Over the past twenty years or so, the found footage subgenre has exploded to the forefront of the horror genre, with many duds, but also extremely terrifying hits. That’s why today’s 31 Days of Horror is dedicated to some of the best entries. .
Found footage seems to be on the decline, both in quantity and quality, with interest dwindling and the biggest franchises coming to a halt, so for now we’ll have to look back rather than forward for the best.
REC
Not to be confused with the horrible American remake Quarantine which followed the following year, REC is a Spanish found film that follows a news crew as they investigate an apartment building frequented by a fire crew. The apartments are locked up by the Spanish authorities after some sort of virus infected some of the residents, giving them inhuman strength and anger issues, to put it lightly.
Shown entirely through the cameraman’s camera, who like most found films keeps the camera rolling even when it’s clearly bothering him, it’s a claustrophobic, fast-paced film that will make you happy when it’s over, but you will also make you want to watch it again.
paranormal activity
One of the most commercially successful films found, paranormal activity spawned several sequels, each trying to add to the story of the previous one, and each worsening the franchise as a whole. The first was full of truly chilling found-sequence scares, though, with a ridiculously simple premise involving a couple’s haunted house and their attempts to abduct it.
Anyone who’s seen it knows how it ends, and subsequent sequels actually explain more of the simple premise, making it unnecessarily convoluted and taking years to complete. Still, the former will still be worth tossing around if you need a quick scare.
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The Blair Witch Project
Arguably the movie that started it all, or at least brought the genre to the horror-loving masses, The Blair Witch Project was made and marketed at a time when the genre wasn’t a horror staple and before the internet could spoil a movie before it was released. Marketed as a true story, many fans sat in the theater glued to their seats in terror, believing the events unfolding before their eyes actually happened.
The director took the extra step of having the film’s stars effectively hide from public life leading up to the film’s release, adding to the film’s fervor and audiences’ belief that they were indeed dead. It’s hard to imagine that such a film could be made at the same level today.
Cloverfield
The second and third entries in the franchise deviated from the found footage genre in their own way, but the first that started it all utilized the genre’s limitations to great effect. Starring a group of New York residents celebrating the New Year, the film follows them as they go from happy, festive revelers to running through New York City to avoid an unknown – at first – threat in their attempt to survive.
Throughout the movie, we get small glimpses of what they’re leaking and insights into the large-scale destruction it’s causing, but that makes us wait until the very end to see the gigantic monster in all its glory. splendor.
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V/H/S
Another found footage franchise that has dwindled as we get more entries, it started out bringing a fresh take on the genre. Instead of being one continuous story throughout the film, it’s more of an anthology of smaller individual stories, all tied together as a group of boys who break into a house and perform on a large collection of VHS tapes.
Not all winners, the most infamous of the first film’s strips is of the woman who gets picked up at a bar, before feasting on the group of men she’s returned to the motel room with.
Each of the following films all have at least one notable entry, but overall the first film is more cohesive, especially compared to the later ones. The less the toothbrush in the toilet is talked about later in the movie, the better.
There are so many movies found over the years, and maybe we missed some, but these are five that will leave you questioning reality once they’re done. What others would you include?
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