For those who hate found footage, there are seemingly no films good enough to convince them of the subgenre’s merit, and for those, like myself, who adore found footage, there’s always a new, obscure, or underrated found footage film lurking in the darkness waiting to be watched. I’d go as far as to argue that the found footage horror film is a direct descendent of the classic Gothic epistolary novel, such as Dracula or Frankenstein, both of which are told through many different letters sent in correspondence between characters, just like found footage is told through the (typically) recovered video correspondences of various characters and groups. No matter how you feel about found footage, it remains, when done well, a perfect vessel for disturbing stories that want to convince you they’re real.

You, dear reader, will find no claim here that these are the best found footage films, especially considering that the term best in the realm of film is a deeply subjective term. These are a list of fun, interesting found footage films that aren’t all run-of-the-mill fare. A few of these titles are even slightly derivative of the formula laid out in 1999 by The Blair Witch Project. Whatever you think of them, these films are perfect for the Halloween season when the leaves outside beneath your shoes are crunchy, the air is dark and getting colder all the time, and the empty night out there is full of unknown terrors.

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Crowsnest (2012)

There’s a whole lot of stuff going on in Crowsnest. The film follows a group of friends heading into the mountains in an RV when they run into a bit of murder and the supernatural. A small part of this feels inspired by the 1981 backwoods slasher Just Before Dawn, then another part feels inspired by Japanese horror like Ringu or Ju-On, and it’s all mixed together with cliche elements from slasher movies that take place in the woods, along with the expected found footage trope of a group breaking down amongst themselves. Sure, to some this will sound unappealing. For people who dig a bit of weirdness in their found footage, they ought to check out Crowsnest. The beginning plays out like a backwoods slasher before the supernatural strangeness nudges its way in and everything gets WEIRD.

Crowsnest is available for free on Tubi.

Evidence (2012)

Coming from a Canadian province where camping and staying in the woods was a thing that happened a lot growing up, it’s wild to me that someone, like one of the main characters in Evidence, could have gone their whole lives and never went camping. Ryan (Ryan McCoy) is doing a documentary about his friend Brett (Brett Rosenberg), who’s never been camping, but after a strange figure starts to follow them and the women—Ashley (Ashley Bracken) and Abi (Abigail Richie)—they bought along for the trip, the excursion turns into a fight for survival. This simple description of Evidence‘s plot sounds very generic because there’s really no way to prepare a viewer for the film without giving something away. This is another found footage title that starts out as potentially one subgenre of horror before it wildly introduces all kinds of different elements ranging from horror to science fiction. The further Brett, Ryan, Ashley, and Abi run into the woods, the more inexplicable their discoveries. At a certain point the film sinks into chaos, though in the best, most frantic kind of horror way.
Go in knowing little; the reward will be sweet, sweet madness.

Evidence is available to rent on Amazon Prime.

Lovely Molly (2011)

Okay, okay, this one’s kinda cheating: Lovely Molly—from the same director, Eduardo Sánchez, who co-directed The Blair Witch Project—is only partly found footage. In my defence, the found footage pieces in Lovely Molly are of great significant, as many of them depict the psychological breakdown of the eponymous Molly (Gretchen Lodge). This is a story that can be taken as literal haunting and possession, or it can just as easily be read as a purely psychological haunting that stems from the, suggested but never shown, brutal abuse Molly suffered as a girl. The ambiguity in Lovely Molly is a monstrous thing. That isn’t to say there’s not some very explicit horror in the film; there are more than a few disturbing scenes. The real horror of Sánchez’s film lies in the ending, when we’re left having to wonder what may happen next, as if what occurs during the film’s 100-minute runtime isn’t perfectly awful enough already.

Lovely Molly is available for free on Tubi.

Atrocious (2010)

Some folks will roll their eyes at this one even when it’s over, yet something about Atrocious will reel others in. The locations used in the film help the perpetually eerie atmosphere. Atrocious feels sinister constantly, due to the way Barreda ratchets up the tension. Again, some will find this a very cliche example of found footage. If you let it, Atrocious will chill you to the goddamn bone. The plot will surely break your heart a little, if you have one.

Atrocious is available on AppleTV and iTunes in the US/UK.

