The Top 10 Best Found-Footage Movies
Gotta Wonder Where They Discovered these Found-Footage Movies…
Over the past 20 years or so, there have been more found-footage movies than you can shake a stick at. Most of you probably know the filmmaking “technique” for shaky camera work that can leave a person’s head spinning, jump scares that come out of nowhere and characters that seem to make the worst decisions ever. However, it’s gotten to a point where this “technique” is starting to feel more like a gimmick than anything else. That being said, there are some actually really good found-footage movies out there, you just have to wade through some bad ones to find them. Luckily for you, I’ve got a great pair of waders and a lot of free time, so I managed to put together this list of The Top Ten Found Footage Films for all you fans out there. The only rule is that these films have to be made up of footage that was “found” by someone outside of the core narrative and presented to the audience (ie: news report gone wrong, documentary gone wrong, etc). Anything else would fall under the mockumentary. With that in mind, grab some Dramamine ,and get ready to hold on to the edge of your seat, because this list is coming in hot!
10. Paranormal Activity
If found-footage movies infuriate you, it’s probably because of Paranormal Activity. That being said, it’s a film that laid a lot of groundwork when it came to perfecting this style of filmmaking. Sure, I wanted to strangle Micha Sloat’s character right alongside the rest of America as I watched him taunt and tease a freaking demon throughout the film. His stupidity seems to know no bounds as he loads up his camera and makes every possible horror movie mistake as he stumbles around with his camera capturing the horror of doors creaking open. In all seriousness though, it’s the biggest found-footage franchise of all time, and it doesn’t appear to be done yet. Because of that, I have to give it a spot on this list of the best found-footage movies, even if the main characters are infuriating at times.
9. Europa Report
Europa Report comes dangerously close to being a mockumentary. However, since it claims that it is presenting the actual footage from the Europa mission without altering or editing it, and that footage was gathered without the intent of it being a documentary, I’ve decided to include it on this list of found-footage movies. This space-horror film follows the first manned mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. It’s the longest mission in space exploration history and is fraught with peril as the astronauts face all sorts of dangers just getting to their destination. Once at the moon though, everything falls apart as one disaster after another hits. To make things even worse for the brave crew, there’s something else on Europa besides them and it’s not friendly. With their lives in danger, the astronauts have to fight for survival, but there’s a reason why they haven’t returned to Earth yet…
8. [REC]
Before I get into this, I should mention that the American version of the film, Quarantine isn’t half-bad as far as horror remakes go. Now there are a lot of found-footage movies in the horror genre, but the Spanish series [REC] definitely stands out among them. It follows a news reporter doing a story on a local fire station when they get a call. Hoping to get the scoop of the century, she follows them with her trusty cameraman to capture all the action. When they get there though they soon discover that there’s no fire inside. Instead, the residents have been infected with a mutated strain of the rabies virus that has turned them into vicious plague “zombies.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, a quarantine goes into effect locking the building to prevent anyone from getting out. Good call for the rest of the city, but bad news for our heroine and her cameraman.
7. The Visit
Visiting family can be stressful, but I doubt many of us have experienced anything like M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit. Two kids head out for a trip to visit some estranged grandparents they haven’t seen for years despite their mother’s reluctance. Everything seems hunky dory at first as they get to know their memaw and pop pop. There’s some weird stuff that happens, but that’s just how old people are sometimes, right? Those strange instances continue to get worse and worse until the kids learn what the Shyamalan twist is. I won’t ruin it for you, but I will say that this is one of the director’s best films to date, which makes it perfect for this list of found-footage movies, especially since the entire experience is documented by the kids on their phones and computers. After seeing this one, you probably won’t look at old folks the same way.
6. The Blair Witch Project
For the sake of transparency, I’m going to admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for The Blair Witch Project since I went to the same school as the students who made it (University of Central Florida). However, that doesn’t change the fact that this film is the single biggest reason for the explosion of found-footage movies we’ve seen during the beginning 21st century. Now, I totally understand not being a huge fan of the film, since it is a bit slow and hard to follow. However, the influence it had on cinema makes it a must-have for this list of found-footage movies. Personally, I would have liked to have actually seen a bit more witch in the film, but I guess I can make do with college kids wandering around the woods and freaking out over creepy stick figures instead (my theory is that the kidnapped children make them in arts & crafts).