10 Reasons Why The Found Footage Film Genre Sucks

By David Braga / October 16, 2012

6. No Place for Music

Because found-footage movies are supposedly capturing a real life document, they have no place non-diagetic sound or music. This may sound like a minor gripe, but music is invaluable to the mood of a good horror movie. It helps scenes build and swell, it can manipulate the audiences feelings of fear or comfort, and can sometimes create truly classic, lasting moments. While I also understand how effective a lack of music can be in building suspense, it€™s only effective for so long when it€™s all you have. This is the problem facing most found footage movies. If every scene is accompanied by a backdrop of eerie silence, the silence stops feeling so eerie. A few, The Last Exorcism in particular, have still thrown music in anyway, but when it€™s added without explanation it feels grossly out of place and ruins the all important illusion of reality.