The Atticus Institute (2015)

We don’t get enough horror films, found footage or otherwise, that ponder questions about the government, which is why The Atticus Institute is a welcomed addition to the horror canon. The story concerns a a doctor and his team who studied the supernatural through peoples’ special abilities. The film acts as a fake documentary about events that occurred at the titular Atticus Institute in the 1970s after a woman with extra special abilities arrived there to be studied. Eventually the government and the military got involved, hoping to use the woman in the Cold War against the Soviets. That’s when things went extremely bad. The Atticus Institute is an underrated piece of found footage because of the government/military angle. This feels like a conspiracy theory video you might come upon online today, unearthed from the annals of history. Awesome, creepy stuff.

The Atticus Institute is available to rent on AppleTV, iTunes, and Amazon Prime.

The Bay (2012)

The Bay would make a great double feature with The Atticus Institute since it also uses horror, along with a touch of sci-fi, to deal with real life issues. While The Atticus Institute tackles government and military power out of control, The Bay is an eco-Gothic horror film about how greed transforms into real, often gruesome, terror inflicted upon the bodies of those lower on the societal food chain. In Barry Levinson’s pseudo-documentary, a pattern of neglect by city officials leads to an outbreak of mutated isopods that start to feed off people and turn them into hideous hosts. People in a small Maryland town begin dying in dozens upon dozens, as a news crew catches everything. It’s a horrifying tale because of how real it feels, and how possible something like this could be were the conditions exactly right. Levinson actually began producing a documentary about issues in Chesapeake Bay, then he pivoted to a horror film, hoping to use it to shed light on the Bay’s issues; he said that the film uses about “80% factual” info, which alone is bloodcurdling. The Bay pulls not a single punch.

The Bay is available to rent on Amazon Prime.

The McPherson Tape (1989)

For those who long for the Blair Witch days when people actually believed found footage was real, you need only to jump back a decade before the groundbreaking film to find 1989’s The McPherson Tape, which depicts a family celebrating a little girl’s birthday party before something strange lands in the woods near their home and wreaks havoc on their lives. If the internet were widely available and at the capacity it was during 1999 back a decade before, it’s quite possible that The McPherson Tape could’ve caused a panic like War of the Worlds did back in the golden age of radio. Although the aliens don’t look as great as they could, the grainy camcorder style used to shoot the film makes it easier on the eyes since everything is pretty lo-fi. The McPherson Tape lulls you into security before it goes to work on your nerves, and it’ll leave you feeling like this is one found footage film you can genuinely believe in.

The McPherson Tape is available for free on Tubi.

Red Woods (2021)

Red Woods doesn’t do anything revolutionary or new with the found footage format itself, but it spins a decent yarn that sits well above a lot of the standard subgenre fare we see these days. The story involves a group of urban explorers who head out into the woods to film abandoned houses in the backwoods of Appalachia, eventually unknowingly becoming the stars of a totally different macabre video. There are YouTubers galore in this one, but none as annoying as the real-life people on the platform. The plot itself in Red Woods is pretty solid and everything comes together well in the end in a horrifying manner. This is another found footage film that feels, for the most part, very real. We get some paranoia conspiracy theory stuff that plays into the story well. Once the urbexers get deep into the woods and realise something bad is happening out there, Red Woods kicks into steady gear until the terror of the final moments.

Red Woods is available for free on Tubi.

Sorgoi Prakov (2013)

Sorgoi Prakov, sometimes subtitled My European Nightmare, is a uniquely disturbing piece of found footage that follows a man looking for the European equivalent to the American Dream, except he doesn’t find anything except the ugliness of his soul. This one admittedly takes time to find its footing. Then it quickly rushes into the pitch black soul of its protagonist/antagonist. The horror that we see is not entirely explicit. This is a found footage film that keeps rolling, but doesn’t necessarily have to capture every last moment with crystal clarity; sometimes the things we don’t see directly on the screen are more effective than anything else. Sorgoi Prakov is akin to watching the last week of someone’s life before they go over the deep end and become a serial killer. It will stick with you long after the credits run over the screen.

Sorgoi Prakov is available for free on Tubi.

