Found Footage Technique: 8 Found Footage Movies to Know

Found footage is a cinematic technique featuring “found” or “discovered” video recordings. Often, the characters take on the role of filmmakers and shakily capture footage with on-screen video cameras. Sometimes, a blinking “REC” button will even appear on the screen to show the raw nature of the footage. Films that use this technique fall under the found footage subgenre of mockumentary or horror movies.

The found footage genre first became popular in 1980 with the film Cannibal Holocaust, directed by Ruggero Deodato and written by Gianfranco Clerici. The film follows a crew of filmmakers searching for missing members of their team who were investigating a cannibal tribe in the Amazon. The actors playing the crew maneuver the cameras, making it seem like they’re the footage sources for the film.

Since that watershed movie, many other imitators have employed this technique in big-budget films, indie flicks, and web series. Found-footage films often have a release date near Halloween due to their spooky nature. Some more recent examples of found-footage films include Grave Encounters 2 (2012), A Haunted House (2013), Head Cases: Serial Killers in the Delaware Valley (2013), The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), and The Visit (2015).

Found footage is an enticing style because it invites a scrappy quality, plays with genre in thrilling ways, and allows filmmakers to set a story anywhere characters might use their own cameras for footage.

1. 1. Choppy footage: The characters as “filmmakers” may capture the footage in a juvenile manner. Quick zoom-ins and outs, shaky camera movements, and unfocused lenses are just a few ways the film’s creators manifest this choppy footage.
2. 2. Scares: Often, found-footage films are horror films that employ scares through supernatural forces quickly appearing in the frame and then vanishing to excite and terrify audiences.
3. 3. Video cameras: A character appears to be a working cameraman in these films, using handheld recorders, phones, or other video cameras to capture the strange events around them that service the film’s narrative.

In Hollywood, found-footage horror films are the most common examples of this genre, and some of them have become box office hits. Notable found-footage films include:

1. 1. The Blair Witch Project (1999): Directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, this film repopularized the found-footage genre. Student filmmakers hike into the Black Hills of Maryland to research a local legend known as the Blair Witch; they go missing, but a year later, others discover their footage, revealing the horrors they witnessed.
2. 2. REC (2007): Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s Spanish found-footage film shows first responders heading to an apartment building. An incident leads to the sealing of the building and a mandatory quarantine for residents, igniting mayhem within.
3. 3. Paranormal Activity (2007): Oren Peli’s domestic thriller relies on homeowners’ surveillance footage to show the supernatural forces that disturbed residents.
4. 4. Cloverfield (2008): Matt Reeves’s science fiction monster film follows six young friends in New York City who flee invading creatures who disrupt their farewell party.
5. 5. Trollhunter (2010): André Øvredal’s Norwegian dark fantasy features three filmmakers investigating illegal poachers who instead find a man who kills trolls for the government.
6. 6. Lake Mungo (2012): This psychological horror film directed by Joel Anderson explores the aftermath of a teenager’s death by drowning. Her brother sets up video cameras inside their home to capture a frequent visitor: her ghost.
7. 7. V/H/S (2012): Created by Brad Miska and the production studio Bloody Disgusting, this found-footage anthology features six short horror films, including The Second Honeymoon, written and directed by Ti West. This project spawned a sequel the following year, V/H/S 2, along with more movies and a spinoff.
8. 8. Willow Creek (2013): This indie found-footage film, written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, follows a couple as they venture to Northern California to capture footage of Bigfoot.

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