There's often a sense of snobbery surrounding the medium of found-footage horror. But for feverish genre fans, nothing compares to the raw, in-the-moment realism captured by found footage.
However, unlike Hollywood movies, found footage horror affairs are full of quirky camera work, often shakily amateurish, off-the-cuff acting and a spiraling sense of dread as harrowing events unfold in real-time.
Besides, nothing generates goosebumps like the chillingly mysterious, endlessly intriguing discovery of lost footage. The unwitting participants of which, either spookily declared missing or presumed dead.
From humble handheld origins, found-footage horror films are now considered an essential horror-sub niche, despite taking somewhat of a backseat in recent years.
Today, we celebrate those found-footage horror films critical to establishing the cult-classic genre.
I hope you have a hanky on standby. (You'll see soon enough.)
The Blair Witch Project
What better way to begin our found footage film exploration than with The Blair Witch Project.
Made on a modestly meager budget of $35,000–60,000 before final post-production costs, The Blair Witch Project, centered around its creepily folklorish urban myth, would achieve impressive box office success upon release and is considered a quintessential cult classic of the genre. Going on to inspire the likes of Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield.
According to Washington Post, a minority of movie-goers reportedly experienced "Dizzy spells, queasiness, cold sweats and occasional vomiting when watching in cinemas due to the shakey, nausea-inducing style of footage filmed towards its compelling climax.
However, I'd like to think The Blair Witch Project'sProject's iconic ending, alongside its eerily true-to-life viral campaign, each had a hand in elevating the fear factor.
Oh, and of course, shout-out to the snot-driveling close-ups of its panic-stricken crew.
The Last Broadcast
Thought to be one of the first found-footage films of its kind to utilize low-grade consumer accessible equipment wholly, The Last Broadcast issues an essential watch for discerning found footage fans or those simply seeking to revisit the genre's most rawly influential roots.
Released in 1998, a year before Blair Witch, Lance Weiler and Stefan Avalos'sAvalos's unsettlingly creepy horror mockumentary recounts eerie claims of strange phenomena surrounding the legendary Jersey Devil, with events staged around the area's scenically iconic Pine Barrens.
Despite its apparent low-budget and vividly grainy visuals, The Last Broadcast's intriguing reconstruction of events, which merges criminal testimonials and witness accounts with low-grade video footage, provides a surprisingly suspenseful reenactment, cleverly obscuring the line between fact and fiction while prematurely highlighting the medium's potential for deceptive camera trickery.
Happy April, fools!
The Collingswood Story
Incredibly, there was a time when online video chat was in its infancy. An early period in which the horror genre was yet to capitalize on the suspenseful potential of video screen technology as a found footage concept.
Today, hellish horror films like The Host owe an enormous debt of gratitude to The Collingswood Story, believed to be the first example of web-based online video-chat horror of its kind.
Released in 2002, The Collingswood Story tells a chilling tale of supernatural horror involving two lovers attempting to sustain their long-distance relationship digitally over the web.
Following a random encounter with an online psychic, events soon descend into chaos when a series of spooky supernatural occurrences consume the pair's lives.
If you enjoyed Host, Unfriended, and Paranormal Activity, why not check out the horror's original precursor to the scary, computer screen phenomenon seen so rampantly today.
Noroi The Curse
No hellish horror list would be complete without a spine-chilling Japanese entry, and I can't think of a more appropriately petrifying listing than Koji Shiraishi's eerily unsettling Noroi: The Curse.
More familiar natively than on western shores, Noroi: The Curse scales down the scares in favor of slow-burning suspense and a dread-inducing atmosphere.
Building up to a freaky finale, Noroi's scaling sense of tension sinks under the skin, permeating the psyche in alarmingly disturbing ways as a paranormal investigator's exploration of the supernatural triggers into motion a harrowing set of inexplicable events.
In Memorium
With its strict surveillance-style film set up, if you can see past In Memorium's outdated, oddly nostalgic, digitally retro aesthetic of low-fi VHS fuzziness, then lurking behind the lens with intent is a strangely compelling, occasionally scary found-footage horror experience.
In the mood for a distinctly micro-budgeted affair, guided by two believable central performances and a series of cleverly creepy visual gimmicks, especially for their era?
If so, I recommend checking out this archaic time capsule of found footage horror for yourself, if not simply for its hugely influential "haunted house" premise. Though admittedly, it's a film perhaps worth watching with the lights out to maximize any frightening effects
UFO Abduction
Surprisingly released an entire decade before The Blair Witch Project, UFO Abduction, also named The McPherson Tape, is perhaps the least discussed found footage horror film of all time. Certainly of this list.
Yet somewhat bizarrely, it's probably one of the most primitive examples of the genre ever to exist.
Dean Alioto's handheld alien invasion flick, made on a mere $6,500 budget, was such a strange phenomenon for its time that portions of the population truly believed it conveyed an actual alien abduction in the state of Connecticut. Crazy to think, right?
1983's micro-budgeted, deliriously shakey home video recording charts a spooky period in the lives of the McPhersons, who, when celebrating a family member's 5th birthday, unwittingly bears witness to a harrowing visitation of other-worldly origin.
Despite being an agonizing watch in many ways, fans of extraterrestrial home invasions will enjoy the alien's ultimate arrival, despite the movie's inescapably amateurish shortcomings. But more importantly, it's just fascinating to experience this level of found footage so early in the genre's fleeting lifespan.
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