Found footage movies. I’ll come right out and say it, I like them. It’s not even a guilty pleasure for me.

A great found footage movie has a sense of reality unlike other styles and can get under your skin in a way other entertainment can’t. An average found footage movie usually has some good moments. A terrible found footage movie is fun to pick apart and see how the various tropes and conventions of the genre are used (and abused).

With no further ado, here’s a running list of found footage movies I’ve watched, along with mini-reviews.

137 Current Entries

Essential

The Blair Witch Project – The flick that kicked off the found footage phenomenon. Yes, I know movies like Cannibal Holocaust and others came before… Blair Witch was the first one that really ripped into mainstream pop culture and inspired countless other creators to find their own footage. When I saw it in the theater it creeped me the heck out. Now it feels tame. Still, it makes the Essential category as a spot of honor. (That scene with the tongue, though)

Cannibal Holocaust – A conventional film from 1980 using a film-within-a-film storytelling technique, with the inner film being one of the earliest examples of found footage. The plot revolves around a group of filmmakers who disappear in the Amazon jungle and their fate is revealed in the recovered film. This one makes the essential category not just for its place in the found footage timeline, but it’s a truly disturbing and first-rate horror film. The movie was so shocking upon release that the director was brought up on obscenity charges and also charged with the murders of the actors (who, of course, weren’t harmed).

Cloverfield – Godzilla as found footage through the lens of J.J. Abrams. It’s also about 9/11 and New York City. A really fantastic movie on multiple levels. The build-up is amazing, the monster is great and I care about the characters and their subplots. Like all good stories, it’s ultimately a love story.

Grave Encounters – I’m actually surprised to find myself putting this one in the Essential category, but it represents a “best in class” example of some of the cheesier entries in the genre. I think you should watch it to get a feel for if you are found footage nerd in general. Grave Encounters is a lot of fun and establishes a higher bar than the average “ghost hunters in an asylum” found-footage flick. The characters are great, the slow setup is nicely done and even when it’s being tropey it doesn’t really feel like it. Be aware the sequel goes off the rails compared to this one.

Hell House LLC – A group of friends/business partners live in a creepy old hotel while preparing it as a Halloween haunted house attraction. The chemistry between the actors works great and there’s lots of general unease as well as some good old-fashioned jump scares (not to mention creepy clowns). The narrative choice to tease with news footage of what happens on opening night and then going back to the beginning adds some good anticipation. Followed by two sequels.

Lake Mungo – A documentary-style movie rather than specifically found footage, this one still makes a lot of lists for the genre. It’s about grief, secrets, ghosts, the complexities of family, and… well, you should really watch it.

Paranormal Activity – An evil presence menaces a young couple in their home. Very possibly the most important and influential found footage movie since The Blair Witch Project. The pattern of eerie moments and mounting dread is practically a template to follow for who knows how many small budget creators out there. The series gets a bit unwieldy in its own mythology as the sequels continue, but this first entry is slim, trim, and scary.

Trollhunter – Student filmmakers discover a Norwegian government employee that hunts real-life trolls while his agency covers everything up with the public. This dark fantasy is one of my absolute favorite examples of found footage. It’s fun, exciting, suspenseful, and occasionally funny.

V/H/S, V/H/S 2, V/H/S: Viral – This is a popular series, with each entry being an anthology of “experimental” found footage shorts with a wrapping found footage narrative. While the quality of individual entries can vary, this series is a must to see what can be done in the genre (and many of the segments are excellent). Note: I gave V/H/S/ Viral a rewatch because many people feel it is subpar compared to the first two entries, however, I thought it was fine and in fact has two of my favorite segments in the series (“Parallel Monsters” and “Bonestorm”).
See the Great category below for my reviews of V/H/S/85 and V/H/S/94, and the Good category for my review of V/H/S/99.

Great

Afflicted – Two friends go on a worldwide trip and end up delivering a horrific-yet-cool POV experience in becoming a vampire.

Apollo 18 – NASA and the Moon meet found footage as the up close and personal tale of the fictional Apollo 18 mission unfolds. For me, the horror element takes a back seat to all of the cool Apollo moments and “slice of life” stuff we get to see almost as if in a documentary (in fact, I wrote a blog post about it). There’s also some Russian stuff I thought was cool.

Area 51 – Found footage sneaks into the famous top-secret military base. Well okay, actually a group of friends does after one of them becomes obsessed with the idea. Some nice tricks they use to sneak in, some great special effects and a few jump scares along the way.

As Above, So Below – An adventurous woman and a group of friends explore the catacombs under Paris and end up in hell. Gritty cinematography and special effects that work with the tone rather than against it. The ending breaks a major found footage trope.

Creep 2 – A man advertises for a videographer, and informs her he’s a serial killer as soon as she arrives. More entertaining than its predecessor and with a different dynamic. However, watch the first Creep before this one so you’ll have an idea of what’s being turned on its head. Great chemistry between the actors.

End of Watch – Non-horror police action with big-name actor Jake Gyllenhaal. While I feel that found footage lends itself best to horror, this is a great example of what can be done with the style in a different genre by getting up close and personal with the daily lives of two patrol officers (not including the very dramatic third act).

The Fourth Kind – One of the few big-budget found footage offerings out there, this one featuring Milla Jojovich. It takes a series of real-life disappearances around Nome, Alaska and spins an alien abduction yarn that is purported in some instances to be re-enactments of actual interviews and recorded evidence. It also touches on religion, considering some of the claims the alien entities make. There’s a frankly bizarre scene at the end where the director and Milla Jojovich (as herself) hold hands and say sort of weird hippy-dippy stuff.

