ranking all the found-footage films i've seen
notes - i have NOT seen every found footage film ever, so this list is incomplete and ever-growing and changing. current as of 1/8/26. also, i'm ranking this entirely subjectively based on my enjoyment. i do not claim any objectivity at all.
FAVORITE
1. noroi: the curse (2005)
this movie is so goddamn good. not only did i feel genuine dread for the entire runtime, but i was invested in the characters and the mystery that surrounded them. this movie feels almost cosmic/eldritch in scope, and the end is one of my favorite conclusions to a movie i've ever seen.
2. lake mungo (2008)
another mockumentary, sure, but the most profound and moving found footage film i've seen. the mournfulness of this movie affected me so deeply. I recommend going into it blind and just letting yourself sink into the film's reality.
3. creep (2014)
this movie is almost perfect in my eyes. it's exactly what it says it is. mark duplass is outstanding as the titular character; it's so strange how he's both sinister and strangely enjoyable to spend the run time with.
4. hell house llc (2015)
fuck that clown, man. i love him. some folks say that the acting in this movie is really bad, but i found it to be among the best of the found footage i've seen. it just seems really earnest. this has become a comfort watch for me.
5. creep 2 (2017)
going into this sequel, i wasn't sure if it would work for me, but i enjoyed it almost as much as the first. i think creep 2 has an element of surprise to it that the first lacked. i knew mark duplass would be unpredictable in his returning role, but desiree akhavan also delivered a great performance. she kept me guessing until the final few minutes, which was where i was let down just a bit (by the plot not by her). still, this is a fantastic follow-up.
6. grave encounters (2011)
talk about a comfort watch! grave encounters feels like being 10 years old watching weird a&e shows at 2am in the living room when i couldn't sleep. nostalgic and fun. as long as you don't take it too seriously, it's a goofy (positive) good time. granted, that may not be what you're looking for in a horror movie, but it works for me.
7. the blair witch project (1999)
i know some folks will be offended that i've placed this seventh. i saw it for the first time when i was 6 years old (my mom made weird parenting decisions), and it was so scary then. now it's a solid rewatch for me - iconic - but ultimately no longer the best to me.
8. gonjiam: haunted asylum (2018)
a classic horror movie setting with modern tech and an interesting view on influencerism. this movie is well-made and well-performed. if you enjoy the affective style of acting native to korean cinema, this is a great one to watch.
9. [REC] (2007)
[REC] is a spanish found-footage film that is fast-paced, believable, and tense all the way to the finish line. the performances are excellent and really make this movie so good. warning to headphones users though, angela will bust your eardrums. shoutout to pablo - he's a real one.
10. the borderlands / final prayer (2013)
i enjoyed this movie a lot. it's a major tease, as you spend most of the run-time waiting for something to happen, which isn't everyone's cup of tea. but i think it worked well in this film. i was invested in the characters and i was surprised by the end (still don't know if it was a pleasant surprise or a disappointing one). i recommend this one if you're interested in folk/religious found footage.
11. occult (2009)
another koji shiraishi mockumentary that, while not as good as noroi : the curse, is still a solid watch. the thing i love about shiraishi's work is the actors - every single one of them is so natural on screen that you easily fall into the weird reality that shiraishi's built. this is a pretty slow-burn, and it might surprise you with the direction it goes, but it's worth it for those final moments.
12. the mcpherson tape (1989)
it's super cool to see found footage's infancy in this film. a lot of the tropes that we love and hate got their start in the mcpherson tape. if you like the blair witch project, i think this is a must-watch, because it has similar pacing and character dynamics.
13. milk & serial (2024)
i didn't know anything about this when it was recommended to me on youtube, but i'm so glad i gave it a try! some of the acting is shaky, but curry barker is unforgettable in his role. another take on influencerism with a few really chilling moments. and hey! it's free to watch on youtube.
14. the bay (2012)
i almost couldn't finish this movie purely because the lead actresses's voice fucked with my sensory issues so badly. putting that aside though, this is a solid found-footage film. it was genuinely gross at times, and it unsettled the part of me that is still (and maybe always will be) reeling from the pandemic.
15. hell house llc iii (2019)
i really like the set-up of this final entry into the original hell house llc trilogy. a play within a haunted house is something i'd love to experience for myself. the reason this is so low on the list is that the ending was too corny for my liking. it was goofy (negative). also russell wynn's scar was so poorly applied on his face that it distracted me whenever he was on screen.
