When I say found footage, I refer to the style of filming from Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield. I'm currently watching the Norwegian movie Troll Hunter, which is satisfying enough to make me want to find more horror movies filmed in this style. Does anyone know of any?
I've seen REC, REC II and Frankenstein's Army and I try to avoid found footage films.
There's a wikipedia list of found fims, mostly horror, at here but beware there several really extreme films listed there.
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I was hoping this was a thread where I could give my opinion on this style of film but I guess I'll have to hold in my bile.
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Probably the same opinion as mine. Doesn't mean I can't help out the OP.
I only found out that Frankenstein's Army was found-footage AFTER I bought the ticket, and almost didn't go. It turned out to be an amusing black comedy/ gore film with a great array of creature effects, but it would have been even better if shot in a different style.
I like found footage films personally. I think the complaints about them are overblown. Still to each their own.
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There's nothing wrong with the found footage style itself. I think The Blair Witch Project was an excellent horror film and a great example of how to do it right. The problem is that it also served as an example of how incredibly cheap it can be to make a movie, and that means you get hundreds of people using the found footage style as a crutch because they don't have the money or the skill to make a film worth watching. When it's done well, you get excellent movies like The Last Exorcism and Troll Hunter. When it's done poorly you get any one of the increasingly stupid Paranormal Activity movies. It's like the 80's slasher movie craze. A couple movies like Friday the 13th and Halloween rake in a ton of cash and, within months, you've got a bunch of shoddy knockoffs like Maniac Cop, Sleepaway Camp and Slumber Party Massacre.
By the way, Spaceship, off the list Purity of Violence provided, I can recommend the following:
Behind the Mask, the Rise of Leslie Vernon
Long Pigs
Man Bites Dog (Behind the Mask and Long Pigs have basically the same plot, but Man Bites Dog did it about 13 years earlier and takes the idea to a much darker place.)
End of Watch (not a horror movie in the strictest sense, but it does use some found footage-type elements and there is an underlying true-life horror story taking place just under the surface of the story)
I can concur that Man Bites Dog goes into a dark, dark place...
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While not a horror movie, I would strongly recommend 'Chronicle'. I found it to be one of the strongest 'Found Footage' movies I have seen.
Apart from Cloverfiled, Blair Witch Project and Trollhunter, I found Chronicle, REC and End of Watch to be more or less the only Found Footage Movies I enjoyed, but there are probably more out there that are good (I haven't seen Long Pigs and Man Bites Dogs, for example).
Loved cloverfield.
I like found footage films when the method is used to tell a story, not simply be an excuse for cheap effects and bad acting. In my opinion the original REC, Chronicle, Blair Witch, etc are all good examples of the genre.
But yeah...there is also a lot of really crappy movie out there that use the technique. And even worse are the "regular" movies that for some reason are shot like a found footage. Chernobyl I am looking at you...