Found footage works for a lot of reasons. First and foremost: the title has a lot of
implications. Making a movie like this leaves a whole lot
up to the audience’s imagination. Where was this footage found? Who found it?
What if I stumbled across something like this someday? Would I get cursed by whatever content
dwells in this storage vestibule? It also puts the audience in the shoes of
the protagonist, antagonist, whoever’s in charge of the camera in question.
This can make for quite the filmgoing experience. Factor in low-budget bits, and lots of easy
screenwriting cliches that go along with the genre, and you have a wicked genre, ready
to scare the pants off of people in as many new was as the director can think of.
They don’t always work, and sometimes they can get a little overwrought, but usually
a found footage flick is a recipe for a good time!
Especially if a ghost car blows up in the catacombs and sucks a man in until he’s
just legs. Let me know if you got that reference.
Hello horror heads, and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube: Top5ScaryVideos.
I’m your horror host, Keegan Hughes, and today we’re taking a look at the Top 5 Scary
Found Footage Horror Movies You Need to Watch! Before we get started, make sure to give this
video a big thumbs up, and subscribe for more hasty hijinks.
Wicked, let’s begin. NUMBER FIVE: CREEP
This flick breaks it down to the bare essentials: two dudes and a camera.
That’s all you really need to make a found footage horror movie.
No big set-pieces, no funky twist, no need for monsters showing up at the perfect time
for nobody in-universe to see it. Just, a maniac, and weirdo videographer, and
the things they do. It’s simple, and it works so, so well.
We open on a videographer being hired by a strange man who claims to have a terminal
illness. He wants to record some videos for his unborn
son, kinda like how every dad with a secret records stuff for their kids. “Hey kiddo,
if you’re seeing this, I’m probably dead. Haha, classic dad, right? Well, the haunted
family heirloom is buried beneath your dog’s grave etc. etc.”
You get the picture. So as these two men are trying to figure each
other out, some dark secrets are revealed. Wolf masks are found, Benadryl is put into
whiskey, the man with the illness isn’t who he said he was, and more.
It’s actually all very effective, thanks largely in part to two excellent performances
put on by Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice. At times it’s tough to decide who the real
creep is: the videographer has plenty of oddities about himself as well.
Everything seems to have a double-meaning, and nothing stays certain for long.
Well, until it does, but we won’t go there. Creep is a fantastic example of how to make
something super simple work. Two characters and minimal unexplainable action
prevents the flick from falling into the “oh man something is happening, let’s see how
all my friends are reacting” trap that a lot of found footage is so fond of.
It was good enough to warrant a sequel, and apparently a third is on the way!
You go, Creep! NUMBER FOUR: V/H/S
I love Bloody Disgusting. I think the trend of horror-based publications
putting out movies is fantastic. Keep the money and the interest with folks who actually
care. Brad Miska put this all together: five short
flicks and a frame narrative. The frame involves a gang breaking into a
house to steal a specific VHS tape for an unknown buyer.
They come across a dead old man, sitting in front of staticky TVs.
There are plenty of VHS tapes in his abode, so they get to work grabbing them all.
As the crew runs around trying to grab what they can, a lookout stays behind with the
body and the TVs. This is where the first, and arguably best short starts to play.
It’s called Amateur Night, and it focuses on some greasy pals getting together and renting
a motel room. See, one of the boyos wants to get laid, and
the others want to be in on it somehow. Weird.
So they rig a pair of glasses with a hidden camera in order to capture the whole thing.
Weirder. And then they head out on a bar crawl, looking
for some ladies. Less weird, but still weird because of the
first two things. The group ends up finding two girls who seem
at least vaguely interested in them, and they regroup in the hotel room after a few drinks.
Quiet, shady Lily seems content just to creep around the periphery and see what happens,
while the excessively drunk Lisa just passes out.
With only one girl left, the boys get a little frisky.
And then things get weird, scary, sexy, and wrist-breaky.
It’s a fantastic use of found-footage POV, because they decided to go with the supposed
glasses mount. That way, nothing feels forced, and nobody
has to scream out JUST PUT THE CAMERA DOWN FOR LIKE FIVE SECONDS TO DEAL WITH THIS!
Outstanding stuff. The rest of the found-footage flicks in the
compilation are serviceable, but none reach the heights (pun intended) that Amateur Night
does. NUMBER THREE: CLOVERFIELD
A found footage giant monster movie? Count me in!
I remember the ad campaign behind this, and they got people EXCITED to find out about
the monster. By keeping it a secret ahead of release, and
for most of the movie, it made for a fantastic word of mouth campaign, and moviegoing experience.
We know this is truly some “found footage,” as the flick opens on a title card letting
everyone know that it was discovered among the rubble in an area once known as Central
Park. Hot opening.
