10 Essential Found Footage Horrors To Watch Before Blair Witch
Don't go down to the woods today.
There’s nothing funnier than a horror movie gone wrong and Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 goes so badly wrong so often during its 90 minutes that it’s a wonder the lead actors survived the ordeal and went on to work for the likes of Spike Lee, Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen.
The perfect example of how not to do a sequel to one of the highest-grossing found footage movies of all time, the film ditches the found footage gimmick in favour of doing everything on a grander scale with snappier pacing and more special effects. We’ve seen that kind of intent before, and Exorcist II: The Heretic is not a movie you want to emulate.
With Blair Witch, due from Lionsgate on September 16, the original movie finally gets the sequel it deserves, and it only took 16 years. The plot involves a man who discovers a videotape of his sister’s run-in with the eponymous witch and promptly enters the woods in search of her with a group of friends (read “potential victims”) in tow.
The director is Adam Wingard, who after making You’re Next and The Guest (as well as two segments for the first two VHS movies) can do no wrong among horror fans. Here’s hoping he delivers something fresh and eschews Book Of Shadow’s tawdry gimmickry.
To whet your appetite, here are ten found footage movies that represent the highs and lows of the genre, ranked from worst to best.
10. A Night In The Woods
Before you saw him in Argo, 12 Years A Slave and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Scoot McNairy paid his dues in A Night In The Woods, where he played an ordinary joe who goes hiking in the northwest of England with his girlfriend and her creepy ex. The trio decide to record their journey for posterity, which turns out to be a bad idea because all they do is argue.
Their bickering takes up about two-thirds of the movie, and you could be forgiven for thinking you’re watching some chump’s home movies instead of a film that wants to try and entertain its audience. Instead of compelling characters and plot points, it’s a mostly static document of a bizarre love triangle. Yawn.
By the time events (finally) take a turn for the sinister, it’s tough to care about anyone onscreen, especially when we’re thrust into a pale facsimile of The Blair Witch Project. With only the camera’s light to guide her, the movie’s lone female charges through the woods with some unseen predator in hot pursuit.
Déjà vu, anyone?