Welcome back to another GBHorror2017 post! And yes, another top listing post as well! Found footage films have become a huge staple point in modern filmography, being able to bring a scare across while keeping a cheaper budget. While they are sort of annoying constant with almost four or more movies in this style each year, we can’t help but find them always interesting as though they were a guilty pleasure. In this list we’ll be looking at the top six found footage horrors that we think are absolutely worth a watch. This will be exclusively either theatrical released films or direct to DVD films, so nothing that was made or originated online like on Youtube or something (sorry Marble Hornet fans).

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

Yep, this film went throughout your brain cells as soon as you read the words “found” and “footage” together. We don’t blame you, after all it is THE film that exploded this style of filmography into popularity that is still popular to this very day! What made this film most interesting is how it was marketed before it released. It attempted, and successfully, conveyed the belief that this was all completely true and historic. For a while there people actually thought that young people went missing in the woods and that this footage was the last known evidence of what craziness happened to them. The popularity of this film implies that basically everyone knows what happens or have seen it, but if you haven’t yet it is highly recommended and please avoid spoilers if possible.

THE LAST BROADCAST

Now due to the popularity of the blair witch project, many people would assume that it was the first found footage film ever made. This is simply not true. It was certainly the one that made the genre popular but there was definitely at least one other movie that came before it, known as the last broadcast. This film is in a more documentary heavy style that truly tests your patience far more than blair witch, but is worth the wait. One con to the film would be that it definitely shows it’s age due to its style and time of release, which may certainly put off a number of people, but if you’re a fan of new ideas and particular monster mythos then perhaps you’ll enjoy this treat as much as we did.

REC.

How about a found footage film that helped add to the populace by doing a particular genre in a different genre, that being zombies or infestations. Rec is quite an amusing film that made the ever constant zombie genre more interesting by doing two precise things that helped it achieved victory: adding a unique way of virus spreading (at the time anyway) and making it found footage style. As can be seen by my ramblings, it’s kind of hard to talk about this film while avoiding specifics and avoiding the talk of truly awesome scare scenes. Why don’t you do us a favor and watch it? Perhaps even check its sequels while avoiding the American remake versions known as quarantine?

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

At this point this list may seem pretty typical, especially with this film on it. But honestly despite how overly acclaimed this series got, spouting a number of sequels with various opinions, the original one still succeeds in our eyes. Found footage seems to work especially well with ghostly or paranormal type stories simply because having objects move or act strangely within a modern home with basic camera setup can easily make you frightened for what may happen next. This film did this very well and it’s marketing campaign, similar to blair witch’s clever marketing, worked really well for it. Definitely check this one out, it is even worth checking out the sequels to find which new scares got ya in those ones.

GRAVE ENCOUNTERS

Yep, another found footage film involving ghosts and ghostly haunts. Due to how well ghost themed films due in this style, there are countless films that do this formula whether they are released theatrically or direct to dvd. As you can expect there are many, many duds out there which makes it difficult to point out the good ones within the bad, the diamonds in the ruff if you will. This little film here is one of those diamonds. The best parts about this film is how it is simple but strictly to the point of the matter, and then it goes into an ending act that was truly unexpected by its structure beforehand. And while there are characters who are basically stereotypes of every horror victim, they do not make any specific character have a weird backstory or importance to what is going on with the nightmares seen, it is strictly people getting screwed by a regular haunted place which is alright and honestly asked for in a film like this. Honestly this is a good one worth finding and checking out, we’re certain many of the frights and twists may surprise some. Also, avoid the sequel to this at all cost!

HELL HOUSE LLC

So far many of the films on this list, while being lower budget in scale to other major blockbusters, were still with decent budgets that made the film both look simple and nice visually. How about a film that could quite honestly have the lowest budget of any found footage film released theatrically or on dvd? This is a personal pick by me and this film was found on Amazon Prime on a whim. I did not expect to enjoy it going in and I honestly thought it was going to be a trash fire, but not only did I enjoy it but I also found it to be an interesting case study. This film has no high budget practical effects and zero special effects, it does not rely on things launching at the screen and it certainly doesn’t answer every question. But the way that this film can use the most basic of halloween props to disturb you is quite a brilliant realization, as well as a hope that anyone with a camera can make art if they try hard enough. I’m not sure if this actually was a sort of student film project, which is kind of what it felt like, but it was easily the best one I’ve seen. The one downside is that the ending of the film actually really idiotic, this could be because they had no idea how to end this without feeling generic but either way that ending is sad. But luckily the rest of it is amazing and highly recommended. Please check this one out if you can.

Please check back again tomorrow at 1:00 pm for another post, I hope you guys liked this top 6 and hopefully discovered a new unheard of film or two…