Editorials
Six of the Most Convincing Found Footage Horror Movies
As a life-long fan of Found Footage, I’ve learned that the genre is usually at its best when divorced from the over-the-top narratives that we tend to see in regular movies. I mean, even when we’re aware that these are Hollywood productions with scripts and actors, it’s that 1% chance that this could be real that makes these films so interesting. That’s why I’d describe the ideal Found Footage movie as a hoax created with the purpose of telling a good story.
With that in mind, we’ve decided to compile a list highlighting six of the most convincing Found Footage movies for your viewing pleasure! After all, in a genre chock-full of stories about ghosts, ghouls, and cryptids, it’s the more down-to-earth scares that tend to stand out.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining “convincing movies” as productions that obviously cared about authenticity and overall realism (i.e., no fake digital filters or impossible camera angles). That being said, this is by no means a comprehensive list of every single realistic Found Footage movie, so don’t forget to comment below with your own believable favorites.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Zero Day (2003)
We’ve already featured Zero Day on a previous list highlighting True Crime horror movies, but how could we avoid revisiting one of the most disturbing Found Footage flicks ever made? An extremely realistic depiction of teenagers falling down a violent rabbit hole in the months leading up to a school shooting, Ben Coccio’s debut film manages to terrify without feeling exploitative.
While we do eventually get to see a portion of the climactic shooting, it’s really our main duo’s journey towards the massacre that makes the experience so disturbing. In fact, the film looks so much like a real video diary that you might find yourself feeling guilty for watching it, which I think is exactly the point.
5. Exhibit A (2007)
I was lucky enough to stumble onto Dom Rotheroe’s Exhibit A in the back of a seedy old video store back in the day, and I’m really glad that I did. A slow-burning psychological thriller that gets downright disturbing by the end of the experience, I find it baffling that this British gem isn’t better known among Found Footage fans.
Of course, the obscure nature of the film might even work in its favor, as you’ll definitely enjoy the story a lot more if you go in blind. Just rest assured that even seemingly pleasant moments shared by the King family are building up to a chillingly memorable finale.
4. Out There Halloween Mega-Tape (2022)
The WNUF Halloween Special has become a staple of seasonal movie marathons in my household, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who revisits this retro passion project whenever spooky season rolls around. Unfortunately, the movie’s follow-up doesn’t get the same amount of love simply because it’s a little harder to track down. This is a real shame, as I’d argue that 2022’s Out There Halloween Mega-Tape is just as believable as its predecessor!
A faithfully recreated slice of 90s TV programming (complete with period-accurate commercials), the Mega-Tape is a bootleg masterpiece that you’re sure to enjoy if you liked the filmmakers’ previous retro endeavor. And much like WNUF, some segments of the tape are so realistic that you may find yourself briefly wondering where they found all this absurd footage!
3. Lake Mungo (2009)
Depending on who you ask, Joel Anderson’s Lake Mungo is either one of the scariest films ever made or one of the most boring movies in the entire Found Footage genre. While I can understand why some people don’t appreciate this subtle approach to existential terror, I’d also argue that it’s precisely the film’s realism that makes it so effective.
Think of it this way: if this were a real paranormal documentary, it would easily be considered the scariest one in existence. The problem is that people usually compare it to other horror flicks instead of what Anderson is actually attempting to emulate. Of course, the only way to know if you agree with this assessment or not is by actually watching this slow-burning gem!
2. The Blackwell Ghost (2017)
If Found Footage movies are at their best when telling minimalist stories about down-to-earth perils, it makes sense that indie filmmaker Turner Clay was able to turn a simple mystery into a bona fide cinematic universe. While I’m of the opinion that later entries in the series are a little too over-the-top to be scary, the original Blackwell Ghost remains an eerily convincing favorite.
Not only is Clay a natural-born showman, being able to extract tension from details that would just be background noise in any other movie, but you get the feeling that he’s having just as much fun making these movies as we are watching them. If you like this first film, I’d also recommend checking out its first batch of sequels.
1. Banned From Broadcast: Saiko! The Large Family (2009)
The most obscure film on this list by a wide margin, Saiko! is a feature-length spin-off of Japan’s Banned from Broadcast television series. However, you don’t need to have seen any episodes of the show in order to appreciate Toshikazu Nagae’s puzzle-like mockumentary – and I’d actually recommend that you go into this one knowing as little about it as possible!
In the film, Canadian documentarian Veronica Addison travels to Japan in order to introduce us to the unusually large Ura family. While the Uras initially seem normal enough, strange events and subtle context clues steadily unveil an eerie conspiracy surrounding the disappearance of the family’s previous patriarch. I won’t get into any more details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that this flick is so realistic that you might not even notice that it’s a horror movie the first time you watch it.
Hell, the film’s IMDB page even lists Addison as the director instead of Nagae, proving that the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing when crafting this grounded little thriller.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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