Late Night with the Devil – A slice of “live” 70s late-night TV mixed with an unhealthy dose of the supernatural. The creators really make it feel like a videotape of a 70’s late-night talk show, with the set design, costumes and hairstyles right down to a somewhat degraded look for the video and a 4:3 aspect ratio. They cheat a little bit with behind-the-scenes film (why would you follow people around on commercial breaks with film cameras during a TV broadcast?) and it essentially shifts to a standard movie presentation at the end, but it mostly follows the rules of found footage. Good casting and performances all around (except for the fast-talking, super aggro producer… something about it felt like I was watching an actor acting). Rhys Auteri steals pretty much every scene he’s in as sidekick Gus. David Dastmalchian is a great choice for the talk show host looking to improve his ratings. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I just didn’t like it quite as much as I was expecting based on the ingredients. Call it a B+. I’m ready for a Captain Howdy vs. Mr. Wriggles cage match.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – The fifth installment in the franchise goes in an interesting new direction in both the formula (a young man suddenly develops “superpowers” instead of a house being haunted) and the setting (a Latino neighborhood instead of whitebread suburbia). It was a bold but smart choice that still ties well into the series mythology.

Savageland – This one’s a little different. An attack on border town by supernatural assailants is reconstructed from photos on a roll of film found after the attack. There’s a lot of political and racial subtext, but it doesn’t detract.

The Triangle – Drop some documentary filmmakers into a Burning Man-inspired commune and add in a mix of building tension and hints of (supernatural?) threat. There’s a lot I could say, but most of it will ruin things. One thing it does really well is the commune and its members are interesting enough I could watch this as a legit documentary without any fiction elements and still be intrigued. Falters slightly after the film shifts tone in the third act.

WNUF Halloween Special – A faux 80s local news broadcast followed by a Halloween special “recorded on VHS during the broadcast”. What bumps this into the Great category is the excellent comedy-horror blend, the nostalgia factor, and the wonderful fake commercials.

V/H/S/85 – A really solid entry in the V/H/S series. I’m glad they went back to using a wraparound that tells a story. My favorite segment was the boaters, it got crazy even without the twist. The segment with the cops was very interesting but it really, really (did I mention really?) cheated when it comes to being purely found footage (although I suspect it will be many viewers’ favorite segment) and even when it was found footage they used cameras and angles I am dubious about being ubiquitous for the mid-80s. My least favorite was the earthquake story… the repercussions of the disaster itself were more compelling to me than the “shocking” third act, which honestly felt kind of trite. You get some decent mid-80s vibes without knocking us over the head with “cute” zeitgeist moments and references like V/H/S/99 did. Two segments (with the same director) connect but I won’t spoil which ones, while I will say that I liked it. It was a fun touch but too many connecting stories in each entry would change the tone of the series.

V/H/S/94 – It’s fun, but not my favorite in the V/H/S series. The wraparound segment feels overacted and has all the authenticity of 90s video game full-motion video. Some of the segments are great while others seem to lack that experimental-yet-excellent feel that V/H/S excels at. There are also moments that are just plain cheesy. My favorite segments were “The Empty Wake” and “Terror”, although there’s no denying it’s fun to let loose with a hearty “Hail Raatma!”. If you like the “Veggie Master” commercial, go check out Oats Studios.

V/H/S/Beyond – Beyond is the seventh installment in the V/H/S anthology series, this one with a theme of science fiction for each of the five short films, and a fake UFO documentary as the framing narrative (the fake documentary is done quite well, I would mistake it for real if I was flipping channels). As a fan of this franchise and found footage, I’m inclined to like each release. I place this entry solidly in the middle of the series. It’s very watchable, with “Live and Let Die” (a very fun and ambitious piece featuring skydiving) and “Stowaway” (a documentary creator gets what she wishes for) being my favorites. “Fur Babies” (co-written and co-directed by Justin Long) will likely split opinions but it won me over before it was finished (I would add it feels the least sci-fi of the shorts). Even with seven installments, I want more, I hope the franchise goes… well, beyond this one, and keeps going.

Good

388 Arletta Avenue – A mysterious figure toys with a man and records his every move with cleverly hidden spy cameras. After his wife disappears, it really gets crazy. It’s slick without being too slick and features a name actor (Nick Stahl) but never really connects emotionally. There’s a ton of cameras in this one, including a clock radio cam.

Apartment 14 (AKA Emergo) – A team of paranormal investigators (in the truer sense, not the standard bunch of kids running around with a camera and a ghost detector thingy) set up an investigation in the home of a family experiencing the bumps. Is it a ghost? Is it a poltergeist? Why hasn’t someone slapped that angry teenage girl yet? Apartment 143 seems to get panned pretty widely… it may not be a great movie in general but I thought it stood out against the typical generic found footage entry.

Banshee Chapter – A journalist researching a missing friend stumbles into a story involving the MK Ultra program, strange beings, and Hunter S. Thompson (although they don’t call him that in the movie, natch). According to its Wikipedia entry, this movie is loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s “From Beyond” short story.

Butterfly Kisses – The setup on this one is preposterous (even for a found footage movie) due to the impossible circumstances that would have to happen to summon the baddie. That aside, there is some really interesting stuff here about a hopeful filmmaker who finds found footage and the struggles (leading to desperate obsession) he goes through just to be believed. Two stories unfold: the duo in the found footage and the man who finds it.

Creep – This one is good, but I didn’t like it as much as word of mouth led me to expect. Escalating, awkward moments where unspoken rules are constantly toyed with leads to a dangerous stalker situation when a man hires a videographer to document his life for one day.

Dark Mountain – Three friends film a documentary while searching for a lost gold mine and end up striking… something. Doesn’t really do anything new, but does what it does better than the average entry in the genre. A bit artsy at times and relies a lot on a soundtrack. Also: an unexpected close-up of a schlong.

The Dark Tapes – One of the better entries in the anthology category, with four main segments and a framing narrative. The most memorable segment for me is the one with the time dilation.

