An exploration into fear, a journey off the path of traditional horror film making. 

The Found Footage genre is one of my favorite horror sub- genres and I’m not the only one who feels that way. Why did we fell in love with this genre? Why does it scare us so much? And why does this genre nothing for some people? What is Found Footage all about and how did it all start?

First of all, before we go any deeper into these questions a little disclaimer. This is not a scientifically based or journalistic article, but rather a personal essay about the Found Footage horror sub-genre. 

Explore the List of Found Footage Horror Films worth watching.

What is Found Footage?

To start with there are a couple of main overarching genres in horror, like the supernatural, fantasy and science fiction and even comedy. It tells us what kind of story it is. In most sub-genres it is about the who or what. Stories that show us serial killers, or monsters, creatures and cryptids, demons, ghosts, aliens. Or the why, like psychological horrors, cosmic horrors, post horror. Or even the where like haunted house stories, under water horror, horror in space.

But the Found Footage genre is about the how. It is all about the technique used to tell, or rather show us the story. A normal horror film tells us a horror story, supported by music, cinematography, lighting, conversations, actions, editing. The director determines the narrative. They decide what we see, how we see it, what we hear and feel. The story is presented in a certain way that affects our perception of that story. A normal film is an interpretation and expression of a reality with a well chosen polished narrative to convey ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions and atmosphere.

Of course Found Footage is also edited, lighting, and actions are also guided to how we perceive the narrative and story. But it pretends it’s not. Found Footage is all about the filming technique. It’s “raw” footage. It’s not an elaborate produced story, not embellished by means of cinematography or music, but it’s a chain of events the main characters go through and the audience must follow them on their journey. That’s also what makes it so attractive. It feels like you are there, watching over their shoulder, going along with them. The emotions you experiences are mostly the emotions the characters experience themselves. When they are scared, we are probably too. 

Still I have to add that this doesn’t go for everyone. Not everyone is perceptible to the scares of found footage. You have to be willing or able to immerse yourself into the story. It helps if you are scared of ghosts too for example. 

Although it’s a show don’t tell genre, it often relies heavy on the power of suggestion. It’s the constant anticipation that at any time you can expect something to happen, to appear somewhere on screen. The person who’s holding the camera doesn’t know where the danger will come from, so the shots are “random” unlike a normal film that often hints where to look or when to expect something to jump at you from the dark, by the rising music and tense atmosphere. The atmosphere in a found footage film is from a certain point always tense. Once it starts to get creepy it stays that way, probably gets only worse and worse. It’s not likely to have some moments you can catch your breath.

A found footage film is also very realistic. With shaky camera, luckily not all the time and some characters do have a steady hand, or even point it at the floor. They have mundane conversations, playful interactions, it feels like you’re watching real people who can be annoying, boring, fun and very scared. It doesn’t feel scripted. They don’t talk like they want to convey something to the audience. They just talk to each other. 

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Found Footage a short history

Because Found Footage is all about technique, it’s not surprising that this technique plays an important role in the evolution of the genre. A perfect example is U.F.O. Abduction, a tv-movie from 1989, also called The McPherson Tape, about a family who is recording the 5th  birthday of their daughter, when strange occurrences take place and they are confronted with aliens. 

From 1983 companies like Sony, JVC, Philips started to develop camcorders and in 1984 the Video8 camcorder was released which made it possible for households to be able to purchase and use the camcorder to, indeed, film birthday parties, weddings, vacations and all kinds of other special occasions. Without this piece of technique a film like U.F.O Abduction otherwise couldn’t have been made. That film has a very authentic and real vibe about it. And is also very scary. I remember watching the film on tv somewhere in the nineties and I was very impressed. It’s the very first found footage film I have ever seen. (disclaimer: this could also have been its remake Alien Abduction: Incident at Lake County, 1998)

Although it was possible to make these kind of films, it took a while before the genre really took off. That happened when The Blair Witch Project came out in 1999. The creators went very smart about it. Because Found Footage feels so real, they marketed the film as real footage that was found after three students went into the woods to make a documentary. They even set up a whole marketing campaign that went viral about three missing students. A year before the release they set up a website  with detailed reports of their disappearances and search, with reactions of their family and experts. The actors were told not to make public appearances to make it even more believable. This caused the audience to believe that the film they were about to see was real found footage. Only after the premiere they announced it was all fake. Surprisingly nobody felt cheated and it’s still one of the best and major Found Footage horror films. 

