Whether you’re a fan of the original or not, you have to appreciate the lengths that Lionsgate went to so that the new Blair Witch sequel would be a complete surprise to everyone in attendance at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Shot and marketed under the fake moniker The Woods, Adam Wingard’s latest film has been eagerly anticipated by fans who were completely unaware of its top-secret sequel status.

You can check out our review here, but before you see it for yourself, we’re here to make sure you’ve seen some of the best films in the genre that was popularized by the 1999 original The Blair Witch Project. Check out the trailer for the new film below, as well as ten unique found footage films to hold you over until September 16th, when Blair Witch finally hits theaters.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=girSv9UH_V8]

A small disclaimer before I jump into the list. Found footage films have come a long way since Cannibal Holocaust. I know they’re never going to win everyone over, but I disagree that they’re movies that only offer cheap scares and gimmicky tricks. The genre truly asks more of you as an audience member than other horror movies. You have to completely suspend your disbelief before sitting down in the theater; otherwise, the movie will always be silly and will have already lost you before the first trailer plays. I understand someone hating the genre, but I think when they work, found footage movies have a chance to get under your skin and stick with you like no other type of filmmaking in existence. You just have to let them.

Now, on to the list.

The Blair Witch Project

When the marketing began for this movie, no one knew what it would become. It was already creeping people out before they even had a chance to see it with the idea that this was not fiction. Sold as actual footage found in the woods of Maryland, The Blair Witch Project told the story of three student filmmakers who set out to shoot a documentary exposing a gruesome local legend. They interview many of the citizens in Burkettsville, Maryland – and film at a nearby graveyard – before heading into the woods and encountering the true terror behind the lore.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWiz6reVupA]

This story structure would be copied by so many other films in the genre and is one of the reasons the producers set out to make this movie to begin with. Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez came up with the idea originally because they found that documentaries about the paranormal were sometimes much more frightening than recent horror films that had released and disappointed. They set out to combine the styles and create something new and did so on a shoestring budget of only $35,000.

The movie was shown at the Sundance Film Festival that year and almost immediately bought by Artisan for a reported $1.1 million. The Blair Witch Project is one of the first films to show studios that they can make an extremely effective horror movie for next to nothing and open huge to a wanting audience. This has lead to some incredibly bad and surprisingly good movies over the past seventeen years as studios try to recreate the phenomenon that this film started right before the turn of the century.

REC

Shot in Barcelona, Spain, and released in 2007, REC shows what the genre is capable of in the right hands, those hands being extremely talented directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. The film was a major hit with critics from the start and had an unusually successful film festival run before getting a wider release. Known for creating an intensely claustrophobic atmosphere, the real star of the movie is its twist on the whole viral/rabies/zombie infection concept. Not everything is what it seems, and the third act moves things completely out of predictability.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGJ_jPKOj1c]

One of the many Spanish horror films to be remade for an American audience, REC is still passed around by fans committed to having the original stand as the preferred telling of the story. The remake – under the international title Quarantine – is famous for nixing the entire twist ending and stars Jennifer Carpenter as the lead reporter who rushes into an apartment building with her cameraman, hoping to catch a newsworthy story. Definitely check out the original first and foremost for at least one example of foreign films executed much better than their eventual American remakes.

Paranormal Activity 3

It’s hard to remember a time when the Paranormal Activity franchise wasn’t a household name, and many horror fans have long lost their taste for the series. When the first film began its unique city by city release – based on an online voting system – you didn’t have to look far for someone excited to get a glimpse of the movie. After becoming a hit on par with The Blair Witch Project, the film quickly built up a base of detractors for various reasons, but still, the sequels started being pumped out every Halloween and would become a staple of the season for general audiences.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB1DVVPyQmA]

However you feel about the first film, you can’t deny that there is definitely something different and more thoughtful about the third entry in the series. Instead of continuing the story right after Paranormal Activity 2, the movie begins and ends with the main sisters of the series finding a box of old tapes and reminiscing about growing up together. These bumpers bookend a prequel that tells the original story of “Toby,” the demon that is connected to the sisters throughout their lives in the franchise.

Taking place mostly in the 1980’s, directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman employed a number of post-production techniques to make the film feel as if it was shot on a prosumer video camcorder. The lead character is a professional wedding photographer, which allows the movie to justify multiple cameras on the action and helps overcome some of the technical barriers a normal family would have access to at the time. Using these unique camera angles and even an unnerving moving shot help differentiate the film from the previous two. The filmmakers also pulled from classic movies of the era such as Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist, with nods throughout the plot and even influencing how they executed certain scenes to scare fans. Overall, Paranormal Activity 3 sits above the rest of the series, even with non-fans, and can be enjoyed easily as a stand-alone film.

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