Dashcam – A very eccentric singer (Annie Hardy, playing a version of herself) live streams her “BandCar” video channel as she dashes off to England to crash back into her old friend’s life during the Covid lockdown, soon stumbling into supernatural danger while taking over his meal delivery gig. There are some legitimately funny moments when it starts off, followed by a lot of brutal crazy. Just enjoy the ride, because you’re not going to get a lot of answers when everything is said and done. Annie is a total menace, at times entertaining, at times hilarious, at times shockingly, cringe-inducingly inappropriate (and at yet even other times showing surprising compassion when others don’t). The constant stream of comments scrolling on the screen from viewers was interesting and entertaining but I never knew if I needed to pay close attention to it to catch important elements of the story (hint: not really).  You’ve never seen ending credits like these.

Deadstream – An internet personality attempts a comeback by live streaming from a reportedly haunted house (ha ha, get it? “Deadstream” instead of “Livestream”). Yes, the house is indeed haunted and crazy stuff happens. There’s an interesting mix of tones from cheesy to somewhat scary to comedy. It’s never outright frightening but there are some good jump scares. I’ll give extra credit in two areas: it’s genuinely funny at times and comedy seems very hard to do in found footage movies based on my viewing experience. Also, the music is excellent (the guy carries around a cassette player for music) and there’s one track that’s John Carpenter-worthy. Speaking of music, there’s a moment where the creators use music with no explanation of where it’s coming from to enhance the drama. That’s a no-no for me in found footage. Play by the rules.

Diary of the Dead – A horror movie shoot turns into ongoing documentation of a zombie outbreak in George Romero’s found footage movie. As usual with Romero, there’s social commentary in addition to the gore with the in-movie director becoming obsessed with filming everything even over the safety of himself and others “for posterity”. There’s also some poking of fun at horror movie tropes. This movie catches hate from Romero fans, but I liked it well enough.

Exists – A group of friends and a cabin in the woods, what could go wrong? This movie avoids the pacing of most horror movies and gets it right out of the way at the beginning what we’re dealing with: Bigfoot. It also doesn’t spend much time explaining why everything is being filmed, it just is. Directed by Blair Witch Project’s Eduardo Sanchez.

Found Footage – Given this is a comedy, I went into this expecting a slog of a cringefest. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I laughed quite a bit. The three main characters are entertaining morons and the scheme they hatch to get revenge on bullies is about as dumb as it gets.

Found Footage 3D – A group of filmmakers decides to make a 3D found footage flick. This one is a meta sendup of found footage tropes wrapped around a decent horror movie. It’s fun if you put yourself in the right headspace and it never lets you forget a 3D found footage movie is kind of hard to justify narratively.

Frazier Park Recut – Two filmmakers hire an actor and off they go to film a found footage movie called Frazier Park… except their star has ideas of his own. This one’s a lot of fun and I particularly liked the passive-aggressive Machiavellian shenanigans leading up to the climax.

Ghostwatch – In 1992, the BBC aired a “live” ghosthunting special on Halloween night that had actually been recorded weeks before but carefully crafted to seem like a live event. A TV crew was live on-site at an extremely haunted house while experts commented from the studio and took “live” calls. The story that unfolded was somewhat tame by current found footage standards, but I give it big points for execution. If you didn’t know better you might really think you were watching a live event, and in fact, many viewers did. The show generated around a million phone calls to the BBC if Wikipedia is to be believed.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum – Set in South Korea and featuring a real abandoned psychiatric hospital called Gonjiam, this found footage movie is a little different in its pacing. For example, the protagonists return to the haunted location multiple times with the horror being more of a cumulative effect. There’s also some really nice cinematography and use of time-lapse footage.

Haunting on Fraternity Row – This one was more fun than I expected. The first half is your basic college shenanigans with some funny moments (mostly with the little brother) before it pivots to full-on horror.

Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel – It’s fairly rare to get a found footage sequel yet Hell House LLC goes for the hat trick and ends up being a trilogy (er, quadrilogy now –Shane). This second installment is enjoyable but falls short of the original as the creators work to extend the narrative and background of the eponymous hotel. The scene with the medium and his assistant in the dining room was strong.

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor – Does a good job of being both a sequel and a prequel that adds to the backstory of a franchise without feeling confused or forced. Those Hell House clowns never stop being creepy. There’s a really effective scene that uses a series of photos to build menace. The characters make some REALLY stupid decisions even when the house is practically screaming at them to get out early on, and this willful stupidity isn’t sufficiently explained by the obligatory leader character in found footage movies who is obsessed and pushes past the line of reason and pulls others with them. I feel like I was seeing a lot of the movie-making process behind the movie… Like, oh they did this to establish that for later, or they cut to that person to break the tension, etc. Minor demerits for adding brief musical intrusions to scary moments, in a found footage movie if it’s scary, it’s scary. It’s supposed to be like you’re there and that should be enough for the horror and tension because you feel it on a deeper level than watching it happen to someone else.

The House With 100 Eyes – A married couple makes snuff films in a house full of hidden cameras. This time around, they attempt to make a triple-feature with three kills in one night. In several moments it steers straight into torture porn. I actually had a hard time finishing it because once it gets sick, it gets sick. The “Good” rating relates to the quality of filmmaking (plus I thought the main actor playing Ed did a great job), not my appreciation of the content. Also, it feels more like a movie with a lot of different camera angles than actual found footage.

The Houses October Built (2011) – This is the original version from 2011, with a different, theatrical version released in 2014. It’s essentially a documentary about Halloween haunted house attractions and interviews with the people who run them. It’s 90% a documentary that would satisfy someone interested in the subject, with 10% fiction added in an attempt to provide a scary story of haunted houses that take it too far and our intrepid filmmakers encountering one. It’s fun for what it is, and I could watch Brandy Schaefer get scared over and over, she is exactly the kind of person you want to go into a haunted house with… her reactions make it so much fun.

