To celebrate MALIBU HORROR STORY being screened at Grimmfest 2022 and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY getting a complete boxset, The Reaper has compiled a by-no-means-exhaustive list of some of the best found footage horror movies out there!
What have we missed? What shouldn’t be here? Let us know!
LAKE MUNGO (2008) – Teenager Alice Palmer drowns in a lake and that’s just the start of her family’s problems, this one is creepy as hell.
REC (2007) – chasing a story, a reporter and her cameraman get locked inside an apartment building as shit goes sideways. The US remake QUARANTINE is no slouch, but stick with the original.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007) – the start of a new horror franchise, this work wonders on a minimal budget as a couple discover they have an uninvited guest. Who knew it’d be so scary watching people sleep?
AS ABOVE SO BELOW (2014) – a team of explorers venture into the catacombs beneath Paris and come face to face with their own personal demons, claustrophobic and terrifying.
HOST (2020) – at just 57 minutes long and made under constrictions of Covid lockdown, this film is a chilling miracle and announced writer/director Rob Savage as a name to remember on the horror scene.
APOLLO 18 (2011) – I’m going to bat for this one! I love the concept (there’s a reason we never went back to the moon) and the whole conspiracy angle about a secret shuttle launch, the dead cosmonaut who shouldn’t be there, even the rock monsters – it all works for me and this one is severely underrated.
CREEP (2014) – Mark Duplass traded in his slobby, mumblecore persona to play a ‘dying man’ with some seriously unnerving intentions, Peachfuzz anyone?
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) – this was a monster hit and it STILL slaps like a motherfucker, no matter how many dodgy sequels we get.
THE SACRAMENT (2013) – friend of Grimmfest AJ Bowen travels to the tranquil Eden Parish to make a documentary, only to encounter a cult and a very Jim Jones-like figure who fancies his own Jonestown massacre in this excellent Ti West film.
THE BORDERLANDS (2013) – Vatican investigators visit a church to debunk some reports and come across something very real, the finale of this one is so tense and unbelievable.
Special mentions: BE MY CAT, THE BAY, THE LAST BROADCAST, THE DEVIL’S DOORWAY