10 Annoying Problems With Found Footage Movies

A lot of times what you don’t see is scarier than what you do, and the best of these movies capitalize on that. The Blair Witch Project, for example, never actually shows any witches, yet it’s one of the scariest films of all time.

But a lot of lesser films take that too far, thinking that just pointing the camera at the ground as the characters scream is enough to be scary. This gimmick is too often used as an excuse to shrink budgets and to not have to show anything. But this is only acceptable when the filmmakers clearly understand tension and are using the POV style for a purpose. When done poorly, it just feels like you’re being ripped off and the director doesn't have the money to show anything but dark shots of people's feet.

Cloverfield is a great example where the film shows very little in the opening two acts, but it still does reveal the monster towards the end and gives you what you paid for. But then other movies like Hollow simply have the characters whip the camera around wildly and scream, and you’re supposed to imagine the entire movie.