Host – Several friends attempt a seance-by-video-meeting during the coronavirus lockdown and get much more than they bargained for. Nothing really new here, but the online meeting dynamic adds a new perspective (perspectives?) on the unfolding horror.

Hungerford – Strange things are afoot in the British town of Hungerford. Is it body snatchers, zombies, supernatural, or extraterrestrial? All will be revealed as a group of party-hardy friends gets pulled deeper and deeper into events. What bumped this to the Good category for me was the interaction between the friends and the fact that these weren’t your typical high school or college kids. They’re fun, but also not clean-cut and generic. The action also ramps up pretty high for found footage before everything is said and done.

The Hunted – Two men enter the woods with cameras to film a hunting show pilot in a newly leased hunting area. Things get creepy then dangerous as unexplainable phenomena start happening around and to them. Minor ding for a musical score to add to the atmosphere at certain moments.

Infliction – Two brothers document their revenge-fueled killing spree, which soon turns into some serious family dysfunction drama. It’s done well, but a little too well for a found footage movie. The slick presentation steals some of the grit this movie should have.

The Last Broadcast – This movie actually released before The Blair Witch Project (despite rumors to the contrary Blair Witch didn’t rip it off). It’s not 100% a found footage movie but instead a fake documentary with several scenes of found footage. A little over halfway in I really started warming up to it, but the ending completely fell apart and broke the movie’s own rules. Ahead of its time both for the found footage aspect and predicting a fusion of live TV and Internet remote broadcasts as entertainment.

The Last Exorcism – A fraudulent exorcist sets out to make a documentary exposing the fakery… and then runs into a very strange case that may indeed be the real deal. Notably stars Patrick Fabian from Better Call Saul in a convincing performance as the fraudster.

Man Vs. – It’s Man vs. Wild meets Predator meets found footage. The survival tips and demonstrations are interesting in their own right, and I just generally enjoyed watching everything unfold as it transitioned to the inevitable discovery of and confrontation with the unknown baddie.

The Medium – A film crew in Thailand documenting shamanism gets more than they bargained for when their main subject gets pulled into an unfolding possession situation involving her own family. This movie goes from being a fake documentary to a full-on found footage movie towards the end. It feels a little too long, but there’s some interesting moments, some nice insight into Thai culture, and I really liked Min’s character. From the same folks that did the original Shutter.

Milk & Serial – YouTube pranksters use a birthday party to turn things up a notch. This movie is not exactly what it presents itself as during the setup and will reward those that keep watching. The creator released it on YouTube for free and evidently the budget was $800. I’m not sure if it’s as stupendously great as the raving word of mouth it has received indicates, but it’s definitely worth a watch.

The Monster Project – A streamer decides to up his viewer count by interviewing “real” monsters. What bumps this one up out of the Average category is the excellent depiction of the monsters, and the effort to work in multiple horror movie monster archetypes.

Noroi: The Curse – An Interesting mix of documentary, investigate journalism, mystery, Japanese pop culture, and religion/demonology. A slow burn and one of the weirdest psychic characters in a movie ever.

Paranormal Activity 2 – A prequel set a couple of months before the first movie that tees up what becomes the ongoing mythology of the series. Plenty of scares, creepiness, mounting dread plus a big dash of “family screwing over family to save your own” thrown in for good measure. Supposedly the trailer got pulled from some theaters in Texas for being too scary. That sounds weird, but what do I know?

Paranormal Activity 3 – It’s back to 1988 via a collection of VHS tapes that reveal the childhood of the sisters from the first two installments. There’s a bit of story gymnastics to explain why someone in 1988 would be recording so much of everyday life around the house, but overall it has some fun moments. More of the PA series backstory is revealed. The “little ghost” moment in the kitchen is great. Randy is the smartest person in the series so far for getting while the getting’s good.

Paranormal Activity 4 – This was actually the first of the PA series that I watched. My initial watch was riveting, but in retrospect, it’s pretty standard stuff for both the franchise and the genre. The Xbox Kinect scenes are cool, and yeeesh that bathtub scene is full of subtle mounting dread and horror when you think about what’s actually happening.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension – A family is harassed by a supernatural entity in the standard “increasing menace” formula of (most of) the rest of the series, and they also find a strange video camera that lets them record the “ghost dimension” (The Ghost Dimension was released in theaters in 3D, so it needed a gimmick mechanic). This is my least favorite entry in the series, mainly because the ghost you see tends to be less scary than the ghost you imagine. The extra backstory to the franchise also keeps getting sillier.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes – This one makes a lot of lists of must-see found-footage movies. It’s actually a fake documentary that includes a lot of found-footage moments. Most people seem impacted by the killer’s recordings of his killings and torture and, yeah, those are disturbing… but what was more interesting to me was the profile of a killer absolutely playing with and owning the police and justice system.

Real Cases of Shadow People – The Sarah McCormick Story – Three friends set out to make a documentary about entities called “shadow people” and the missing persons connected to them. It’s part road trip (enjoyably so) and part supernatural investigation and it somehow works better than it should. Normally this type of found footage would go straight to “Average” or below for me. The obligatory hijinks of the two guy friends normally gets on my nerves in these movies but in this case, I was laughing a lot. My only real beefs are that it probably needed a little more horror and a little less road trip, and the house at the end that was supposedly abandoned for 30 years looked kind of spick and span on the inside.

The Taking of Deborah Logan – Deborah is bordering on elderly, so one wonders whether she’s going senile or being possessed as the movie unfolds. This movie gets very good word of mouth and while I enjoyed it, it didn’t impress as much as it seems to do others. Bonus: there are snakes.

