3. Lake Mungo (2008)
--> Lake Mungo was released around the same time as Paranormal Activity and was arguably the better movie, but it never found a similar audience, presumably because it wasnt as flashy or slick in the scare department. Technically, the film isnt solely found footage, but another faux documentary with one supremely disturbing snippet of gathered phone video . Upon first viewing, its easy to be blindsided by the several twists that accompany the movie, as the Palmer family come to grips with the death of their drowned daughter Alice and the possibility her spirit is still inside their house. Instead of really being about the ghosts or Alices hidden secrets, the film plays existential, a supernatural testament to a kind of storytelling thats more "acceptance of death" than "coming of age". The cheesy docu format sets us up for a generic, one-trick spook show and then reveals layers of creepiness underneath worthy of a great Twilight Zone episode or a Saki story (or both). There is a single shot near the pictures end where Alice is alone in the dark at Lake Mungo and captures an image on her cell phone. Who that figure in the dark really is and what they represent is easily guessed but no less genuinely shocking. Heres a film that gave me honest-to-goodness goose bumps up the back of my neck.