For some, found footage horror movies have a reputation for frantic, nausea-inducing cinematography and an equally sickening overabundance of a repeated gimmick for more than decade. However, when done right, it can be more than just a gimmick, but an opportunity to tell uniquely immersive stories with a chilling authenticity that any genre could benefit from, really. Of course, scaring people has always been the method’s bread and butter.
I will admit, I believe there may be a few too many found footage movies these days, but I have come across several diamonds in the rough that keep my faith in the subgenre’s potential alive and even qualify as some of the best horror movies of all time, in my opinion. In fact, I have many examples to share below, starting with the quintessential example.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
While investigating an urban legend, three aspiring documentarians find themselves lost in a wood near Burkittsville, Maryland, and soon begin to suspect that they are not alone.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: From directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, The Blair Witch Project was astonishingly unique for the horror genre at the time and remains a remarkable achievement for the unrecognizable, but very convincing cast’s improvised dialogue and camera use, as well as its ability to make you fear the villain without ever showing it to you.
Stream The Blair Witch Project on Freevee through Amazon.
Stream The Blair Witch Project on Plex.
Buy The Blair Witch Project on Blu-ray through Amazon.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
After a documentary film crew disappears deep in the Amazon rainforest, a rescue team discovers the harrowing footage they left behind.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies:The Blair Witch Project brought found footage to the mainstream, but one of the first horror films to use the concept (for some of its runtime) is Cannibal Holocaust – an Italian exploitation piece so shockingly realistic that, as CBS News recalls, the late director Ruggero Deodato had to prove his actors did not actually die on-set in court.
Stream Cannibal Holocaust on Peacock.
Stream Cannibal Holocaust on Plex.
Rent or buy Cannibal Holocaust on Amazon.
Buy Cannibal Holocaust on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The McPherson Tape (1989)
While celebrating a young girl’s birthday, a family stumbles upon evidence that otherwordly visitors are among them.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: An underseen entry to the found footage genre that also predates its mainstream breakthrough is writer and director Dean Alioto’s alien invasion movie, The McPherson Tape, which has the charming schlockiness of a low-budget production, but the acting, suspense, and authenticity of a classic.
Stream The McPherson Tape on Tubi.
Rent or buy The McPherson Tape on Amazon.
Buy The McPherson Tape on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Last Broadcast (1998)
A pair of local access cable TV stars (Lance Weiler and Stefan Avalos) search for evidence of the legend of the Jersey Devil, only to encounter something more dangerous.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: Also written and directed by Weiler and Avalos, The Last Broadcast is another vastly overlooked found footage thriller, despite its effectively chilling story and the fact that it also predates The Blair Witch Project by merely a year.
Stream The Last Broadcast Tubi.
Stream The Last Broadcast on Freevee through Amazon.
Buy The Last Broadcast on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Hell House LLC (2015)
A group of friends and business partners prepare their latest spooky attraction at an abandoned hotel which they begin to suspect is actually haunted.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: Not just an overlooked found footage movie but an overlooked haunted house thriller as well, Hell House LLC – the first chapter of Stephen Cognetti’s terrifying mockumentary trilogy – is a relentlessly chilling exercise in masterfully crafted, slow-building dread.
Stream Hell House LLC on Amazon Prime.
Stream Hell House LLC on Tubi.
Stream Hell House LLC on Plex.
Buy Hell House LLC on DVD on Amazon.
Lake Mungo (2008)
A documentary crew interviews a family about the strange circumstances that have led them to suspect the spirit of their teenage daughter is haunting them.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: Easily one of the more sophisticated After Dark Horror Fest entries, writer and director Joel Anderson’s Australian documentary-style ghost story, Lake Mungo, is a horror movie that was more beloved by critics than audiences, despite a cast strong enough to convince you that its heartbreaking story is real.
Stream Lake Mungo on Amazon Prime.
Stream Lake Mungo on Tubi.
Stream Lake Mungo on Plex.
Buy Lake Mungo on DVD on Amazon.
![Manuela Velasco in [REC]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/QoQv7sZZH9LEhaqwGaX6hb.jpg)
[REC] (2007)
A young TV reporter (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman (Pablo Rosso) become one of several innocents trapped in a quarantined apartment building following a viral outbreak turning people into ravenous, animalistic killers.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: Many credit Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s Spanish-language thriller, [REC], as the found footage subgenre’s peak of brilliance for how it effectively takes advantage of its singular setting to authentically create a claustrophobic environment where unstoppable evil lurks at every turn.
Rent or buy [REC] on Amazon.
Buy [REC] on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Cloverfield (2008)
A group of twenty-somethings struggle to survive the night when a gargantuan creature wreaks havoc on New York.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: A unique take on monster movies from producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves, the first of the Cloverfield movies essentially kicked off the found footage trend after becoming a modest commercial and critical success for its absorbing, character-driven narrative that adds an especially devastating aura to the chaos.
Rent or buy Cloverfield on Amazon.
Buy Cloverfield on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Paranormal Activity Movies (2009-2021)
A series of strange occurrences that are all connected to the horrifying experience of a young L.A. couple (Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat) are captured on camera.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: Shortly after Cloverfield reintroduced the subgenre to the mainstream, the Paranormal Activity movies ensured the found footage would not go away too soon.
