Found footage (genre)

For the use of preexisting film footage in filmmaking, see Found footage.

Found footage is a genre of film making, especially horror, in which all or a substantial part of a film is presented as discovered film or video recordings, often left behind by missing or dead protagonists. The events on screen are seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, who often speaks off screen. Filming may be done by the actors themselves as they recite their lines, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are often employed. While the genre dates back at least as far as 1980's Cannibal Holocaust, it was popularised after the release of such films as The Blair Witch Project (1999), Paranormal Activity (2007), REC (2007) and Cloverfield (2008).

Examples of found-footage films

The following films all fall into the found footage category. Also listed are the films' directors, production company and release date.

Film	Director(s)	Production Company	Release Date
Cannibal Holocaust	Ruggero Deodato	F.D. Cinematografica	February 7, 1980
UFO Abduction (The McPherson Tape)	Dean Alioto	IndieSyndicate Productions	1989
84C MoPic	Patrick Sheane Duncan	New Century Vista Film Company	April 7, 1989
Man Bites Dog	Rémy Belvaux André Bonzel Benoît Poelvoorde	Les Artistes Anonymes	January 15, 1993
Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County	Dean Alioto	Dick Clark Productions	January 20, 1998
The Last Broadcast	Stefan Avalos Lance Weiler	FFM Productions	October 23, 1998
The Blair Witch Project	Daniel Myrick Eduardo Sánchez	Haxan Films	July 30, 1999
The St. Francisville Experiment	Ted Nicolaou	The Kushner-Locke Company	April 15, 2000
August Underground	Fred Vogel	Absu Films Toetag Pictures	2001
The Collingswood Story	Mike Costanza	Cinerebel Media	October 20, 2002
August Underground's Mordum	Fred Vogel Killjoy Cristie Whiles Jerami Cruise Michael T. Schneider	Toetag Pictures	2003
Zero Day	Ben Coccio	Professor Bright Films	September 3, 2003
Incident at Loch Ness	Zak Penn	Eden Rock Media	September 17, 2004
September Tapes	Christian Johnston	Complex Films Raz Productions Raz Entertainment Persistent Entertainment	September 24, 2004
The Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days Revealed	Zack Snyder	New Wave Entertainment	October 2004
The Last Horror Movie	Julian Richards	Prolific Films Snakehair Productions	May 13, 2005
The Curse	Kôji Shiraishi	Xanadeux Company	August 20, 2005
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon	Scott Glosserman	Glen Echo Entertainment Code Entertainment	October 13, 2006
The Zombie Diaries	Kevin Gates Michael Bartlett	Off World Films Bleeding Edge Films	October 29, 2006
The Hunt	Fritz Kiersch	Graymark Productions Azisa Pictures	December 11, 2006
Alone with Her	Eric Nicholas	Pin Hole Productions LLC The Weinstein Company	January 17, 2007
Welcome to the Jungle	Jonathan Hensleigh	Steelbridge Film Works Bauer Martinez Studios Valhalla Motion Pictures	April 19, 2007
The Poughkeepsie Tapes	John Erick Dowdle	Brothers Dowdle Productions Poughkeepsie Films	April 27, 2007
August Underground's Penance	Fred Vogel	Toetag Pictures	April 30, 2007
Long Pigs	Chris Power	Clowns After Midnight Productions Jordan Entertainment Chris Bridges Effects Studio	September 6, 2007
Head Case	Anthony Spadaccini	Fleet Street Films B.P.A. Productions	September 8, 2007
Exhibit A	Dom Rotheroe	Warp Films	October 1, 2007
Paranormal Activity	Oren Peli	Blumhouse Productions	October 14, 2007
Death of a Ghost Hunter	Sean Tretta	Ominous Productions	October 28, 2007
REC	Jaume Balagueró Paco Plaza	Castelao Producciones Filmax	23 November 2007
Look	Adam Rifkin	Captured Films	December 14, 2007
Monster	Erik Estenberg	The Asylum	January 15, 2008
Cloverfield	Matt Reeves	Bad Robot Productions	January 18, 2008
Diary of the Dead	George A. Romero	Artfire Films Romero-Grunwald Productions	February 15, 2008
Home Movie	Christopher Denham	Modernciné	July 10, 2008
Quarantine	John Erick Dowdle	Vertigo Entertainment Andale Pictures Filmax Entertainment	October 10, 2008
