The 15 Best Found Footage Horror Movies Ever

“V/H/S” (2012)
To say that the horror anthology had fallen on tough times in recent years would perhaps be giving the genre more credit that it deserves: the genre of individual shorts normally linked by a framing device has never been wildly successful, even with some of its best known entries like “Dead Of Night,” “Creepshow” or “Trick r Treat.” Even so, it’s impressive the way that “V/H/S” managed to make the genre feel new ago by introducing found-footage elements to the mix. Uniting a wealth of mumblegore filmmakers including Adam Wingard, Ti West and Joe Swanberg, the film’s built around a framing device about a team of burglars who break into a house and find a stack of sinister VHS tapes, which contain stories including one about a trio of guys who pick up a girl who turns out to be a demon, a married couple tormented by a stalker, a slasher-type story, an exorcism and an alien-impregnation video chat. As ever, the quality of material is variable, but there’s no stinker here, and the very best prove to be gory, scary fun, and it’s an interesting exercise to see how different filmmakers play with the found footage form. Two quickie sequels, “V/H/S/2” and “V/H/S: Viral” followed: they’re much patchier, but each have one great segment, “Safe Haven” by “The Raid” director Gareth Evans in the second film, and Nacho Vigalondo’s “Parallel Monster” in the third.

“The Sacrament” (2013)
Ti West’s first two movies, the very good “House Of The Devil” and “The Innkeepers,” were both quite classical horror movies, more rooted in the 1970s than anything since. But having flirted with the found-footage format in “V/H/S,” West embraced it entirely with “The Sacrament,” although for all its pseudo-Vice trappings, the film has its groundings in a previous time, being inspired by Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple cult, who became infamous when they committed suicide en-masse, leading to 900 deaths, after killing a U.S. Congressman and others. Here, the intruders from the outside are three filmmakers — A.J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg and Kentucker Audley — who head to a remote, Utopian community in order to find one of their sisters. They find a religious organization who are seemingly genial on the surface, but might have some more sinister plans in mind. The film doesn’t quite work — the end, when it comes, feels anti-climactic, and it lets its characters off a little too easy. But it’s nevertheless an absorbing and well-researched look at cults and fanaticism that shifts the found-footage form into slightly different territory, and leaves you with a real gut-punch once things go full-on Kool-Aid in the final act.

“Creep” (2014)
We might love it, but studios, and sometimes even audiences, can be resistant at the idea of mashing-up genres together. Which is one of the reasons that “Creep” proved to be so refreshing. Patrick Brice’s film (soon to be sequelized with “Appropriate Behavior” star Desiree Akhavan) begins like it could be a fairly traditional Sundance dramedy in a sort of “Our Idiot Brother” vein, with Brice playing Aaron, a videographer hired by a man (Mark Duplass, intriguingly subverting his “Safety Not Guaranteed” persona) who wants him to film a video he can show his unborn son. But it’s not giving too much away (given its title, and placement on this list) to say that things get significantly darker, and that Duplass’s Josef may not be entirely upfront about his motives. The wry comic tone stays throughout, but what’s impressive is how Brice manages to make it deeply disturbing even among the more playful moments, with Aaron only realizing too late exactly what he’s got himself into. It’s a minor film to be sure, but at a lean 80 minutes, with Brice cannily using the language of the found-footage film, and with Duplass giving one of his best performances, it’s more than worth a Netflix view.

“Unfriended” (2014)
For the most part, the found footage genre has been rather analog in some respects — made possible by digital cameras, but still in thrall to old-school techniques that teens of today would be puzzled by (hell, the anthology film is even called “V/H/S”). The first really effective film to bring the genre kicking and screaming into the internet age was the underrated “Unfriended.” Produced by Timur Bekmambetov and directed by Levan Gabriadze, the film has a remarkably tight POV — essentially the view of a single monitor, belonging to Blaire (Shelley Hennig), whose best friend Laura killed herself a year earlier. She’s Skyping with friends, attempting to organize social plans, but suddenly their chat is joined by a mysterious user that, it increasingly seems, might be Laura’s vengeful ghost. The death-of-a-classmate narrative is hardly new, but the visual approach is incredibly innovative, and though it might not sound cinematic, it actually works best on the big screen, where you focus on the details and smaller windows a little better. And Gabriadze actually uses the tech conceit to give the film some substance, with a cyberbullying theme that walks the line nicely between being disturbing and feeling like an after school special. A surprise hit on release after its festival pick up, you should take a second look if you dismissed it initially.

“What We Do In The Shadows” (2015)
We mentioned earlier that it took a surprisingly long time for someone to make a vampire found-footage film that truly crossed over, but fortunately when it arrived, it was in the form of “What We Do In The Shadows,” which might be the best film on this list. A horror-comedy rather than straight-up horror (but we’d argue that it has enough gore, terror and genuine love for the genre that it qualifies) from New Zealand director Taika Waititi, who’s now filming “Thor: Ragnarok” off the back of the success of this, it takes the form of a documentary being made by some mostly unseen crew about a quartet of vampires living together in Wellington, and attempting to get to grips with life in the modern world. Again, Peter Jackson feels like an influence, but the film’s perhaps most comparable to Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy, in the way that it mixes big laughs, a deceptively well-structured script and undeniable command of the genre it’s homaging, with stellar performances from everyone (including Waititi himself, Jermaine Clement, and non-professional Stu Rutherford, who plays their new human flatmate). Legitimately hilarious, surprisingly soulful and technically kind of thrilling, it’s one of the great cult films of the last few years.

Aside from the various sequels and other films mentioned in passing above, there’s a few others that are worth mentioning. Among them, Barry Levinson (!)’s eco-horror “The Bay,” which is well executed if lacking in new ideas, pre-“Blair Witch” tale “The Last Broadcast,” M. Night Shyamalan’s semi-return to form “The Visit,” sort of decent indie ‘The Conspiracy,” and the very extreme, not to everyone’s taste “The Poughkeepsie Tapes,” plus reality-TV riff “My Little Eye,” starring a young Bradley Cooper. Keep an eye out for the upcoming “Found Footage 3D” too.

Not quite horror enough to make the list, but still interesting use of found footage, are Neil Burger’s conspiracy thriller “Interview With The Assassin,” Josh Trank’s superhero reimagining “Chronicle,” Brian De Palma’s war story “Redacted,” David Ayer’s cop drama “End Of Watch,” Sharlto Copley sci-fi “Europa Report,” time-travel pic “Project Almanac,” teen comedy “Project X,” disaster movie “Into The Storm,” and the Werner Herzog-starring “Incident At Loch Ness,” plus rom-com “The Wedding Video” and sci-fi “The Dinosaur Project.” Any others? Let us know in the comments.