10 Scariest Found-Footage Horror Movies, Ranked

Found footage is a subgenre of horror that aims to make a film more immersive or realistic by making it seem like it has been shot by amateur filmmakers who are experiencing these paranormal events while attempting to record the footage for a documentary, student projects, or other related purposes. Found Footage works best in simplicity, but that is still kind of hard to execute.

There’s no shortage of movies that have fallen flat on their faces while trying to make effective use of the technique, so it can be kind of hard to find good ones. The greatest found footage horror movies are those that aren’t only good at executing their basic premise but can actively scare the pants off of even the most steadfast horror aficionados. These are the most frightening found-footage horror films, immersive pieces of cinema that feel so real, even though everyone knows that they’re not. They will be ranked based on their overall quality, how well they use the found footage genre, and, most importantly, how genuinely terrifying they are.

10 ‘Butterfly Kisses’ (2018)

Directed by Erik Kristopher Myers

Butterfly Kisses is about a struggling videographer named Gavin (Seth Adam Kallick), who finds a collection of VHS tapes in his in-laws’ basement. Even though they are explicitly labelled “don’t watch,” that’s exactly what Gavin does, editing the tapes together for one chronological supercut. Initially, all seems well, feeling like just an amateur documentary about a local urban legend, but Gavin soon finds himself becoming obsessed as things get weirder and weirder.

Butterfly Kisses is much more psychological and less supernatural than typical found footage films. Its relative plausibility and the fact that it addresses the real issue of obsessive stalkers make it feel more grounded in reality, which definitely adds to how scary it feels. Butterfly Kisses is not the greatest or scariest movie in the found footage subgenre, but it’s still a whole different kind of scary than typical horror is.

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9 ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999)

Directed by Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez

The Blair Witch Project was the film that put the found-footage genre on the map, and even though it isn’t the first to utilize the formula, it is still a pioneering piece of cinema that caused an explosion of similar films. Shot with a teeny-tiny budget of less than a million, The Blair Witch Project follows three film students who venture out into the woods of New England to investigate legends of a supposed witch living in the area. They initially assume it to be hogwash, but of course, they get more than they bargained for.

The titular witch does not physically appear in the movie, so the film relies on many psychological techniques to bring fear. It is not what you see that’s scary, but what you don’t see. The forest itself constantly changes around them, causing the students to become lost and disoriented, and mysterious effigies and fetishes begin to appear around them. The Blair Witch Project is brilliantly done, forgoing most standard horror techniques to craft a psychological nightmare that is as bewildering as it is terrifying.

8 ‘Hell House LLC’ (2016)

Directed by Stephen Cognetti

Hell House LLC is the name of a fictional haunted house that has all the standard animatronic props and dim lighting one would expect to find in the average haunted house attraction. The catch is that this one actually had 15 people pass away in it, which prompts a paranormal investigation. Documenting the entire journey, these investigators find that the creepy setpieces of the attraction are only secondary to the very real threat that lurks within.

Hell House LLC was followed by two sequels, but rarely are the sequels just as good as the originals. The first film in the franchise still reigns supreme as the scariest and the best. It really does feel like going through a crummy haunted house attraction, only this time the danger is very, very real. Due to the nature of the attraction, Hell House LLC is very claustrophobic and naturally riddled with darkness, as most good horror films are.

7 ‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007)

Directed by Oren Peli

Paranormal Activity is another pioneering member of found footage that came with an even smaller budget than The Blair Witch Project and was shot in just a few days. Paranormal Activity is about a couple living in their home who begin to experience frightening occurrences that they believe to be paranormal. Deciding to get to the bottom of things, they set up a series of amateur cameras in their home to record all the goings-on at night.

As the days go on, the entity besieging them only gets more and more aggressive, attacking them and violently disturbing the home. It’s a lot more in-your-face than The Blair Witch Project, yet maintains an impressive aura of believability in spite of its nearly non-existent budget. Paranormal Activity makes effective use of what it’s got and makes something out of nothing for an experience that is truly unforgettable and terrifying.

6 ‘V/H/S/94’ (2021)

Directed by Jennifer Reeder, Chloe Okuno, Simon Barrett, Timo Tjahjanto, Ryan Prows, & Steven Kotzanski

V/H/S/94 is one of the latest installments in the found-footage horror franchise V/H/S. It’s also arguably the best one and is hands down the scariest of the bunch. Like the other films in the franchise, V/H/S/94 is an anthology film, telling multiple short stories in the span of only a few hours, each directed by a different person. Normally, too many cooks can spoil the broth, but in this movie, they only served to make it much better.