That didn’t immediately set off the genre. It didn’t until 2007 when Paranormal Activity made its appearance. A film entirely recorded with a home video camera, inside a normal suburban home, with normal people who could be your neighbors, who could be you, that completely relied on the power of suggestion and the suspenseful atmosphere. It might sound boring, watching two normal people having normal mundane conversations, where nothing big happens. For a film to be scary, it must get under your skin, it must cause an eerie feeling that something is not right. And that is exactly what happens when strange occurrences start to happen, small, but creepy, until it gets worse and scarier. You’ll never see a demon, or blood or thrilling scenes, but the idea that you are lying in bed at night and something is in there with you. Something you can’t see and even gets a hold on you or your partner, while you do things you can’t remember is very scary. 

But it wasn’t the only found footage horror that came out that year. George A. Romero made Diary of the Dead about a film crew that was supposed to film a horror movie stumbles upon a horde of zombies, where he also comments on why people keep filming the scary stuff instead of throwing the camera away so they can run faster. 

And there was REC, a Spanish film where a journalist follows a firefighter team the whole night for a news item, but stumbles upon a building with infected people, behaving like zombies. Resulting in utter chaos and panic.

Three found footage films that each have a different approach to the genre. From the normal suburban home filmed by normal people, to a semi-professional film crew and to a professional news crew. 

You can say that from then on the found footage genre had established itself as a full-fledged horror genre. 

As the technique developed so did the genre.

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Found Footage the different styles

What started with camcorders used for amateur use, grew into a very diverse genre where different cameras were used and different techniques. When the technology evolved the found footage genre grew along with it. From Video8 camcorders to GoPro’s, from news bits to Zoom and livestreams. With all these different techniques came different styles and different stories.

The aforementioned horror films are one of the main important films that have established the genre and became very popular. But those already used different techniques and styles. 

Next to the handheld camcorders, the use of tv-shows, news bits and interviews like a documentary style, zoom meetings and livestreams turned this genre into a diverse one.

Let’s start with one the most unique found footage horror films Ghostwatch that was released in 1992. Not as a film, but as a tv-show. It used an actual real life tv host, very popular and well-known by the British audience and real reporters the audience was used to see on the telly, informing them about real things. So when they announced that at Halloween they had a special broadcast about a mother and her two daughters who were haunted by a poltergeist in their house, it already felt real. The audience was told that it was a live broadcast and that a tv-crew was going to spend the night in the house to experience the poltergeist hauntings and that they could call to the studio and participate, while the host talked with a specialist. It’s not found footage in the traditional way, but it was fake live footage. The audience believed it though, tried to call the telephone number shown on screen and it even caused a big commotion afterwards. 

Another style is the mockumentary style where the film is set up as a documentary, where people were interviewed about whatever the found footage showed. The footage was shown in between. They oftentimes made also use of fake news bits, that added to the realistic feel about the events. This style can come with some accompanied music to set the mood, but it’s usually never used to support scares.

In the 2000’s Paranormal Reality TV Shows became popular, like Ghost Hunters and Most Haunted. This was a basis for Found Footage Horror Films that went exploring haunted houses or asylums. For example Grave Encounters (2011).

When YouTube came to life in 2005, it soon became possible to livestream an event. So now they could try a different approach and let people who went to explore a haunted house or asylum, livestream the event. Like Deadstream (2022).

When apps like Zoom were developed in 2011 yet even more was possible. That resulted in a film like Host made in 2020, when a lockdown was in place during COVID-19 and nobody could meet up to actually make a film. But desperate times ask for creative solutions. So they recorded the whole film on Zoom on their iPhones and turned it into one of the most scariest experiences I’ve ever had. This new sub-genre is called screenlife horror. 

The sort of cameras also changed, from big heavy cameras they became smaller, easier to handle, even GoPros that could be attached to the body, so when the characters get scared, the footage stays clear and they keep on filming what we want to see, no camera turned to the ground whilst running anymore. 

Another way the cameras can be used is as surveillance cameras, being placed at crucial points where for example hauntings are witnessed, or just fixed points in a place to monitor everything that happens there. 

Then there’s what we can do with a camera. The feature of night vision on a camera gives a special scary image. In black and white or green, with glowing eyes, makes it even scarier. And Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) which uses a special feature for the Xbox Kinect, tracking dots, green dots all around the living room to give form to the demon. The characters can also play with the light on the camera itself, creating a big spotlight or a small focused light, which shuts out everything outside the light beam. 

You can create endless techniques, styles, storytelling and atmosphere only by using technology.

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Found Footage a diverse genre

The techniques, use of cameras, the kind of cameras, new technology, it all adds to the diversity of styles within the genre. But the genre itself is very diverse on its own. It deals with the paranormal, science fiction and fantasy and comedy. 

