Duh, of course it'd be found footage at number one. Although, to be fair, it took us much longer than most to get sick of the genre. Cloverfield was perfectly pitched in a post-9/11 word and Chronicle was a surprisingly fresh addition to two genres that had, at the time, appeared to have ran their course. But these are drops in an ever expanding ocean of movies that are less than creative with the format. Using a single viewpoint to keep costs low is fine, but as entire franchises are built on it the impetus of good cinematography has been lost; The Blair Witch Project may have been made for relative peanuts, but a lot of effort was put into staging scenes in the right way. Now all the sub-genre provides is a solid ten minutes of pre-written script where the director can spend ages attempting to justify why the characters don't just drop the camera. This summer saw the release of the infuriating Into The Storm, which set itself up as a found footage Twister, before periodically switching the concept on and off - there was no commitment to the shooting style, despite it being essential to the film's attempt at an emotional punch. As the most expensive entry in the genre, it's clear found footage has got too big to offer anything new. Which sub-genres would you like to see removed from cinema screens entirely? And which of our picks are you OK with? Let us know in the comments below.