Delivery: The Beast Within (2013)

In all fairness, Delivery: The Beast Within does a lot of nothing at times. The film involves a young couple who’ve agreed to a reality show that captures the lead-up to their first child being born after previously unsuccessfully trying and trying and trying with no (good) results. A lot of the runtime early on is eaten up with typical reality show stuff, along with an occasional hint at something darker going on beneath the surface. It’s worth a long wait until the final scene where something so horrifying happens that you might need to rewind just to be sure of what you’ve seen. There’s something strange going on in this lady’s belly; is it of supernatural origin, or is whatever’s going on all too cruelly human? You can decide once you pick your jaw up off the floor after the finale.

Delivery: The Beast Within is available on Amazon Prime.

Hollow (2011)

Hollow doesn’t reinvent the wheel, so why expect it to? It’s all about a folktale concerning an old monastery in a little isolated village in Suffolk, England which apparently is so evil it beckons couples to commit suicide. A group of young folks on holiday together find their way to Greyfriar’s Hollow where there only remains a big old tree and, perhaps, the remnants of pure evil. Hollow depicts a lot of the cliche relationship troubles that boil over and cause chaos within a group typical to found footage horror, yet these characters actually feel developed, so, pardon the pun, they don’t feel hollow. Even when those relationship troubles seem to pull focus from the creepiness, they augment a traditional found footage story into something worth caring about instead of the film being full of cardboard cutout characters. As I wrote in the beginning, Hollow isn’t necessarily something special; it still gets the job done. There’s spooky atmosphere galore and genuine scares, alongside characters that are worthy of interest and not mere fodder for the expected horror movie body count.

Hollow is available for free on Tubi.

Embedded (2012)

There are those who’ll probably find the creature(s) in Embedded cheesy. In spite of any naysayers, there’s something classically horror genre about the things. Most of the time they’re obscured a bit rather than being totally in frame and perfectly visible, which doesn’t give the viewer enough time to be overly critical. The plot of Embedded revolves around a snobby news reporter and his cameraman going into the woods to cover the search for a missing boy, but they, as well as the cops and a bunch of locals, find far more than they’d ever imagined. Turns out that the boy was taken by a creature that defies even the label of animal. One great thing about Embedded is the way it uses the news reporter and cameraman, who’ve covered war and terrorism and all sorts of things, as a conduit to express how truly horrifying the creatures in the woods are, since these are men who’ve seen so much brutality and human horror. The character work generally lifts this found footage up to something better in the realm of ‘creature feature found footage.’ Embedded takes a little while to get into 2nd gear. Once the first reveal of the creature in the woods comes, you’ll be glad you stuck with this little flick.

Embedded is available for free on Tubi.

The Frankenstein Theory (2013)

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most enduring stories of the 19th century because of its adaptability to so many different settings, themes, and situations. The Frankenstein Theory imagines: “What if Shelley‘s story was actually real?” An academic, Jonathan Venkenhein (Kris Lemche), believes that the Frankenstein monster was actually created by one of his ancestors. He lets no cost imaginable stop him from going on an expedition, along with a documentary film crew, to search for the creature. People think he’s nuts; even the crew question why they’re going along with such a strange, outlandish project. They all start to hear stories about monsters in the Great White North and beyond, yet refuse to believe in Venkenhein’s tall tale. It gets more upsetting for everyone when they’re actually out in the wilderness and start to hear noises that are definitely not animals. We never get a full glimpse of the Frankenstein monster. Some may find that disappointing. For me, the less The Frankenstein Theory shows, the better. There’s a proper air of mystery here, and, more often than not, the film feels like a story you’d hear while sitting around a crackling fire in the middle of a cold, dark October night.

The Frankenstein Theory is available to rent on Apple TV and iTunes.

The Conspiracy (2012)

For anybody who loves conspiracy theories, particularly the more sinister variety, The Conspiracy is a fun, creepy found footage outing that tracks two men making a documentary about conspiracy theories which soon leads them to a secretive organisation consisting of the most rich and powerful people around the world. This one takes a whole lot of inspiration from pre-insanity Alex Jones and his guerrilla documentary about Bohemian Grove; there are whole scenes that are, basically, riffs on Jones’s documentary. And the end is very surprising, especially considering the build pulls the audience in, suggesting something horrible is always on the verge of happening. Not saying nothing horrible happens, just that the ending is not what most will expect. The chilling part about The Conspiracy is how the ending suggests that rich, powerful, typically secretive groups don’t even need to deny their existence, they merely have to make people stop talking about them, by whatever means are necessary to do so.

The Conspiracy is available for free on Tubi.

