15 Worthwhile Found Footage Thrillers You've Never Seen
11. Atrocious (2010)
--> Atrocious is the first film on the list that was made after Rec and Paranormal Activity, and from a cursory glance it does have a lot in common with the more generic found footage schlock that followed those two movies. The usual tropes of the sub-genre are there; a group of kids wants to investigate a local supernatural legend, the characters get lost outside in the dark and meet up with an unseen force trying to harm them, while the camera keeps panning over startled faces peering in fright from out of the gloom. In fact, the promise of shocking violence and savagery implied by the films title suggested a low-brow shocker with the FF elements slapped on for good measure.
Consider me surprised when director Fernando Barreda Lunas first feature turned out to be a very atmospheric, classically slanted tale of terror that uses the first person camera to cultivate a deep sense of atmospheric, lingering dread. A Spanish language thriller that reminds in places of both Guillermo Del Toro and Jaume Balagueró, Atrocious is an example of the standard found footage formula done so well that we dont mind the familiarity. If theres nothing else, its the movie that made garden hedge mazes scary again.
One of the few found footage films that uses that sense of POV disorientation to the its benefit, getting us so lost out in the dark that we never see the blindly obvious twist scurrying through the foliage to get us.