16. horror in the high desert 3 : firewatch (2024)
my favorite entry in the franchise so far. i genuinely feel compelled to keep watching every time i watch one of these films, and it honestly baffles me. there's just something about the mystery and organization of it that really scratches an itch. i don't know if horror in the high desert is a series that i can easily recommend, but i enjoy them.
17. apollo 18 (2011)
it pains me to rank this film in seventeenth place, but it suffered from excellent vision with poor execution. this is one of the rare films that i think would benefit from a reboot/remake, because the set up and style were wonderful, but the pacing and featured creature were lackluster. it could have been so goddamn good.
18. horror in the high desert 4 : majesty (2025)
another compelling film in the high desert series. it doesn't offer anything new, but it improves on a lot of the pacing and performance issues of the previous entries. i honestly can't explain it, but i love watching these.
19. frogman (2023)
frogman is such a goofy movie, but in a charming way, i think. it seems like the actors had a good time making this film, and the titular creature is weird and juicy. there are some fucking hilarious lines delivered in a way that i genuinely loved. it's not a great movie, but it's worth watching if you're willing to have fun with it.
20. hell house llc ii (2018)
this movie takes itself too seriously for how fucking silly it is. the acting is some of the absolute worst i've seen in any movie ever. it's fun to watch, and the lore can be pretty interesting, but it's genuinely so bad. even so, i could never hate hell house llc as a franchise. fuck that clown, man. i still love him.
21. horror in the high desert 2: minerva (2023)
i enjoyed this first sequel to horror in the high desert more than the first installment. i think that the performances were believable (which is really what you want with a mockumentary) and the sense of dread was strong through the entire runtime. there were also some exceptional scare moments that actually made me a little nervous for an hour or two after I finished it. the editing is a little too chaotic, but the slow trickle of lore is worth it in my opinion. another compelling mockumentary that made me want to continue in the series.
22. horror in the high desert (2021)
the production of this film is fascinating since it was filmed primarily during the covid-19 lockdown, so none of the core actors are ever filmed together because of social-distancing. i think this gives the movie a real sense of isolation and loneliness. that being said, the script and the performances are uneven at best and actually terrible at their worst. i read after the fact that this is inspired by a real missing persons case, and i have mixed feelings on how they handled it. another thing to be aware of is that this takes "slow burn" to another level, even for found footage. usually I enjoy that, but with such uneven performances, it was difficult to stay engaged for the entire runtime. all that being said, i felt compelled to watch the sequel, which kinda baffled me. there was something to it that just made my brain want more.
23. grave encounters 2 (2012)
sean rogerson seemed to have so much fun that i needed to bump this one up in the list. this movie wanted so damn badly to be to found footage what scream is to slashers, but it failed miserably. the acting is horrendous. the horror is uninspired. it could have been clever but it takes meta to a level of insufferable that makes it almost completely unbearable to watch.
24. The Possession of Michael King (2014)
usually i don't mind if the "found footage" aspect of a found footage movie makes sense, but in this movie, it was actually distracting how little sense it made. i think the performances were decent and there were aspects that could have been great, but it really didn't work for the ff mode. there's also not much to the horror other than audio spikes and camera glitches, which added to the distraction instead of creating any real atmosphere. unbelievably disappointing.
25. butterfly kisses (2018)
i really didn't like this movie. i think it tried too hard to be meta and lacked believable performances. i love the idea of found-footage being self-referential, but every time it's attempted, it just doesn't stick the landing. this was honestly kind of miserable to watch.
26. be my cat : a film for anne (2015)
very few movies have ever made me as uncomfortable as this one. fucking christ, Țofei is too good at being absolutely demented. if you don't mind a lot of saliva in your soundscape, then by all means, give this a watch. the performances are unsettling (positive), and the plot is so strangely sinister. this film is batshit.
27. late night with the devil (2023)
[edit: wanted to amend my earlier (higher) rating because i'm super disappointed by the use of AI to make the title cards interjected in this film. i don't care how much money it saved, or if they were 'experimenting'; there is a long history of low-budget indie films finding a way to pay real living artists for this kind of work, so i don't feel that there's any justification for utilizing generative AI now to cut corners/save cost. it's lazy, it doesn't look great, and it's disappointing. employ and pay artists.]
28. the houses october built (2014)
fuck this movie. the characters are such assholes that i hated every minute with them. most of this movie is an intolerable group of friends bickering and making jokes about rape. i did not want or need to see a jerk motorboat a stripper in a halloween mask. i hate this movie. i wish i'd already seen more found footage films just so i could rank this lower.
LEAST FAVORITE