Stream the Paranormal Activity movies (1-5) on Max.
Stream Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension on Amazon Prime.
Stream Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension on Paramount+.
Stream Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin on Paramount+.
Buy the Paranormal Activity movies (1-6) on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Trollhunter (2010)
A group of Norwegian students join a mysterious hunter to investigate a series of deaths assumed to be bear attacks, until they discover the threat they are chasing is much, much bigger.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: The breakout thriller of director André Øvredal, Trollhunter, is a fun, inventive mockumentary which will never let you think of the titular fairy tale creature the same way again.
Stream Trollhunter on Amazon Prime.
Stream Trollhunter on Peacock.
Stream Trollhunter on Tubi.
Buy Trollhunter on Blu-ray Amazon.
Grave Encounters (2011)
The skeptical host of a paranormal reality show and his crew realize they are ill-prepared for a night locked inside a supposedly haunted insane asylum that becomes an inescapable struggle for survival.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies:Grave Encounters feels like what would happen if shows like Ghost Adventures actually captured something sinister: the helpless hosts would shit their pants in desperation from the indelible frights and psychological torture our protagonists can just barely endure.
Stream Grave Encounters on Freevee through Amazon.
Stream Grave Encounters on Tubi.
Stream Grave Encounters on Plex.
Stream Grave Encounters on Pluto TV.
Buy Grave Encounters on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Bay (2012)
A young reporter recounts the events of a horrifying 4th of July, during which a strange parasitic outbreak claims the lives of several infected with grotesquely bizarre symptoms in a small town by Chesapeake Bay.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: Academy Award winner Barry Levinson (Rain Man) directs The Bay – a found footage gem told from multiple angles via handheld cameras, security footage, and news coverage that makes the already frightening concept of a deadly disease all the more believable.
Rent or buy The Bay on Amazon.
Buy The Bay on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Chronicle (2012)
The lives of a lonely teen (Dane DeHaan), his cousin (Alex Russell), and their popular friend (Michael B. Jordan) change for the better (or, maybe, the worse) when a mysterious object gives them superhuman abilities.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: In addition to being a surprisingly relatable, and cautionary, supernatural coming-of-age story, Chronicle is one of the best “superhero” movies not based on a comic that brilliantly takes advantage of its characters’ telekinetic powers to achieve camera angles unique to traditional found footage thrillers.
Rent or buy Chronicle on Amazon.
Buy Chronicle on Blu-ray on Amazon.
V/H/S Movies (2012-Present)
A night of debauchery ends with a volatile encounter, a documentary crew’s interview with a cult has grave circumstances, a TV news reporter investigates a local urban legend, and more stories framed as lost video cassette recordings make up this engrossing series.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: One of the most acclaimed anthology horror movies is 2012’s V/H/S, which spawned a franchise of even more collections of strange, bizarre, and just plain traumatizing found footage-style shorts that is set to continue with a sci-fi-oriented seventh installment, as Bloody-Disgusting reported.
Stream the V/H/S movies (1, 2 and Viral) on Hulu.
Buy the V/H/S movies (1, 2, and Viral) on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Rent or buy V/H/S/94 on Amazon.
Buy V/H/S/94 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Buy V/H/S/99 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Buy V/H/S/85 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Creep Movies (2014, 2017)
These tales involve a deeply manipulative and deadly man (Mark Duplass) and his intimate encounters with two different amateur videographers (Patrick Brice and Desiree Akhavan).
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: One of the most impressive things about the Creep movies – which I hope get another sequel soon – is that both of them are almost entirely improvised from beginning to end, as Duplass revealed to EW, with deeply disturbing results that stick with you long after.
Stream the Creep movies on Netflix.
Rent or buy Creep on Amazon.
Rent or buy Creep 2 on Amazon.
Buy Creep 2 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Unfriended And Unfriended: Dark Web (2015, 2018)
These tales both involve a group of friends whose online chat is breached by an uninvited guest that forces them to play a game with deadly consequences.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: I firmly believe that the supernatural Unfriended and its more grounded sequel, Unfriended: Dark Web, are some of the best Blumhouse horror movies yet for the way they each tell an intense, character-driven story in real time and entirely from the point of view of the central characters’ laptop screens.
Rent or buy Unfriended on Amazon.
Buy Unfriended on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Rent or buy Unfriended: Dark Web on Amazon.
Buy Unfriended: Dark Web on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Host (2020)
As part of their weekly remote activities during quarantine, a group of friends hold a seance over video chat, which soon proves to have dire consequences.
Why It Is One Of The Best Found Footage Movies: Yet another recent thriller I would recommend watching on your computer is Host – director Rob Savage and writer Jed Shepherd’s Covid-era hit that was originally released exclusively with a Shudder subscription and might be my most preferred entry of the video call horror trend so far.
Rent or buy Host on Amazon.
Buy Host on Blu-ray on Amazon.
What do you think? Do these classics and hidden gems give you a newfound appreciation for found footage horror, or would you prefer that I get lost in the woods for recommending them?