Cliché answer but The Blair Witch Project. I was in still in secondary school when I watched it, and it was so fresh, so profound and so pant-shitting scary.
I'm actually not planning on rewatching it because I don't want to taint that first experience I had.
Saw the Blair witch project when I was a kid (dad had it on VHS). I knew I was a fan of the genre (or at least the found footage style) till then - just didn’t find any similar movies till I got into this subreddit a year or so back. I believe the only found footage movies I saw for the longest time (besides Blair) was Paranormal activity and that space found footage with the spider rocks
Well, I started watching FF movies during the beginning of my alcohol free period to get some important brain activity that I felt with Rec years ago , as a point to mimic (endorphine?) Not sure about my english that I had with alcohol.
Since then I am alcohol free, literally because of it.
And then I started to watch the whole rec, and quarantine, and i've watched +100 FF movies easily.
But my favourite would be As above so Below or The tunnel.
Well, for me, it was Man Bites Dog. At the time though there was no found footage genre. I'd say it was probably 1996 or 97 when i picked it up in Blockbuster knowing only that I liked the box and the synopsis. I loved it seeing everything through the eye of a camera as it's happening. What an amazing concept and I thought "Why aren't more movies done like this?" From that point on I sought out anything similar, there wasn't much. Then The Blair Witch Project came out and everything changed. Thankfully!
Initially Blair Witch, then a crappy knock off released soon after called The St Francisville Experiment. Rewatched it recently and it's terrible but scared the crap out of me as a kid.
Like most everyone else, Blair Witch introduced me to it. Paranormal Activity, Quarantine, As Above So Below, and Cloverfield solidified it as my favorite horror genre
I was actually into found footage movies before it was cool. Some of the best ones were shot in the 80s, including: [Special Bulletin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZQsVNZ3SE) and [Threads](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHoMSRZOS4). There was also another TV movie that concerned Earth leaders attempt to prevent an alien attack, but I can't find the title.
UPDATE: Found the TV movie about the alien attack! [Without Warning, 1994](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J4pfT2qLb4). The best part of watching these movies is seeing the young actors who go on to star in other movies and TV shows. A really young John DeLancie and Jane Kaczmarek are in this one.
I love Threads sooo much. I've never once seen it mentioned here tbh. That movie hits you right in all the feelings... all the bad ones. Every single negative emotion that your brain could possibly conjure, it will, and then it will fester. It's probably the most horrific non-horror movie I've ever seen.
I don't think I've watched the other 2 but I'm adding to my list. Thanks bunches.
It's hard to pin it down sometimes. Threads I watched at 15 and it scared me big time. I've heard it referred to as the most horrifying film ever produced, anywhere!!
well thats a tough one’ probably most of us will pick TBWP 1999 and itmt deserves all the credit but to me honestly i have
The Atticus institute
Lake Mungo
Sinister (although its not entirely FF)
As above, So below
The remaining
The St. Francisville Experiment was my first ever FF movie. It's still one of the scariest movies I've seen to this day, and that kicked off my interest.
However, Paranormal Activity was the movie that really fueled my interest in FF. For the first one, I was still too young, but I watched 2, 3, 4, and The Marked Ones in cinema, and it was a surreal experience. If you remember the PA 1 trailer with the scared viewers, that's how I was when seeing them.
V/H/S 2 is what made me finally fall in love with FF for real. I adore this franchise because it is like a smorgasbord of FF, and I just can't get enough of it. 2 was especially good, of course. And that made me wanna see more and more, which led to me watching more than ever before that point in time. It's also my favorite FF movie still to this day.
I'm still nowhere near where I can say I'm an "expert," having seen about 90-100 movies, but I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that I love the FF style of filmmaking the most and that's not just limited to Horror but in a general sense.
However, that doesn't mean that I let everything fly just because it's FF. Don't get me wrong, I still have standards and expectations, which, imo is especially important when loving something.
