20 Best Found Footage Horror Movies Ever

1. The Blair Witch Project

Paranormal Activity
Haxan Films

And finally, was there ever going to be another #1?

No found footage film has proven more influential than the one that popularised the subgenre, The Blair Witch Project.

Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez waded deep into uncharted territory when they devised this ingeniously low-fi horror experiment, whose pioneering viral marketing led many to believe it was genuine recovered video at the time.

The murky digital cinematography combined with wholly convincing performances from Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard - who were apparently terrorised by the crew throughout production for added authenticity - make The Blair Witch Project feel discomfortingly real and grounded in a way that few conventional narrative horror movies are.

Still, we don't see anything supernatural on-screen, as Myrick and Sánchez instead trust the audience to populate the dark with their own imagination - something even the most skilled and equipped of filmmakers could never compete with.

As widely parodied and debunked as it is today, The Blair Witch Project remains a watershed moment for horror, a testament to the genre's openness to fresh ideas, no matter the budget.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.