10 Brilliant Movies With A Terrible Concept

7. Chronicle

Swiss Army Man Daniel Radcliffe
20th Century Fox

The Concept: In the run-up to the release of Chronicle, the general reaction to it was a sarcastic "Yay! Another found footage movie!"

Even back in 2012, the genre had been done to death - Cloverfield, The Blair Witch Project, Quarantine and the numerous Paranormal Activity movies had killed the novelty of the format - so Chronicle, even though it was marketed as a superhero origin story, just seemed like another way to repackage a movie we'd seen a million times before.

The Movie: While Chronicle did contain several issues that have plagued found-footage movies since the beginning (why are they still filming this? Who managed to find all these clips and cut them together?) none of that mattered - its story was gripping, intense and surprising, from start to finish.

Featuring a trifecta of great lead performances, its characters are so engrossing that you'll probably forget you're even watching a found footage movie. Chronicle is utterly focused on the relationships between these three young men, the powers they gain, and the trouble that causes, and that story would be great no matter how it was filmed.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.