So a bunch of friends are having a going away party for their pal heading to Japan, and
all hell breaks loose. And by the way, Japan? Nice nod to Godzilla
right there. The city is collapsing, the streets are chaotic,
a bunch of crab-monsters that make you explode are running around, it’s a cataclysm.
Director Matt Reeves does a great job with the found footage element: it keeps the pace
frantic, the scares constant, and the tension high.
We only catch little glimpses of the major monster, which adds to the mystery and allure.
The destruction happening throughout the city feels more real when viewed from the vantage
of a person at street level. And once it gets going, it does not stop.
The shaky-cam might be too much for some folk, and admittedly it can be a lot.
But the experience itself is a totally engrossing one, and it’s something folks haven’t
tried with the format in a while. Big threats like this are rare in the found-footage
world, where curses and diseases and witches reign supreme.
NUMBER TWO: NOROI: THE CURSE Speaking of curses, let’s talk about Noroi!
This Japanese found footage mockumentary follows a prominent paranormal investigator that disappears
during the filming of one of his documentaries. Following his disappearance, his house burns
down, his wife dies, and all sorts of loose ends are loosened further.
And it’s all because of a terrible curse. As we go through the footage left behind by
Kobayashi, we find out that the Curse originated in the past as a demon who was meant to get
revenge for those who summoned it. Something went wrong somewhere down the line,
and the demon possessed a woman. After that, it was found that anyone who interacted
with her would get the curse, and then it spreads from there.
A daisy chain of deadly curses, if you would. It’s a fairly common premise, but it makes
up for it in presentation. Noroi is a slow burn. Atmospheric and dense.
There aren’t any jumpscares, no gimmicks either.
It seeks to disturb you from the inside out, by presenting you with creepy occurence after
creepy occurrence. We see everything through the lens of the
cameraman, and dread germinates like a seed deep within your psyche.
The way it presents the story is very procedural, with plenty of exposition to keep the plot
moving along. This can be tiring, but Noroi has another
trick up its sleeve. There are plenty of moments where ghosts appear
in the background without drawing attention to themselves, rewarding eagle-eyed audience
members with a little scare to call their very own.
NUMBER ONE: LAKE MUNGO This one messed me up. Like, seriously, I
was walking around different after seeing this movie.
It uses the mockumentary format perfectly to scare the everloving bejeezus out of anyone
watching. A family is trying to find out what happened
to their daughter, who drowned the summer before.
After her death, strange and unexplainable occurrences began happening around their home.
If you haven’t seen Lake Mungo, now is the time. No matter when you watch this video,
this is the correct time to watch it. There are so many twists, and reveals, and
details that explain what once appeared to be coincidences.
It’s an absolutely wild ride on the first watch through.
The family reaches out to a psychic to try and explain the strange goings on.
Photographs have been discovered with baffling elements in the background, video footage
seems to show a ghostly girl wandering through the house.
There’s a moment involving footage recovered from an old cell phone that haunts me to this
day. Writing this, I got a little bit spooked just
thinking about it. Lake Mungo is a meditation on our hidden lives,
and the guilt we live with. Do we really know the people in our lives?
What aren’t they showing us? OUTRO
I love the potential in found footage movies. Anyone can make one, especially these days
with phones in the hands and feet of every man, woman, and child.
What did you think of the list? How many of these have you seen?
What’s your favourite found-footage horror? Make sure you let me know down in the comments!
Speaking of comments, let’s take a look at some of your more exasperated ones from
Top 5 Scary Horror Movies Ruined by Their Endings:
Lammy4ever7 says: “Okay, I’m going to be “that person,” but I loved the Village
because I thought the mundane explanation was far more horrifying than a magic monster
one.” You know what? This is a perfectly reasonable
and intelligent argument! I will ask you, though, what did you think of Dogtooth? Similar
scenario, way different approach. John Garcia says “My teddy bear came alive
and said boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo” Somebody time that. I want to be put in the
running for the longest yea boi ever. Ronald Johnson says “This channel has the
best hosts… even the new ones are cool.” Thank you kindly, Ronald! We’re all out
here doing our best to keep the good folks at home entertained.
Fire Star Gomez asks “How much are those kidneys?”
How much are you offering? The world’s an unpredictable place.
J. Frost says “Ur dumb, Paranormal Activity’s original ending was sick.”
Slander! Libellous nonsense! I am at least as smart as the average person! And all this
coming from a cat on YouTube, for shame! And that’s all the time we have for today!
Before I lay down atop a pile of beef in a room full of rats, make sure to give this
video a big thumbs up, and subscribe for more staggering sygaldry!
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time!