A lot of found footage is about exploring a haunted house or asylum to prove the existence of ghosts or to score views. It’s oftentimes planned and with a goal and purpose. 

The woods or nature environments are also a very popular place to explore, to look for an urban legend, a witch, Bigfoot or other cryptids. When they stumble upon them, we are there to witness their ordeals.

Other Found Footage is just about recording normal events that just happen to take a paranormal turn, either with ghosts, demons, or aliens. They didn’t go look for it, it just happened and they are in the middle of it. 

Then there’s also footage to record suspicious behaviors or happenings.

It can be a professional news crew, a professional or amateur film crew, or normal people like you and me, and of course now, influencers. 

Although the genre is mainly went for scares, it can also be a comedy, with Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) as a mockumentary example that also deals with a serial killer. A very rare and original film in the genre. 

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Why is it so scary?

Indeed, what makes a found footage horror so scary? First of all it’s set in realism. The actors are not famous well-known actors, they look like normal people you could see on the street and they behave like normal people would. Their actions and behaviors, their interactions and conversations, how they talk, are just how we would talk, or act or behave when we would find ourselves in such a dire situation. Generally speaking that is. They feel like you and me. Sometimes they even use their own names, which immerses them into the story. 

That’s exactly what The Blair Witch Project did and made it even more believable. On top of that, the actors got instructions that they had to follow just before filming, so they didn’t know what was going to happen and so their reactions were very real and genuine. Although now it’s unthinkable to mess with people’s heads that way and to traumatize them, it worked. They wanted everything as close to real as they could get. 

The marketing of The Blair Witch Project also helped a lot, to make it realistic. When the movie came out it was 1999, there was no social media yet whatsoever, and the American movies came out at a far later time, here in the Netherlands where I live. So I’ve missed the whole hype about the missing of three students. Still I remember watching it in the movie theater and thought it was very scary. 

Paranormal Activity scared me even more though. It freaked me out. I would never hike and camp out in the woods, searching for a urban legend witch. But I do have a bedroom and I do sleep at night. Watching this film made everyone wonder, what happens at night in your own home, that is supposed to be your safe place, while you are sleeping. That realistic vibe makes it extra scary. 

Aside from actors that look like real human beings, the technique also plays a big role in in the scare department. The way it is shot is quite in your face. Your are totally immersed into the story, it feels like you’re watching over their shoulder, walking with them, expecting anything anytime. The camera is on top of everything that happens. It doesn’t let you look away. Doesn’t give you the time to breathe, because the people on your screen don’t have that time either. In addition the camera isn’t always aimed at the scare to come, like a traditional film. A traditional film guides you to the point at your screen where to look. Now you constantly have to screen the footage yourself. Looking at every place in the room or surrounding to spot something. But mostly it comes from outside the screen, right next to you or behind you and when the person holding the camera turns towards the sound, it’s already gone. What was it, and more importantly where did it go? 

Also the absence of a musical score, makes it scarier. Although music can certainly add to the scare factor, you at least know when to be scared, when to expect something scary. Without music, you don’t have an enhancement of a scary atmosphere, but you also don’t get a heads up. It’s like you’re always tensed, always expecting a scare. 

And finally the grainy footage, the glitches, the face that appears on screen and vanishes like a subliminal image. You just saw something, didn’t you? The faulty footage creates a feeling of realism, but it also obscures things, or it makes them appear ever so shortly. 

Also the fact that it’s found footage says a lot about the fate of the characters. They probably didn’t make it. Although this isn’t always true. It mostly doesn’t end well and we are going to be witnesses, on first row,  to experience their demise with them. They are vulnerable, and so are we, because we feel like we are right there with them. We don’t know what’s coming, what’s going to happen and that’s scary. That they don’t make it is even scarier. A traditional film tells the whole story, most of the time, but now we get bits and an unfinished ending, without explanation about what happened. No how, no why, it just happened. 

But you have to be open to it. You must be willing to believe, to immerse yourself in the story, the events. You don’t have to like the characters, you just have to be able and willing to be one of them. You have to be open minded to let yourself take on a journey of exploration into the unknown were anything can happen at any time. 

It’s pure about the emotion of fear. It’s not about the understanding behind the story, the symbolism, or the gore. Not everybody will enjoy this genre. They see too easily through the techniques used, they can’t identify themselves with the characters, or they need more from a horror movie. 

I personal love the Found Footage genre. I love to be scared. To go on a thrilling scary journey into the unknown, to experience strange things as if they really exist. I do not believe in the supernatural, but I am a scaredy cat in real life. So I love to be scared in a safe environment and Found Footage is one of my favorite genres to do just that. 

I hoped you enjoyed reading my personal thoughts and research about this genre.