Found footage has had it rough. After the success of the intensely DIYThe Blair Witch Projectin 1999, the filmmaking approach became indie horror’s go-to to turn minuscule budgets (and occasionally underdeveloped talent) into quick, visceral moneymakers with varying rates of success.
But after seventeen years since the subgenre hit a cultural nerve, barrels of hacky missteps have left the term “found footage” with a coating of cliché. But to write off the genre would be a mistake – beyond allowing talented first-time filmmakers to get their foot in the cinematic door without investing millions of dollars into a project, found footage, if done correctly, can invest in effective realism, often resulting in filmmaking that’s more personal and compelling than traditional takes on genre.
With that in mind, we’re looking at the ten best found footage movies, ranked in the list below.
10. ‘Unfriended’ (2014)
While the prospect of a desktop film composed entirely of Skype sessions and emoji-littered Facebook messages may sound too inane for even the most millennial set,Unfriendedis a twist on the found footage genre that’s far more ambitious than one might expect. Adhering to the well-worn teen slasher tradition (albeit with a supernatural twist),Unfriended’svicious killings take place all within the confines of one 17-year-old’s computer screen. But where most film and television is happy to substitute globular text and garish green purple boxes to represent digital communication onscreen,Unfriendeduses real applications we use every day – Facebook, Skype and iMessage – the combination of which help to imbue even the occasionally hammy proceedings with an unshakable sense of realism. The underlying narrative doesn’t always work as some of the biggest reveals fail to feel very weighty, but the film earns points for sheer inventiveness, using what you could call digital verite to deliver a horror film that feels completely current. (Pro-tip: watch this one on your laptop – it’ll add to the eerie verisimilitude.)
9. End of Watch (2012)
To be fair,David Ayer’scop thriller is only part found footage –End of Watchdrops the convention whenever it seems most convenient, but likeUnfriended, Ayer uses the footage to handily bring us directly into the world of police officers Taylor and Zavala (Jake GyllenhaalandMichael Peña, giving career-best performances), ensuring we’re closely aligned with them whether they’re busting drug rings or jawing about girls as they idle on the side of the road. The film ultimately descends into a sickeningly real hellscape as the pair close in on the activities of a cutthroat cartel, but the performances from Gyllenhaal and Peña, in combination with the claustrophobic and familiar camera work helps to build to a heartbreaking climax that should have even the most stalwart viewer grasping for Kleenex.
8. ‘Europa Report’ (2013)
Minimalist in nearly every sense of the word,Europa Reportfeels like a found footage film more by incident than intention, as directorSebastián Corderoconstructs a stylish mockumentary, supposedly piecing together footage from a ship on an ill-fated mission to locate potential life on – you guessed it – Europa. ThoughEuropa Report’scentral narrative structure is imperfect (we jump forward and back in time with little to no narrative payoff), Cordero deftly borrows from some of the sci-fi greats like2001and evenDuncan Jones’Moonwhile handily crafting a compelling character study that plays out almost entirely within the confines of the ship. The cast – which includes a charmingSharlto Copley– is superb, and Cordero gives the lot of them enough space to breathe to allow the film’s biggest emotional flourishes to float along to their untethered ends.
7. ‘Creep’ (2014)
Perhaps the strongest recent argument for the continued use of found footage is in a surprising little indie fromThe Overnight’sPatrick Brice. A simple two-hander horror film,Creepmines scares not from paranormal entities, but from one man unhinged – Josef (the ever-smilingMark Duplass), who lures videographer Aaron (Brice) out into the wild outskirts of Los Angeles with the purported intent of documenting a day in his life. (Spoiler alert: he doesn’t just want a handy documentarian.) Spinning would-be charm into squirm-inducing obsession,Creepexploits our interpersonal fear of rudeness to its most gruesome end. Clearly working under the guidance ofJason Blum, Brice handily keeps us in suspense despite the film’s predilection for dark comedy. But where Brice really succeeds is the ways in which he bends the rules of the genre, gleefully upending expectations for a chilling (if a bit contrived) payoff.
6. ‘Chronicle’ (2012)
The film that swiftly definedMax LandisandJosh Trankas “Ones to Watch”, and arriving on the scene just a bit before “superhero fatigue” was part of the lexicon,Chronicleis a superhero film of such gleeful imagination (and resonant depth) that it feels almost improbably good. Resting on the shoulders of three then-unknowns (that’sMichael B. Jordan,Dane DeHaan, andAlex Russell),Chronicletraces a kind of fractured origin story, as a trio ofJohn Hughesarchetypes find themselves, thanks to a mysterious alien substance, suddenly with powers usually reserved for men who grace comic book frames. Handily exploiting the found-footage format by allowing the camera to be operated by a literal “mind’s-eye” rather than remaining mired in the visually limited handheld trap,Chroniclemanages to be thrilling, willingly dark, and just down to earth enough to register as something of a teen classic.
