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, its only effective for so long when its 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 its added without explanation it feels grossly out of place and ruins the all important illusion of reality.