Turtle Island (2013)

There are a number of Bigfoot found footage horror movies out there, and there’s another one on this list, though most are terrible. I’d go as far as to say that most Bigfoot films in general are not good; I’m sorry, please, stop throwing vegetables at me! Turtle Island (no, this is not Indigenous related whatsoever; just a bunch of dumb white folks and a little island) depicts four friends heading into the Vermont woods in search of Bigfoot. What they find is a whole lot of horror. The fun thing about Turtle Island is that it involves a breakdown of the group, which is a recurring trope in found footage, but doesn’t verge on annoying (as it can occasionally in Evidence from earlier in this list). Also, Tom Pelphrey’s one of the film’s stars and his solid acting keeps things afloat here; plus, he is a major babe. Another great aspect of the film is that, for a time, you can kid yourself into believing there’s no Bigfoot of any kind out there and that what’s happening to the group is all the responsibility of twisted human beings. Somewhere along the line, those beliefs are forced out the window, then there’s nothing left but terror in the dark woods.

Turtle Island is available to rent on Amazon Prime.

Horror in the High Desert (2021)
& Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva (2023)

While I much prefer the first Horror in the High Desert, both it and its sequel—Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva—are worthy entries into the found footage horror canon. The first film is an exercise in dread after the unsettling plot kicks in, and by the end you may never want to go into the woods by yourself again, if you ever did in the first place. It takes inspiration from the real-life disappearance of Kenny Veach, a 47-year-old man who disappeared while searching for a mysterious cave he once came upon near Area 51. The film goes in a whole different direction than anything related to Veach, but the basic story is still the same: a YouTuber called Gary Hinge (Eric Mencis) winds up missing after going to look for a scary cabin under pressure from his followers. In the sequel, Gary’s case is added to other strange disappearances in the area, and further strangeness erupts from the different cases that start to build into something much bigger than one YouTuber vanishing and a weird cabin being somewhere out there in the woods. The sequel is not as relentlessly creepy as the first film, though both films are absolutely worthy of a watch. At a certain point, the first Horror in the High Desert grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go. The last few scenes of Gary in the woods near the strange cabin are haunting.

Horror in the High Desert is available for free on Tubi.
Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva is also available for free on Tubi.

Exists (2014)

I’m not even a big fan of Bigfoot horror movies, though I do love the idea of Bigfoot and other cryptids, and there are two different movies on this same list about the legendary creature. Exists is another Eduardo Sánchez joint and the man knows exactly how to hook a viewer with found footage. A group of friends head to an isolated cabin together. They have no idea what’s waiting for them hidden in the woods: a pissed of Bigfoot seeking revenge for the death of its child. The acting is solid; this is another found footage gem with well-developed characters, too. The pièce de résistance? A fucking gnarly sasquatch design! For a while, Sánchez’s Bigfoot is obscured in the trees, or moving too fast to get a good look. Then we get longer glimpses and they are pure terror. Sometimes lingering too long on a creature gives away its weaknesses. Exists made sure to bring a truly scary Bigfoot. There’s a moment nearing the end when we see this monstrous Bigfoot up close and it’s an unforgettable shot in contemporary horror. A great Bigfoot film; might be the greatest.

Exists is available for free on Tubi.

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015)

Many found footage films take viewers into the twisted psychology of the person behind the camera. This kind of cinematic story in general takes us all the way back to the likes of Peeping Tom (1960). There’s nothing else out there quite like 2015’s Be My Cat: A Film for Anne. Director and writer Adrian Tofei blurs the line between fiction and reality so well that at times it’s easy to forget you’re watching a film. Using the idea of trying to get the attention of Anne Hathaway in Hollywood, Tofei puts himself in the lead role of a director badly wanting to make a movie with her. The acting drives everything here. Tofei’s performance is so perfectly awkward and uncomfortable. His most uncomfortable moments are used to good effect. The performances of the actresses are equally as impressive as that of Tofei. When you fall down the rabbit hole of despair alongside the fictional Tofei and his unsuspecting victims it’s all the more troubling that the performances on either side of the murder-victim aisle pull you into a space where fiction gets questionable; the entire film borders on a metafiction that is unnerving. If you want found footage that can make you, even for a second, question if it’s actually a film and not reality, Be My Cat is a safe and ghastly bet.

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne is available for free on Tubi.