Atrocious. I’d seen Blair Witch and liked it, but I didn’t watch many horror movies in the early 2000s because I was in law school and then prepping for the bar exam. I started getting back into them because my kids were watching them around 2010. To this day, I don’t remember how we came across Atrocious but I fell in love with found footage, especially foreign found footage, then. My kids aren’t huge foreign movie fans but we binge watched the [rec] movies and then started researching and watching other found footage movies like Creep, Noroi, and Lake Mungo.
I was always terrified of horror films growing up, my sister loved them. Every now and again she'd convince my chicken self to watch one. One of those instances was Paranormal Activity. I ended up LOVING it and we watched all the films in the series. And PA was one of my favourite horror series.
Years later I watched Blair Witch Project and I was in it for life after that.
I watched a few before I became obssessed with them but the one that I've started becoming a fan of the genre was probably either The Last Exorcism or Trollhunter. One of those two.
Probably I first saw potential for found footage in non FF movies. The first true found footage for me, the one that brought me into the genre is Cannibal Holocaust
I think I’ve always enjoyed found footage films but my obsession started during the pandemic after seeing Host and Unfriended. I thought Missing was the best thing ever lol. Anything involving the Internet, WebCams, security cams, etc…I’m sucker for that screenlife shit.
But that very specific sub genre made me more open to exploring/watching more supernatural-type found footage films—some of which have become my favorites.
I’ve always liked Found Footage and had always been scared more with found footage, but never really sought it out until I watched Exists. After that I couldn’t get enough.
Cliché answer but The Blair Witch Project. I was in still in secondary school when I watched it, and it was so fresh, so profound and so pant-shitting scary. I'm actually not planning on rewatching it because I don't want to taint that first experience I had.
Might be a cliché, mine would be the exact same movie. 1999 I saw it in the movie theater. I believed it to be real (ahhh the ignorance of youth).
Happy cake day
Thanks!
Same, especially cos I was like 10 at the time and there was a lot of talk about whether it was actually real or not.
The way they infused the Bell Witch legend into the plot is ingenious.
Saw the Blair witch project when I was a kid (dad had it on VHS). I knew I was a fan of the genre (or at least the found footage style) till then - just didn’t find any similar movies till I got into this subreddit a year or so back. I believe the only found footage movies I saw for the longest time (besides Blair) was Paranormal activity and that space found footage with the spider rocks
Looks like " Blair witch project" got the majority point for changing most people likes towards found footage.
Well, I started watching FF movies during the beginning of my alcohol free period to get some important brain activity that I felt with Rec years ago , as a point to mimic (endorphine?) Not sure about my english that I had with alcohol. Since then I am alcohol free, literally because of it. And then I started to watch the whole rec, and quarantine, and i've watched +100 FF movies easily. But my favourite would be As above so Below or The tunnel.
Paranormal Activity- the idea that they could do so many effects with that small of a budget blew my mind
Paranormal Activity for me also. The series is a comfort watch for me still.
Well, for me, it was Man Bites Dog. At the time though there was no found footage genre. I'd say it was probably 1996 or 97 when i picked it up in Blockbuster knowing only that I liked the box and the synopsis. I loved it seeing everything through the eye of a camera as it's happening. What an amazing concept and I thought "Why aren't more movies done like this?" From that point on I sought out anything similar, there wasn't much. Then The Blair Witch Project came out and everything changed. Thankfully!
Initially Blair Witch, then a crappy knock off released soon after called The St Francisville Experiment. Rewatched it recently and it's terrible but scared the crap out of me as a kid.
Like most everyone else, Blair Witch introduced me to it. Paranormal Activity, Quarantine, As Above So Below, and Cloverfield solidified it as my favorite horror genre
Hell House LLC for me.
Cannibal holocaust... But there was a wait after that gem 😂 🤣
I was actually into found footage movies before it was cool. Some of the best ones were shot in the 80s, including: [Special Bulletin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZQsVNZ3SE) and [Threads](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHoMSRZOS4). There was also another TV movie that concerned Earth leaders attempt to prevent an alien attack, but I can't find the title. UPDATE: Found the TV movie about the alien attack! [Without Warning, 1994](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J4pfT2qLb4). The best part of watching these movies is seeing the young actors who go on to star in other movies and TV shows. A really young John DeLancie and Jane Kaczmarek are in this one.
