As Halloween steadily approaches, decorations appear, pumpkin spice returns and scary movies mark the beginning of spooky season. To start the season off right, here are five found footage horror movies that you should watch by this weekend.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Most notably of the found footage genre is the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. Based on an eerie legend from the Black Hills forest, this chilling and captivating film showcases a group of amateur filmmakers researching the “Curse of Blair Witch.”
Writer and director Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez created an interactive webpage and mockumentary on the legend created for the film, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the world of The Blair Witch Project.
As stated by viewers, this film is one of a kind. The style, production value, and scripting gained popularity after being the first found footage styled movie since the 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.
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Noroi: The Curse (2005)
This early 2000’s Japanese found footage horror film, directed by Kōji Shiraishi, takes a deep dive into the world of subplots and psychological horror.
With the plot being dissected into four different perspectives, Noroi: The Curse concludes with a family, filmmaker, historian, and paranormal investigators being confronted by an unknown entity allegedly named “Kagutaba.” All from different timelines, the groups are brought together by the common goal of defeating the entity.
By the end of the film, the motive of the curse is revealed. It comes full circle to the first group affected by Kagutaba, Junko Ishi. The film’s style, compared to The Blair Witch Project, is based on a documentary with quality similar to that of a cheap, grainy camcorder.
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Quarantine (2008)
Shot from the perspective of a journalist and her camera-man, Quarantine explores the first person approach to a news story gone wrong. In this apocalyptic style Spanish film, an interview is interrupted by a CDC mandated lockdown of the city of LA because of an unknown violent outbreak.
Civilians and first responders are trapped inside an apartment building due to the lockdown where they have to fend off infected individuals with a mutated strain of rabies.
Quarantine is one of the few found footage horror films to be produced with no musical soundtrack. The production value was high in the making of this film, utilizing a $12 million budget to make the set a functional four floor apartment complex.
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Megan Is Missing (2008)
Based on a true story, Megan Is Missing features two young girls and their endeavors with messaging strangers online looking for love.
The story continues with the narrative Megan went missing, though we learn as the film progresses she was kidnapped by the person she was chatting with online.
Director and screenwriter Michael Goi expresses that the film itself is based on real child abductions from online predator cases. The film’s style and dialogue gained popularity in 2020, creating a pop culture trend on TikTok.
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Creep (2014)
From the producers of The Purge and Paranormal Activity is a classic psychological horror film written by Mark Duplass and directed by the renowned Patrick Brice. With both actors starring in their film, Creep takes a unique take on found footage plot-lines.
In the film, a videographer is hired by a disease ridden family man who wishes to document his final days for his unborn son. As the film progresses the intense soundtrack, special effects, and impeccable acting leave audiences terrified, not to mention shocked by the revealed antagonist’s true intentions.
Though the story is not based on any true events, Duplass and Brice took inspiration for their film from Stephen King’s Misery. Thus, creating a revolutionized false sense of trust in both the audience and main protagonists.
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