They’re Watching – A horror comedy that has a home-improvement reality tv show crew visit a small Eastern European town full of superstitious villagers. Overall this is a fun movie and the super crisp film quality (which I feel often detracts from found footage realism) can this time be attributed to the fictional tv crew’s level of equipment and training. It does a good job of messing with expectations when the inevitable chaos finally breaks out. Possibly the first (only?) found footage movie I’ve seen with a Wilhelm Scream. On the downside, it falls into the trap of reminding the viewer too often that the camera is a camera and sometimes works too hard to explain a shot.

The Tunnel – A fairly strong faux documentary setup about an investigative news team with some good casting and acting devolves soon enough into tropey endless running through claustrophobic tunnels and the inevitable blurry green night cam scenes with a barely seen monster. I could probably watch it again because I never get tired of Australian accents.

Unfriended – A group of teenagers are menaced during a video conference. Everything is seen and heard from the perspective of one character’s computer screen (until the very last second, when there is a quick moment of “real” movie). Tensions mount. Secrets come out. There’s a lot of yelling.

The Unwelcoming House – A man realizes his house is haunted and attempts to negotiate with the entity. Much more heart than the usual small-budget found footage movie. Interesting use of the dog. The filmmaker made this with $500 and an iPhone.

V/H/S/99 – I like the V/H/S series a lot, definitely some of the best stuff out there in the found footage arena. So it kind of sucks to say this entry, while good, is the weakest of the bunch so far. There are a couple of good segments and several nice moments, but overall it felt more like they were clowning around rather than trying to go for the jugular (juggle-ar?). A lot of 90s nostalgia elements seem sort of forced in. Like “hey we are going to leave some blanks in the script, make sure to fill them in with 90s words and themes because, you know, it’s V/H/S/99”. The final segment is the best one by far, followed by the “hot girl next door” segment. There’s a wraparound “narrative”, but it doesn’t really tell a story like previous installments. We need a Raatma vs. Mabel cage match.

Victor’s History – A man hires a film crew to tell the story of his father’s legacy. The unfolding journey reveals many secrets and surprises, and it just may surprise you again before it’s all said and done. Major undertones of colonialism and whether the history we know can be trusted.

Webcast – A young woman starts snooping on her neighbors when she suspects they’ve kidnapped someone. Things soon get suspenseful, dangerous, and possibly supernatural. I’m not sure if it qualifies as folk horror (as I’ve seen at least one reviewer describe it) given the neighborhood setting, but it definitely has elements of it.

Average

21 Days – Three people lock themselves in a reportedly haunted house that no one has been able to stay in longer than 21 days. Bad things happen.

3:15 AM – A French anthology of found footage entries, ranging from vengeful spirits to a cryptid in the woods. The connecting theme is they all feature dread moments at 3:15 AM.

6-5=2 – This is an Indian found footage horror movie. As in it was made in India by an Indian director with Indian actors. I’ve seen more than one review saying it’s a copy of Blair Witch but it didn’t strike me that way. What did strike me was it felt very average and the “hijinks” and jokes among the guys got really annoying. Were they trying too hard to come off as a group of old pals, or is that more of a cultural Indian thing? I don’t know, but the movie could have had less for my tastes.

Altar – Some friends get together and go camping for a high school reunion trip. They get lost, meet an axe-wielding bald dude named Ripper, and then find a creepy altar in the woods that has glowing blue plastic balls scattered around it. People start dying. There’s one of those annoying moments at the end where the director just can’t stick to found footage and has to play tricks with the camera.

Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story – A spinoff movie from the popular Marble Hornets YouTube series (which is inspired by the Slender Man). Three twenty-somethings are menaced by a nasty entity known as The Operator, said entity being invisible to the naked eye who can only be seen through a camera. I’ve never seen any of the Marble Hornets content on YouTube so this felt watchable but no great shakes to me, however Marble Hornets fans seem unhappy with it.

Bad Ben – By all rights, the Bad Ben movies should rank in the Kinda Bad and Bad categories (and at least two do). Yet filmmaker Nigel Bach has created a series of low-budget found-footage horror movies that are very creative given what he has to work with and reflect enough of his personality to make them the kind of bad movie people like to watch. In this first entry, our hero (and recurring character) Tom Riley buys a house for cheap from a Sheriff’s sale with the intention of flipping it. But of course, there’s a malevolent force hanging around and hijinks ensue. From what I understand, Bach intended for Bad Ben to be pure horror but people found it funny so he leaned into the humor somewhat in future installments.

Badder Ben: The Final Chapter – The third Bad Ben movie, and given that as of October 2021 there are eight already released with another on the way “the final chapter” isn’t exactly true. Thought to be dead at the end of Bad Ben, a team of paranormal investigators tracks Tom Riley down and convinces him to return to the house with cold hard cash. This is the installment where Nigel Bach starts adding some humor to the series.

Bad Ben: The Haunted Highway – The seventh Bad Ben movie. Veteran paranormal victim slash entrepreneur Tom Riley takes a gig as an Uber (pardon, DROPUOFF) driver and begins his first shift on Halloween night. Of course, spooky stuff happens with every pickup. This setup allows for a lot of different shenanigans including a vampire, a werewolf that’s jonesing for grub because he’s high, spatting cultist lovers in the woods, an angry scarecrow, and Tom chewing out the younger generation for being stupid. As mentioned in another entry, the Bad Ben movies should rank lower but Nigel Bach gives them some fun personality, mainly his own. I was literally spitting up my soup because I was laughing so hard when he fought the scarecrow… it’s a great example of Tom Riley’s penchant for talking trash while also running for his life.

Bad Ben: The Mandela Effect – The fourth Bad Ben movie. Tom Riley fights different manifestations of evil in the house in parallel universes. This installment is a good example of the creativity Nigel Bach employs in making movies over and over in the same location with a small budget.

