Aha, I hear you cry, which is a bit unsettling given that you’re just reading this article and I’m at least a hundred miles away with a cat on my head. But you’ve already made a list of found footage reccomendations as part of your long-running series trying to cover the best of every horror subgenre!
And you would be right, my friends – in fact, found footage was the first one I dived into, because it truly is the genre I have not one inch of chill about. In the years since that article, I’ve watched plenty more found footage – some brilliant, some truly awful – and I just can’t continue in my No But Listen-ing until I have shared some more reccomendations with you.
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum
While this South Korean found footage horror starts out with a familiar premise – a group of people head to a supposedly-haunted asylum to capture ghosts on film and earn the big social media bucks from their supernatural findings – it goes to some really interesting and downright arthouse-y places that set it apart from the pack. Jung Bum-shik finds inventive ways to use the restrictions of found footage to create unique and genuinely unsettling scares, and a tight plot smattered with a sense of humour elevates it to downright brilliance. It’s already a huge hit in its native South Korea, but I’d love to see it get the same love internationally, too.
The Sacrament
Though Ti West is best known for the X series these days, 2013’s The Sacrament deserves a little more love too. Following a documentary film crew investigating an apparent cult, it’s a slow burn that relies on really human horror as the true purpose of the cult unfolds. The major selling point here for me is Gene Jones, a magnetic and unsettling presence as Father, the leader of the cult, who really holds together this sprawling story and helps build this profoundly disturbing atmosphere that barrels towards an inevitable conclusion. The Sacrament is an interesting take on the genre that draws on real-life events without feeling too exploitative. Just ignore the “presented by Eli Roth” on the poster and we’re all good!
Deadstream
You show me a found footage movie with goofy real effects, a sense of humour, and a ridiculously sharp take on social media stardom, and I’ll show you a movie I love. Co-writer/director (along with Vanessa Winter) Joseph Winter stars as an internet-persona-non-grata trying to win back his followers via a night in a haunted house, and Deadstream is as riotous, ridiculous, and fun as you would imagine based on that premise. The blend of old-school horror effects and modern social media storytelling makes for a really entertaining watch, and Deadstream is yet another example of why social media horror is probably the best place for found footage to thrive.
I feel it should go without saying, but if you have found footage recommendations of your own, please drop them in the comments – I am truly obsessed with found footage horror, and I will likely never get enough!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Pics to Pixels)
No But Listen 