10 Essential Found Footage Horrors To Watch Before Blair Witch

Described as the “Bigfoot capital of the world”, Willow Creek is the California mountain town where creature sightings are not only commonplace, they’re a way of life. Route 96 is colloquially known as “the Bigfoot scenic highway” and the town honors the creature with its annual “Bigfoot Daze” festival.

Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, Willow Creek (the film) follows a couple whose determination to capture Bigfoot on film leads them to enter an area where sightings were recorded, and you can imagine how things play out. The fact that the customs, businesses and beliefs shown in the film are authentic makes this a much, much weirder film than The Blair Witch Project.

It’s also a better sustained piece because at no point do the characters throw away their map and stand around whining instead of finding a way out of the woods. Unlike Blair Witch, it’s not a glorified student movie and the legitimacy of the premise – to say nothing of the decent acting by the leads – does a better job of creating an atmosphere of fear and anxiety.