Bad Ben: The Way In – The sixth Bad Ben movie. Much better installment than the previous entry (The Crescent Moon Clown). Some good slapstick in this one as well. Nigel Bach can tell a fun story but is also a self-deprecating prankster. Comedy first, horror second. Recommend watching the series from the beginning.

Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes – A reality TV crew hooks up with a crazy codger in the woods who says he has a Bigfoot corpse. There’s a remote cabin. Things get crazy and there are a couple of twists that feel more like this movie didn’t know what it wanted to be rather than being genuinely interesting. The comic relief sound guy was overdone.

The Butcher Possessions – This one starts with a little more heart than the average generic found footage entry (the documentary motif and Australian accents evoke the excellent Lake Mungo) but soon devolves to just that: generic. I don’t mind shaky cam in general, but there were times where I literally couldn’t tell what was going on or what was supposed to be scary. The focus on blood in the use of rituals is interesting, and the elongated waiting for dawn thing is always creepy.

Chasing the Devil – A man investigating the death of his sister and a group of paranormal hunters get much more than they bargained for. This is one of those movies that’s just a little too slick and pretty to feel like a 100% found-footage movie. It hits a lot of the required beats, but I never really feel like I’m right there in the gritty mix.

The Clair Wizard Thesis – I’m guessing it’s hard to make a good found footage movie. It’s also pretty hard to make a good comedy movie. So the results for this comedic found footage movie aren’t surprising: it’s not terrible but it’s also no great shakes. In addition, unlike Found Footage, Clair Wizard is too self-aware that it’s a comedy and overdoes it pretty often.

Classroom 6 – A documentary team and a psychic get locked up overnight in an asylum – er, I mean high school – to investigate the disappearance of a weird teacher and one of his students. Bad stuff happens. Your basic “locked in overnight” found footage flick.

The Coffin Footage – A young man is harassed by a malevolent spirit and runs around yelling a lot. The reason why is simultaneously more interesting than most of the rest of the movie and kind of dumb. This one bumped into Average from Kinda Bad because you can tell a lot of work went into it to make it, more than just a guy walking around his house for an hour and a half.

The Conspiracy – A pair of friends making a documentary about conspiracy theories finds something sinister when one of them grabs the bull by the horns. This is more of a faux documentary than a found footage movie, but it does have several scenes that are essentially found footage.

Dybbuk Box – The Story of Chris Chambers – A guy goes out of his way to buy a box he suspects might contain an evil spirit, and then seems sort of surprised when he gets haunted after opening it.

Erasmus: Not Everything is Fun – A group of college students party in Barcelona, with one of their group secretly a serial killer intent on bumping them off one by one. It starts somewhat interesting but then devolves into the usual running around a creepy dark space with just your camera light antics. The killer was obvious to me from the beginning, so much so I assumed they were a red herring for a moment.

Europa Report – By all rights, this should have made the “Great” or even “Essential” category. A mission to the titular moon of Jupiter encounters major challenges and ultimately the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It looks great. The sci-fi elements are cool. But it’s dull, dull, dull. It’s one of those movies you keep waiting to really start and suddenly it ends.

Evil Things – Everyone knows vans are kind of menacing, and this group of young people out for a weekend of fun at a cabin gets a reminder. Slightly better production values than most, but that also leads to overproduced moments where the movie breaks out of its own genre. Also: why would someone be recording in widescreen? Overall I liked the setup and the cast. When things finally break loose it’s surprisingly dull.

The Frankenstein Theory – It’s off to the frozen hinterlands to see if Frankenstein’s monster is a) real and b) still alive. Basically, a Bigfoot found footage entry but with more snow.

Gags the Clown – A few years back there were sightings all over the U.S. of people dressed up as evil clowns. It freaked people out. This movie plays off of that with a mysterious supernatural clown menacing Green Bay, WI. It feels too polished, and the actors seem to be obviously acting in many scenes which prevents that in-your-face unsettling grit of a good found footage movie.

The Gracefield Incident – Three couples head to a remote cabin for a fun weekend. Strange and terrifying events soon unfold as they have a close encounter of the found footage kind. This movie almost made the “Good” category but frankly, it cheats and tries to be a regular movie in a found footage wrapper with major contortions to explain multiple angles and excellent cinematography while also using a musical score at times to enhance the atmosphere. Also, look for a major found footage trope to be broken.

Grave Encounters 2 – This sequel actually starts off fairly strong with a clever setup and would have made the Good category based on the first and (maybe) second act. However, it completely goes off the rails in the third act and tries way too hard to justify itself and the overall premise of both movies. You can almost feel the mental gymnastics of the filmmakers trying to figure out the internal logic of why this or that scene would have ended up on film. Honestly, it just gets kind of dumb.

Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire – The third and (so far) final installment of the Hell House LLC series has a few good moments (like when the young woman goes in alone to the basement on a dare) but overall it practically collapses under the weight of too much writing gymnastics to keep things going and add yet more to the story and history of the Abaddon Hotel. The very end is a nice touch.

Hollow’s Grove – A cameraman follows a ghost hunters show for a behind-the-scenes look. The scares in the show are always faked until the show team decides to check out an abandoned, haunted orphanage. Not bad but nothing new here. And the sophomoric camaraderie between the team gets a little too, well… sophomoric at times.

Hunting the Legend – A young man, his girlfriend, his best friend, and a film crew head into the woods as he seeks both proof of and revenge on Bigfoot for killing his father. Oh yeah, there’s a dog and a cranky old man.

