1. Marble Hornets (2009)
--> Here comes the big confession. See that title? 15 Found Footage thrillers, as opposed to 15 films? Thats my justification for jamming the web series/Alternate Reality web game Marble Hornets into this list and onto the number 1 spot. I know, I know, what a tweest! Marble Hornets is arguably rougher and more scatter shot than any other entry, but its also more groundbreaking, more dynamic and scarier as a result of its demented relationship with that harsh, amorous mistress, the internet. What makes found footage an interesting artistic concept and not just a quick and cheap cash-grab is its ability to shape and sculpt a reasonable facsimile of what we often consider reality, and then feed that distortion back to us as a reflection of our own desires and fears When something like Marble Hornets comes along, a web series originally presented as a series of real video footage culled from an abandoned film project, it reopens that relationship that our fears and anxieties share with the world we live in. The ultimate campfire site is no longer a couple of logs kicking up embers at midnight, but the spaces of Twitter, Reddit, and You Tube, ready to birth a new monstrosity. In this case, the fearsome figure at the center of the Marble Hornets story isnt even original to this material, but an incantation of the Something Awful myth of the Slenderman, a tall figure in a dark suit that may or may not have an array of tentacles coming out of its midsection. Slenderman and its shadowy MO and origin cast a dark gleam over the two existing seasons of Marble Hornets, but even without the full internet experience, this is an intensely creepy event worth every macabre second you give it.