Like all othe other films, the footage is found as a series of cassette tapes in a spooky location. V/H/S/94 touches on themes of cults and ritualistic practices, with terrifying creatures from beyond materializing right in front of the audience’s very eyes. The franchise has definitely had some bumps in the road, but V/H/S/94 is the one that uses its classic conventions the best.

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5 ‘Noroi: The Curse’ (2005)

Directed by Kōji Shiraishi

Noroi: The Curse hails from Japan and is a stunning example of found footage horror conventions. The story concerns a paranormal investigator who becomes aware of multiple paranormal occurrences that he believes are all connected, so he opts to film his experience, finding the inherent connection between them. This leads him to an ancient ritual gone awry and secrets buried under an artificial lake, which flooded a remote village during its creation.

There are some truly repulsive visuals in Noroi, with much of it centering on gore and little ghost children, drawing on elements of the occult and Japanese folklore. The result is a really unique experience in horror that gives a ton of other spooky films a run for their money. J-horror films are characteristically super scary, but this one goes above and beyond, even for the standards of its genre.

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4 ‘Afflicted’ (2013)

Directed by Derek Lee & Clif Prowse

Afflicted is a Canadian found footage horror film directed by Derek Lee and Clif Prowse, who also stars in the main roles as fictional versions of themselves. The two best friends embark on the vacation of a lifetime, visiting various locations around the world and documenting their entire adventure on film. When they reach Barcelona, Derek has a one-night stand with a mysterious woman who assaults him before vanishing. In the days following, Derek begins to show alarming symptoms, causing Clif to believe he may be turning into a vampire.

Vampires are normally regarded as standard Halloween fare, but Afflicted‘s version is no stereotype, with pointy fangs, a Transylvanian accent, and a widow’s peak. The vampire that Derek becomes is honestly really scary and gives the impression of a man possessed by a demon rather than a classic monster. Afflicted is a textbook example of how to take a cheesy horror trope and completely reinvent it into something horrifying, which makes the movie much more intriguing.

Afflicted is currently not available to rent or stream in the US and Canada.

3 ‘The Taking of Deborah Logan’ (2014)

Directed by Adam Robitel

The Taking of Deborah Logan contains an infamous scene that sort of went viral online for its disturbing depiction of a monstrous hag unhinging her jaw and swallowing the head of a child whole. This scene gained notoriety for its sheer shock value, making it instantly harrowing and unforgettable. The film explores the titular Deborah Logan (Jill Larson), an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s Disease who is being filmed by a group of students doing a documentary about the disease.

As the film goes on, Deborah’s actions become more and more erratic, eventually leading to the conclusion that this goes way beyond Alzheimer’s and strays into the supernatural. Critics were quick to commend The Taking of Deborah Logan for how effective and visually distressing it is. The movie speaks for itself, not needing to resort to cheap tricks or guaranteed methods of horror to actually scare people.

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2 ‘Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum’ (2018)

Directed by Jung Bum-shik

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum comes from South Korea and is already creepy just by its title. Old mental hospitals or asylums are creepy enough, never mind one that is apparently haunted. The adventure is filmed by a group of six people who are going on a casual urban exploration outing in the asylum while explaining the legend that the warden supposedly murdered everyone inside before disappearing. Obviously, this legend turns out to be true, making way for a whole slew of paranormal happenings inside the derelict hospital.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum
is nerve-wracking and far from subtle, so it is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Critics deemed the filma masterpiece of found footage horror that was exceptionally and unapologetically scary. It is one horrifying event after another, and it rarely lets up even for a second with its ghastly specters and ghoulish entities bombarding the film crew. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is nerve-wracking and far from subtle, so it is certainly not for the faint of heart. However, those who enjoy getting the living soul scared out of them will find great value in this chilling and unforgettable tale of horror and dread.

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1 ‘Incantation’ (2022)

Directed by Kevin Ko

Incantation is a Taiwanese folk horror movie ostensibly based on a true story, but its connections to the actual 2005 incident are pretty much zero, but that’s okay because the fear factor in this one is astronomical. The film follows a mother, Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen), who receives her daughter, “Dodo” (Huang Sin-ting), back from foster care after Ronan’s long battle with mental illness, which rendered her incapable of taking care of her child. But when Dodo returns home, unexplained paranormal events begin to occur.

Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Ronan once investigated a cult and encountered a very powerful entity that curses anyone who comes into contact with it. Incantation has lots of fourth wall breaks and drops a bombshell of a revelation at the end as Ronan seeks to film a video diary for her daughter’s first days back home. The visuals, sense of horror, and plot twist are genuinely among some of the most frightening things ever committed to film. Incantationmakes The Exorcist look like Sesame Street, so there’s no debating that this is, by far, the scariest found-footage film ever made.

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NEXT: 15 Best Found Footage Horror Movies