Incantation – YouTubers investigating the supernatural. A mother trying to protect her daughter. A little girl with a creepy invisible friend — er — baddy. A Spooky cult. A video that curses those that watch it. Nothing original here (except maybe for the “play along at home” elements?), but the Taiwanese setting and religious elements makes it a bit more interesting. Scenes skip back and forth in time abruptly and often confusingly. It’s also another example of a found footage movie using editing and music to seem like a more conventional movie. I don’t get it. Be found footage or don’t, but the halfway thing is annoying.

In Memorium – A young man decides to document his final days after learning he has cancer by moving into a rent house with his girlfriend and putting cameras up all over the place. Supernatural stuff happens. Family issues erupt.

Into the Forest – It’s either a Blair Witch rip-off or an homage (or both).

The Investigation: A Haunting in Sherwood – A private investigator hacks a subject’s security cameras to make his investigation easier. Things move and go bump. The cats and lava lamps are nice.

Jack Hunter’s Paranoia Tapes 2: Press Play – This one is a bit better than the first. Like the first, it’s an anthology of found-footage horror shorts of various types and quality. The overarching narrative is less annoying this time around, but strangely it starts about a quarter of the way in.

Jeruzalem – Two girls on vacation in Jerusalem end up in the midst of supernatural terror of Biblical proportions. It takes a while to get going but once the poop hits the fan it gets pretty good, and honestly reminds me a little bit of Cloverfield. This one feels like a mainstream movie yet with a POV perspective… which SOUNDS like found footage but there’s usually a gritty reality to found footage this slick flick lacks. One interesting dynamic is the found footage aspect is attributed to a pair of Google Glass glasses (even though they don’t call them Google), which also brings some augmented reality touches along the way.

The Kaos Brief – Average and tropey, but then again most found footage movies are, right? This is the only one I can remember watching that prominently featured Men in Black. Also, feels more like a regular movie with odd camera angles than found footage… something too polished about it? Not sure. I liked how they did the lights in the sky.

Leaving D.C. – The standard one-man “I bought a house away from everything and now weird stuff is kind of happening” entry, but good use of audio clips and game camera photos to heighten the build-up and mystery. The Sherrif’s a jerk. Dusty makes a cameo appearance.

The Mirror – Three friends buy a purportedly haunted mirror off of eBay to try to win a million dollars for proving evidence of a real paranormal event. As expected, unfolding events don’t reflect well on that choice. The setup on this one is promising, but then it turns into a movie that’s one-quarter slasher and three-quarters arguing flatmates, with a pinch of supernatural added just because.

Muirhouse – This movie starts off with a great build-up but once the “action” begins it’s a bit tedious and never really gets going until the usual ending shenanigans.

Night Shot – A woman and her cameraman do some urban exploration in an abandoned hospital. Against all expectations, things go get scary and weird. The really interesting thing about Night Shot is that it’s all shot in one take and everything happens in real-time. It’s also in French, and the majority of the footage is in black and white.

Occult Angel – A team of “ghost sympathizers” (their words, not mine) investigate strange occurrences in and around Bath, England. The plot is a bit more interesting and larger in scope than most small budget found footage movies and the investigators may be causing more trouble than anything else by nosing around. Also some interesting inclusion of history and places from Britain’s pagan past.

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin – A young woman finds her biological family for the first time and visits them on their Amish farm. The only connection between this flick and the rest of the Paranormal Activity series seems to be that they included “Paranormal Activity” in the title. The movie itself is solid but nothing new or particularly scary or even creepy. Found-footage-wise, it feels very slick and the director seems to want to have their cake and eat it, too, by being “found-footage” yet having multiple camera angles, overhead shots, a bit of a soundtrack, etc. You never really feel like you’re “there”.

Paranormal Entity – In 1983 there was a movie called The Entity where a woman is basically abused and harassed by an invisible entity. Paranormal Entity is your standard creepy things are happening in a house, creepy things escalate… and then it shifts to a similar note as The Entity. More sexualized than the average found-footage horror flick.

Paranormal Investigation – A video streamer / paranormal investigator tries to help a young man and his parents after playing with a Ouija board at a party goes wrong. Nothing really new here, but the violet-pink night vision is a bit different and the parents’ grief and fear seem genuine. French.

The Phoenix Tapes ’97 – Four friends go camping in the desert and bump into close encounters of the unfriendly kind. Plays off of the real-life “Phoenix Lights” UFO sightings. The bookending “documentary” narrative and the chemistry between the main actors bumps this up a notch.

Screamers – A web startup boss desperately tries to chase down the creator of creepy jump-scare videos that get his website lots of hits to get an exclusive relationship. Things go screamingly.

The St. Francisville Experiment – Four people receive quick training as ghost hunters and are then sent into a haunted plantation house at night. There’s not a lot that actually happens, but I’m bumping it up a rating level due to when it was made (2000) plus it was shot on video cameras with actors that seem to be ad-libbing a lot which gives it that extra little sense of reality.

The Unwelcoming House 2 – Not as much heart as the first one, but still an impressive example of what one guy with a small budget and an iPhone can do. One thing I thought detracted was moments where the actor would explain something that happened, and then go show the footage of it happening. Just let it happen, if explanations are needed do it afterward… otherwise, it dulls the drama of the footage itself.

Tales of Found Footage – An anthology of three found footage horror stories with an overarching narrative involving a man “reading” you the stories from a book. Nice mix of story types.

The Visit – I’m surprised to put M. Night Shyamalan’s found-footage entry under “Average”, but honestly I had to kind of force myself to finish it. Two kids spend a week on a farm with their estranged grandparents (who they’ve never met before). A bunch of crazy happens. The little brother grew on me but he’s pretty annoying at first. It’s a Shyamalan flick so expect a twist. He also breaks some tropes of the genre.

Kinda Bad

8213: Gacy House (aka Paranormal Entity 2: Gacy House)  – “Hey, let’s go into the former home of a really nasty serial killer and try to provoke his spirit into doing something!” says a gang of zany young ghost hunters. Zoinks, a lot of bad stuff happens.