5. ‘Trollhunter’ (2010)
Derivative in its very DNA but delightful nonetheless,Trollhunteris a clever little monster film that pays homage to bothThe Blair Witch ProjectandJurassic Parkwith a darkly funny twist that helps to elevate it beyond the sum of its admirable parts. Following a group of young students drawn out into the wilderness to investigate an increase in bear deaths in the Norwegian wilderness,Trollhunterwears itsBlair Witchtutelage on its sleeve while skillfully rolling out breathtakingly realized fantasy that abandons all hint of the cloying gimmick a lesser film might have rested on. Succeeding in building a world far bigger and surprising than the first-person perspective it takes would usually allow,Trollhunteris a film madebygenre fans (it’s the directorial debut ofAndré Øvredal)forgenre fans that makes the absolute most of its shoestring budget, pulling off laughs and scads of scares in the process.
4. ‘[REC]’ (2007)
While many found footage horrors suffer from the seemingly silly “keep the camera rolling” imperative even as the world topples around the person capturing the chaos,[REC]employs a simple narrative device – that is, our central protagonist Ángela (Manuela Velasco) is a television reporter – to keep the camera’s continuous rolling from crossing over into the absurd. Inadvertently entering an apartment complex moments before it’s discovered to be the ground zero of a curious (and increasingly vicious) zombie infection, Ángela becomes immediately intent on documenting the spread of the disease; that is, until the bubbling violence turns a would-be broadcast into a tooth and nail fight for her life. Making good use of its claustrophobic environment,[REC]languishes in sickening person-to-person scares (a laThe Mist) before ticking the “supernatural horror” box in an incredibly taught final scene – and while perhaps the indulgence could strike some viewers as unnecessary, it’s inarguable that the film’s final minutes remain some of the highest pitched tension the genre has to offer.
3. ‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007)
WhileParanormal Activitywas far from the first found footage movie to hit it big, it has become one the sub-genre’s most aspirational – turning a $15,000 budget into a nearly $200 million dollar hit, it’s what indie film fairytales are made of. Spinning on a smartly lean mystical mythology and bolstered by incredibly realistic performances from a pair of unknowns,Oren Peliadheres to a simple horror structure that nonetheless works brilliantly, even nearly a decade on. Allowing its titular “paranormal activity” to exist almost entirely in shadowy doorways and unseen rooms (and later, in the heart of our central protagonist Katie),Paranormal Activitymanages to elevate itself from the “show too much” doldrums of the format, while planting seeds for a promising mythology in the process. Hollywood was wise to take notes.
2. ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ (1980)
Though perhaps one could argueCannibal Holocaustfunctions more as a mockumentary (a laMan Bites Dog, which also follows a documentary crew), it seems clear that in terms of influence,Holocaustis the OG found footage movie – but boy, is it difficult to recommend. There’s no doubt the film an important part of the genre’s lineage, responsible for spawning hundreds of similar unsettling realist works and inspiring a generation of horror and grindhouse filmmakers (I’m lookin’ at you,Eli Roth), the film is also reprehensible – horribly violent, sexually sadistic, and containing all forms of animal abuse – there’s absolutely nothing aboutCannibal Holocaustthat’s easy to watch. Lacking the usual suspects often needed to make a solid found footage movie work (strong plot, convincing actors, and a reliable scare),Cannibal Holocaustsucceeds in its unflinching devotion to verite. Famously bringing the director under fire after initial viewers assumed that he had simply made a snuff film,Cannibal Holocaustemploys conventions of the documentary genre to chilling effect, all while minting the blueprint for a generation. It would be cruel to call it “a must watch” – but a high ranking on this list is imperative.
1. ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999)
Some may balk at how hallowedThe Blair Witch Projecthas become – especially after the explosion of found-footage horror that its success managed to trigger. It’s a film that has long divided audiences, leaving fans ofBlair Witchto staunchly defend it and detractors to bemoan its popularity, chalking up its initial scares to its incredibly successful marketing campaign. But regardless of which side you fall on, it is nearly impossible to negate the impressive realism that the film establishes, using technology of the time and a few unknown actors to create a film that has “this totally could have happened” written all over it.
While (of course) what transpires onscreen is a fiction, directorsDaniel MyrickandEduardo Sánchezdidactually send the film’s stars into the forest for eight days, asking them to record the film’s proceedings themselves. This explains the sometimes stomach-churning camerawork, but also helps to color the film’s terrifyingly convincing environment, asBlair Witchfollows the trio to their collective breaking points. Featuring but a few drops of blood and no look at the offending witch at all,The Blair Witch Projectnonetheless has managed to spawn countless nightmares with its masterfully built sense of dread and final terrifying sequence. Perhaps it takes too long to get there, but once it does – well, you’ll never look at a basement the same way again.
