,The Blair Witch Projectis an incredibly rewarding horror experience. DirectorsDaniel MyrickandEduardo Sanchezwere able to capture moments of genuine fear from their actors, and the unmatchable conclusion still feels so terrifyingly real. Though it was not the first found footage horror film to be made,The Blair Witch Projectfirst popularized the subgenre.
The Blair Witch Project
Watch on Amazon Prime
2Noroi: The Curse (2005)
Directed by Kōji Shiraishi
In the years followingThe Blair Witch Project, numerous found footage horrors blatantly ripped it off. Up until 2005, there were few memorable additions to the subgenre, but Japanese filmmakerKōji Shiraishicame along and shook up the formula to createNoroi: The Curse, a two-hour piece of unfiltered terror, unlike anything the subgenre has offered before or since. Inspired by Japanese folktales and urban legends, this carefully crafted gem explores the dark work of the malevolent demon, Kagutaba, through the eyes of paranormal researcher Masafumi Kobayashi (Jin Muraki). Unlike the usual one-location setting most found footage horror movies stick to, Kobayashi’s investigation takes him all over Japan. Visually, there is a much more professional aesthetic to this movie which eliminates the common criticism about shaky-cam footage.Noroi: The Curseis presented as footage from a proficient but unfinished documentary that has been deemed too disturbing for public viewing.
Disturbing it certainly is, and it delivers big on scares. The movie spends a lot of time building atmosphere and tension, but conjuring up massively effective, overtly terrifying set pieces. The popularity was not instant, but the film has developed over the years to amass a huge fanbase. Shiraishi also found his flair for found footage filmmaking and went on to make many other great movies includingOccult,Cult, andA Record of Sweet Murder.
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3Exhibit A (2007)
Directed by Dom Rotheroe
Dom Rotheroe’s overlooked British psychological thriller,Exhibit A, examines the real-life horror of abuse hidden behind the doors of a seemingly ordinary family. Judith (Brittany Ashworth) is a troubled young teenager who uses her new video camera as a way of coping with her anxiety. Character development is not necessarily a process that is well-regarded in these types of movies, but the way Judith uses the camera tells us so much about her. It is as if the film lets its audience inside her head. For a while, the movie seems like any normal home video before subtle signs of instability in her father (Bradley Cole) start to unearth. The slow pace is executed in a way that maintains realism in the most compelling way. The emotional connection the audience forms with each character is particularly effective when the traumatizing ending comes. There are no supernatural elements or local legends here, this is horror at its most genuine.
Rent on Amazon
4Paranormal Activity (2007)
Directed by Oren Peli
One of the most profitable movies of all time,Paranormal Activitywent on to spawn seven sequels with an eighth set to be released next year. The original is still a favorite amongst fans, and it re-popularized found footage horror movies a decade afterThe Blair WItch Project. It shows footage from an apparent haunting of a young couple’s (Katie FeatherstonandMicah Sloat) house after they decide to try and catch the presence on camera. The movie’s simplicity is what makes it so horrifying to behold, and Featherston and Sloat’s natural performances – which consisted of mostly improvised dialogue – keep the movie believable and engaging. Packed full of tense silences and hidden apparitions, directorOren Pelimaximizes the terror to produce an influential classic of the genre. Peli took a page from Myrick and Sanchez’s book, andParanormal Activityended up blowing critics away and resulted in many walkouts during screenings due to audiences being too scared to stay.
Paranormal Activity
After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.
Rent on Max
5REC (2007)
Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza
RECis a Spanish found footage horror movie about a TV reporter (Manuela Velasco) and her crew who end up quarantined in an apartment building when a mysterious infection breaks out among the residents. It features some of the most nerve-shattering sequences the subgenre has ever seen as chaos breaks out. Running at a brisk 78 minutes, the movie is a white-knuckle thrill ride that is as exhausting as it is terrifying. Directing duoJaume BalagueroandPaco Plazamanage to capture the mass hysteria and panic that sets upon the characters in a relentlessly frightening manner, and the claustrophobic setting swiftly becomes unimaginably treacherous.RECputs audiences amongst an ensemble of likable characters, and once the night vision is switched on, the unthinkable nightmare truly becomes ruthless in that none of them are safe. As well as three sequels, a shot-for-shot English-language remake titledQuarantinewas released just two years later. None of these subsequent releases came close to the quality of the first movie.
6The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)
Directed by John Erick Dowdle
Documentarians follow police as they raid a home in Poughkeepsie, New York, where they find 800 videotapes belonging to serial killer Edward Carver, the “Water Street Butcher” (Ben Messmer). The tapes document the killer’s handiwork, from the point his victim is abducted to the mutilations of the body after death. Frustratingly, Carver is never seen on film without a disguise as he carries out his depraved crimes, which include abducting, raping, and murdering an eight-year-old girl, and placing the severed head of a man into his wife’s womb, filming her horrified reaction before killing her. An innocent police officer is framed for Carver’s crimes and is sentenced to death by lethal injection, only for the truth to be revealed afterward. The ever-changing modus operandi makes it impossible for police to profile the killer and deduce where he might strike next, with the only option keeping an eye on where the documentary is being shown, confident that Carver is likely to show up to watch.