Char Man – Three men set out to make a documentary about a local vampire urban legend but soon pivot into the legend of the Char Man when they hear about it from a historian. There’s a couple of good elements (such as the thing with the little doll being tossed into the weeds) but the acting is cringy in many parts and there are some elements that feel forced, such as an entire small town giving them the cold shoulder.

Chupacabra Territory – Is this movie about cryptids, or maybe zombies created by cryptids? Is it lighthearted in tone or pure horror? The filmmakers don’t know. The actors don’t seem to know either, shouting “what IS that??” at night when all kinds of scary nonsense going on is obviously chupacabra-related and they are in fact there looking for chupacabras and have found plentiful evidence of them. The next day, they’re right back to form, joking around and having a great old time. Plus we’re graced with, I dunno, psychic powers or witchcraft or something, and I kid you not, a Necronomicon-type book made from… chupacabra skin. Wait, I FORGOT. There’s also a mysterious Federal guy or something running around in the woods in a gas mask. Wait, they also throw in nudity and sexual shenanigans. On top of all that, they managed to make a huge majority of it dull. This one has it all.

The Crescent Moon Clown – #5 in the Bad Ben series. A college girl runs around the house and ignores BIG HUGE OBVIOUS IT’S HAUNTED signs to get out. This one just feels prolonged and dull, even factoring in my liking of the series and creator overall.

The Final Project – I know I’ve seen this one. I remember the name and the featured image, plus I wrote it on my list to make sure to write a review (I only do that after I’ve seen one). Honestly, I barely remember it. Make that don’t really remember it, even after looking up screenshots and watching the trailer. I mean I kinda sorta vaguely remember it in a very hazy way but couldn’t tell you much about it. At all. I’m assigning it to the Kinda Bad category instead of Bad because it’s not fair to assign it to Bad if I can’t remember how bad it is, only that it was poor enough to make basically no impression on me. Oh yeah, the premise: some college students make a film about a supposedly haunted plantation in Louisiana.

Followers – Two popular YouTubers with lots of followers end up attracting the wrong kind. It has an interesting premise and does a decent job of confounding expectations, but overall it drops the ball and the ultimate threat proves just to be a tired cliche. The “be careful what you share online” message is good.

Jack Hunter’s Paranoia Tapes – I’m not sure where to start with this one. I’m not even sure it qualifies as an anthology, as it’s more of a hodgepodge of found footage clips tossed together with a meta-narrative (which itself drifts from dull to confusing). Some of the clips are really interesting. Some of them are so bad as to be comical.

Paranormal Demons – A bunch of kids bang around in a creepy old haunted building. Thinking about the creators’ motivations for such a redundant title is more interesting than the movie itself.

Steelmanville Road – The second installment in the Bad Ben series, however story-wise it’s the first, serving as a prequel and telling the story of the house and the young couple that lived there before Tom Riley entered the picture. Nigel Bach’s movies are more enjoyable to me when he’s having some fun and not just trying to be scary.

Strawberry Estates – A group of paranormal investigators locks themselves into a haunted asylum. Not so much outright bad as just dull. Very little actual action, mainly people just sitting around talking. The actor playing the professor feels like he constantly overacts. There are a few discussions of God, faith, and spirituality that are actually pretty interesting. Somehow a movie that came out in 2001 feels cliche even before the flood of cheap found-footage movies had really started.

The Whispering Man – A young man becomes obsessed with a family painting he suspects has supernatural properties. Ignoring all of the obvious danger signs, he hangs in there until the horrible end. Get it, hangs? This flick was slated for the “Average” category until the last 10 minutes or so, which get really dumb and melodramatic.

To Jennifer – A psychologically frail man goes on a road trip to bust his cheating girlfriend, taking along his cousin and friend. There are a few good moments and elements in this film, but overall it feels like they were kind of making it up as they went along. There’s an “abandoned motel” they stay in at one point that just seems ludicrous as a set.

Wood Witch alternately Wood Witch: The Awakening – Two couples camp in the Pacific Northwest and awake an ancient evil. This one starts out well enough and likely would have made Average or Good but about halfway through it goes off the rails. It’s a good example of the phenomenon I’ve noticed that plagues many found footage movies… the introduction of main characters and buildup and exposition and foreshadowing is all very interesting, and then as soon as the danger is truly revealed it just falls apart. That’s true here, plus Wood Witch can’t decide in the last act if its a horror movie or metal music video. In addition, the filmmakers use “dramatic reenactments” (which really just means they couldn’t figure out how to tell moments of their story within the rules of found footage) and a soundtrack. The more I notice that kind of cheating in found footage movies, the more it bothers me. At the end the words THE WITCH HUNTER WILL RETURN flash on the screen and honestly, I kind of hope she doesn’t.

Bad

616: Paranormal Incident – This is straight-up some stupid crap. A laughably inauthentic FBI team investigates a haunted prison or something which is basically an excuse for bad acting and sexed-up scenes. It fits on a spectrum somewhere between soft porn and a trash film. And not trash in the fun way. There were a couple of interesting concepts and moments, but nowhere near enough to save it.

Hide the Monster – Two guys try to help a troubled boy because one of them has the hots for the mom. Just boring and, well, bad. Bad acting. The plot is stupid and I never once really believe the character’s motivations. So many cringy elements and moments. You feel embarrassed for everyone involved. Hide from Hide the Monster.

Spirit in the Woods – Five college kids film themselves on a trip into the woods for a project to get extra credit in Biology class. Which is ironic, because this feels like watching a found-footage horror movie made by non-film student college kids for a school project (including text that says “are” when they meant “our”). The only moment that feels like decent filmmaking is when an audio clip relates a spooky incident while the credits roll.