Remember back in the early 2010s when Paranormal Activity was still all the rage among the general public, resulting in wave after wave of found footage horror films getting shoved down the throats of audiences while The Blair Witch Project turned its nose up at our dastardly fickle essences?
Well, that was a decade ago, and now that superhero films have taken the popular spotlight, now seems appropriate to pour one out for the found footage subgenre, which proved that even the most creative filmmaking endeavors aren’t immune to getting too big for their britches after a while.
Nevertheless, found footage diehards are hellbent on continuing their search for entries in this lost craze, and r/horror was more than happy to drop a few reels.
One user blamed the found footage decline on the 2016 Blair Witch reboot, which isn’t an unfair finger to point; messing with one of the OGs of found footage seems like an apt way to curse the subgenre.
Luckily, the found footage backlog boasts a rather dense population, with a fair chunk of it still thriving well into the current decade.
But most importantly, the active hunt for found footage gems is perhaps one of the most essential components of the genre; as one user cleverly pointed out, we can’t find such footage unless it’s lost to begin with.
Indeed, from Cloverfield to Apollo 18 to the missing link that is Chronicle all the way to V/H/S/99, the impact left by found footage is certainly nothing to sneeze at, and while not many people may be holding their breath for the next Paranormal Activity film, they probably wouldn’t have to anyway with such a rich genre catalogue to sift through.