The Poughkeepsie Tapespresents itself as a documentary, and the stark realism of the killer’s acts sells it. Only it isn’t.The film is a mockumentary, a genre most often associated with lighter fare likeThis is Spinal Tapbut wildly effective here. It should, in theory, be obvious – any documentarian that allows that level of graphic violence upon real people to be aired would see their career end – but it didn’t stop people from believing it was real.The shelving of the film by MGMonly furthered speculation that the filmdidcontain snuff film content. It wouldn’t be until 2014 that the film was released on DirecTV but is much easier to find now on streamers. And it is worthwhile to find it.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes
In an abandoned house in Poughkeepsie, New York murder investigators uncover hundreds of tapes showing decades of a serial killer’s work.
Watch on Tubi
7Lake Mungo (2008)
Directed by Joel Anderson
Australian horror mockumentaryLake Mungoshows the possibilities within the found footage subgenre. Shot documentary-style complete with archive footage and interviews, the movie presents a fully convincing story of the tragic death of Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker). It appears that she has drowned accidentally, but there are suggestions that there is more to her death than first appears. Distinctly lacking in cheap scares, the dialogue-heavy movie manages to create an unsettling tone, and its commitment to authenticity is one of its greatest strengths. When the painful truths start to reveal themselves, they deliver a sinking feeling of genuine distress. So much terror is generated from a single frame towards the end. Powerful and reflective,Lake Mungoexamines grief in a way that leaves an impact on its audience. It is a perfect exercise in foreshadowing, and it is a shame that it remainsJoel Anderson’s only feature film.
Lake Mungo
Strange things start happening after a girl is found drowned in a lake.
8Cloverfield (2008)
Directed by Matt Reeves
TheCloverfieldmarketing campaign stands as one of Hollywood’s best, one that started as a teaser trailer attached to 2007’sTransformers. No title, no explanations, just footage from a hand-held camera filming a house party. When it becomes evident that something chaotic is happening outside, the partygoers, and the anonymous filmmaker, head to the street, only to find a head hitting the street — the head of the Statue of Liberty. The trailer cuts away to show the release date, and that’s it. The cryptic teaser led to intense speculation on what the film was about. Some posited that it was a new entry in theGodzillafranchise, some thought it was a spin-off ofJ.J Abrams’Lost, andUSA Today speculated that it was aVoltronfilm.
Coupled with a virtual scavenger hunt that sent hardcore fans scouring websites for clues, the hype for the film was rocketing. But could it live up? Yes. Yes, it could. It wasGodzillameetsThe Blair Witch Project, with footage from a camcorder that the U.S. Department of Defense found in “the area formerly known as Central Park.” The film opens on the party from the trailer, with “Hud” Platt (T.J. Miller) filming goodbyes from partygoers for his friend Rob (Michael Stahl-David), set to leave the U.S. for a job in, ironically enough, Japan. It isn’t long before the Statue of Liberty’s head rolls down the street, and from there the film doesn’t let up once, following the group of friends as they encounter a relentless onslaught of peril brought on by the large monster that’s destroying New York. And just when you think the surviving protagonists are headed to safety, the camcorder captures their heartbreaking final moments. Deceptively simple and highly effective,Cloverfieldbrought a unique twist to the kaiju film, one that looks to be revisited with one of thelong-dormant websites from the original campaignrecently back online.
Cloverfield
A group of friends venture deep into the streets of New York on a rescue mission during a rampaging monster attack.
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9The Last Exorcism (2010)
Directed by Daniel Stamm
Filmmakers Iris (Iris Bahr) and Daniel (Adam Grimes) are making a documentary with the aim of exposing exorcism as a fraud. They find a willing participant in Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), who hails from a long family line of exorcists, but has long given up on believing possession is real. The only exorcisms he performs are fake ones that he sets up on those who believe they are possessed. He agrees to perform one of his “exorcisms” for the documentary and randomly chooses a request from Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) to free his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell), who he believes is possessed by Satan. The three travel to the Sweetzer home, where Marcus sets up hidden speakers and props to fool the family into believing he is driving out demons. After carrying out the ritual, Marcus proclaims Nell to be freed of the demon inside her, which he asserts to the camera is more the result of a misdiagnosed mental condition than any spiritual one. Or, is it? The events that transpire would certainly suggest the latter.The Last Exorcismuses the found-footage format to deliver a lean, straightforward horror thriller that succeeds on the back of its lead actors, with critics lauding directorDaniel Stamm’s ability to craft a genuinely scary filmwithin the confines of its PG-13 rating.
The Last Exorcism
A troubled evangelical minister agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew.
10Grave Encounters (2011)
Directed by The Vicious Brothers
So many found footage horrors take inspiration from reality ghost-hunting TV shows such asGhost AdventuresorMost Haunted, butGrave Encountersis perhaps the finest of them all. It was one of the first of its kind, and it employed many different methods that the found footage genre had not seen before. Where so many of the scares are often about subtlety,Grave Encountersis invasive and loud. Demons and spirits burst out of the darkness and throw themselves in full view of the camera, and it results in a movie that is equally as fun as it is scary.Sean Rogersonis great as the arrogant and sleazy host of the fictional ghost-hunting show, and once the crew finds themselves locked in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, the scares come thick and fast. A sequel followed but did not achieve the same level of success as the original, and as a result, a third film was scrapped.
Grave Encounters
For their ghost hunting reality show, a production crew locks themselves inside an abandoned mental hospital that’s supposedly haunted - and it might prove to be all too true.