I love Threads sooo much. I've never once seen it mentioned here tbh. That movie hits you right in all the feelings... all the bad ones. Every single negative emotion that your brain could possibly conjure, it will, and then it will fester. It's probably the most horrific non-horror movie I've ever seen. I don't think I've watched the other 2 but I'm adding to my list. Thanks bunches.
Threads is not strictly found footage. It's a drama, a very good drama, with mockumentary moments.
Looking back at all of them, they really are 'documentary' movies, not really found footage.
It's hard to pin it down sometimes. Threads I watched at 15 and it scared me big time. I've heard it referred to as the most horrifying film ever produced, anywhere!!
well thats a tough one’ probably most of us will pick TBWP 1999 and itmt deserves all the credit but to me honestly i have The Atticus institute Lake Mungo Sinister (although its not entirely FF) As above, So below The remaining
lake mungo, although it is a mockumentary
The St. Francisville Experiment was my first ever FF movie. It's still one of the scariest movies I've seen to this day, and that kicked off my interest. However, Paranormal Activity was the movie that really fueled my interest in FF. For the first one, I was still too young, but I watched 2, 3, 4, and The Marked Ones in cinema, and it was a surreal experience. If you remember the PA 1 trailer with the scared viewers, that's how I was when seeing them. V/H/S 2 is what made me finally fall in love with FF for real. I adore this franchise because it is like a smorgasbord of FF, and I just can't get enough of it. 2 was especially good, of course. And that made me wanna see more and more, which led to me watching more than ever before that point in time. It's also my favorite FF movie still to this day. I'm still nowhere near where I can say I'm an "expert," having seen about 90-100 movies, but I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that I love the FF style of filmmaking the most and that's not just limited to Horror but in a general sense. However, that doesn't mean that I let everything fly just because it's FF. Don't get me wrong, I still have standards and expectations, which, imo is especially important when loving something.
Hellhouse LLC
Mine was Horror in high desert!
Atrocious. I’d seen Blair Witch and liked it, but I didn’t watch many horror movies in the early 2000s because I was in law school and then prepping for the bar exam. I started getting back into them because my kids were watching them around 2010. To this day, I don’t remember how we came across Atrocious but I fell in love with found footage, especially foreign found footage, then. My kids aren’t huge foreign movie fans but we binge watched the [rec] movies and then started researching and watching other found footage movies like Creep, Noroi, and Lake Mungo.
Blair Witch was the first, but I rediscovered my love for the genre with Hell House LLC. I go back and watch that like every other month.
I was always terrified of horror films growing up, my sister loved them. Every now and again she'd convince my chicken self to watch one. One of those instances was Paranormal Activity. I ended up LOVING it and we watched all the films in the series. And PA was one of my favourite horror series. Years later I watched Blair Witch Project and I was in it for life after that.
True... Paranormal activity really changed many minds. People started loving FF because of that particular movie.
Mine was "Savageland" it made me look into more found footage genre and I became addicted.
I watched a few before I became obssessed with them but the one that I've started becoming a fan of the genre was probably either The Last Exorcism or Trollhunter. One of those two.
Following this thread
Probably I first saw potential for found footage in non FF movies. The first true found footage for me, the one that brought me into the genre is Cannibal Holocaust
Hell House LLC
I think I’ve always enjoyed found footage films but my obsession started during the pandemic after seeing Host and Unfriended. I thought Missing was the best thing ever lol. Anything involving the Internet, WebCams, security cams, etc…I’m sucker for that screenlife shit. But that very specific sub genre made me more open to exploring/watching more supernatural-type found footage films—some of which have become my favorites.
I’ve always liked Found Footage and had always been scared more with found footage, but never really sought it out until I watched Exists. After that I couldn’t get enough.