Occult	Kôji Shiraishi	Image Rings Creative Axa Company Ltd.	February 28, 2009
Evil Things	Dominic Perez	Go Show Media	August 13, 2009
The Ritual	Anthony Spadaccini	Fleet Street Films B.P.A. Productions	August 15, 2009
REC 2	Jaume Balagueró Paco Plaza	Castelao Producciones Filmax	October 2, 2009
Murder Collection V.1	Fred Vogel	Toetag Pictures	May 1, 2009
Paranormal Entity	Shane Van Dyke	The Asylum	December 22, 2009
Love Sex aur Dhokha	Dibakar Banerjee	Freshwater Films	March 19, 2010
Eyes in the Dark	Bjorn Anderson	Emerald City Pictures	April 25, 2010
Hotel Hollywood	Param Gill	G S Productions	July 23, 2010
Shirome	Kôji Shiraishi	Stardust Promotion Shirome Project Partners	August 13, 2010
The Last Exorcism	Daniel Stamm	Strike Entertainment StudioCanal Arcade Pictures	August 27, 2010
Undocumented	Chris Peckover	Sheperd Glen Productions	September 2010
8213: Gacy House	Anthony Fankhauser	The Asylum	September 28, 2010
Atrocious	Fernando Barreda Luna	Nabu Films Silencio Rodamos Programa Ibermedia	October 15, 2010
Paranormal Activity 2	Tod Williams	Blumhouse	October 22, 2010
Trollhunter	André Øvredal	Filmkameratene A/S Film Fund FUZZ	October 29, 2010
Unaware	Sean Bardin Robert Cooley	Cooley Productions	November 13, 2010
Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night	Toshikazu Nagae	Presidio Corporation	November 20, 2010
Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes	Jude Gerard Prest	The Asylum	March 1, 2011
Ragini MMS	Pawan Kripalani	Balaji Telefilms	May 13, 2011
The Tunnel	Carlo Ledesma	DLSHS Film Distracted Media Zapruder's Other Films	May 18, 2011
Grave Encounters	The Vicious Brothers	Twin Engine Films	June 1, 2011
World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries	Kevin Gates Michael Bartlett	Off World Films Bleeding Edge Films Straightwire Films	June 24, 2011
Hollow	Michael Axelgaard	Hollow Pictures Tribeca Film	July 31, 2011
Untitled	Shaun Troke	Shaunywa Films	September 2011
Apollo 18	Gonzalo López-Gallego	Bazelevs	September 2, 2011
The Tapes	Scott Bates Lee Alliston	Darkside Pictures Pure Film Productions	September 23, 2011
Paranormal Activity 3	Henry Joost Ariel Schulman	Blumhouse	October 21, 2011
The Amityville Haunting	Geoff Meed	The Asylum Taut Productions	December 2011
Chō Akunin	Kōji Shiraishi	Tokyo Raiders	2011
The Devil Inside	William Brent Bell	Insurge Pictures	January 6, 2012
Haunted Poland	Pau Masó	Maso & Co Productions	January 20, 2012
Chronicle	Josh Trank	Davis Entertainment	February 1, 2012
Project X	Nima Nourizadeh	Silver Pictures Green Hat Films	March 2, 2012
Evidence	Howie Askins	RynoRyder Productions	March 12, 2012
REC 3: Genesis	Paco Plaza	Filmax	March 30, 2012
V/H/S	Ti West Joe Swanberg David Buckner Adam Wingard Glenn McQuaid Radio Silence Productions	The Collective Bloody Disgusting	January 22, 2012
War of the Worlds – The True Story	Timothy Hines	Pendragon Pictures	June 14, 2012
The Dinosaur Project	Sid Bennett	Moonlighting Films	August 10, 2012
A Night in the Woods	Richard Parry	Richard Parry	September 7, 2012
End of Watch	David Ayer	Open Road Films	September 21, 2012
Grave Encounters 2	John Poliquin	Arclight Films	October 2, 2012
Paranormal Activity 4	Henry Joost Ariel Schulman	Room 101	October 19, 2012
The Bay	Barry Levinson	Lionsgate	November 2, 2012
A Haunted House	Michael Tiddes	Open Road Films	11th January 2013
Paranormal Activity 5	TBA	Paramount Pictures	October 24, 2013
Area 51	Oren Peli	Incentive Filmed Entertainment Blumhouse Productions Aramid Entertainment	November 15, 2013

Examples of found-footage TV series and made for TV specials

• Alternative 3 (1977)
• Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998) - UPN aired a 60 minute version with more interviews
• Jeopardy (2002) (BBC series)
• Lost Tapes (2009) (series)
• The River (2012) (series)

Examples of found-footage video games

• Michigan: Report from Hell (2005)
• Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (2010)
• Slender: The Eight Pages (2012) has a mode called Marble Hornets Mode, in which the player plays as a person on a found-footage tape.
• Slender: The Arrival (2013)