Found footage is a fairly divisive subgenre of horror. For some, it is no more than a cheap gimmick that helps to mask low budgets and bad effects; for others, it is a more realistic and engrossing form of movie-making that can be done very well. Since The Blair Witch Project brought the format to mainstream success around the turn of the millennium, found footage has proven popular, with titles like REC, Paranormal Activity, and Cloverfield making big impressions.

However, decent examples often get overshadowed by both the success of the classics and the failure of the bad or forgettable ones. Many movies of this kind have used the format to creative and entertaining ends while telling compelling scary stories. This is a look at some of the lesser-known found footage horror movies that are worth watching.

RELATED: The 10 Best Found Footage Films, Ranked

Area 51

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Image Via Paramount Pictures

After the monumental success of Paranormal Activity, Oren Peli set about exploring found footage in different ways, and one of his more interesting efforts was Area 51. As the title suggests, it is the story of three young men who are determined to discover what’s being hidden at the infamous military base and a young woman whose late father had intimate knowledge of the goings-on. They team up to infiltrate Area 51 and soon realize they have made a grave error.

In Peli’s trademark style, malevolent forces go unseen, with the final minutes delivering the knockout punch and sealing the characters’ fates. The premise of being somewhere off-limits creates massive tension: It always feels as though the characters are seconds from being caught by something, be that armed guards or aliens. The sense of being watched is inescapable, and when the crew finally come face to face with what they have been looking for, it becomes hauntingly clear how naive their pursuit was. Quietly tense and finishing on one hell of a cool scene, Area 51 deserves a watch.

The Houses October Built

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Image Via Image Entertainment 

A horror set in extreme haunted house attractions makes for a great premise: Characters and audience alike enjoy a false sense of security with the assurance that there is no real danger, while the villains have their pick of unsuspecting victims. Five friends embark on an RV trip through the southern states to find the best extreme haunts, only to find themselves subject to a horrifying experience that isn’t contained within the walls of an attraction.

With no fewer than seven cameras going, a nicely rounded perspective is built, with sequences of the haunts themselves suiting the disorienting nature of found footage well. The cast has great chemistry together, and over the course of the story, they become noticeably more worn down by their grueling ordeal. The buildup is slow, but allows for character development and a sense of progression, and once things get going, the action leads to a number of surprisingly creative set-pieces. The Houses October Built is an effectively thrilling and at times downright chilling take on the subgenre.

The Sacrament

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Image Via Magnolia Pictures 

Ti West’s The Sacrament is easily one of the best found footage movies of the 21st century. An almost beat-for-beat retelling of the Jonestown Massacre, it follows a young man who is visiting his estranged sister at an isolated "community" (i.e. cult) with his two filmmaker friends in tow. The commune’s veneer of hippie ideals soon crumbles once their leader Father (ironically played by a man named Gene Jones) declares that their sanctuary has been infiltrated and that death is the only solution.

The format plants the audience squarely amidst the chaos, surrounded by the horrifying implications of cult mentality. It is a hauntingly visceral portrait that transcends horror and becomes tragedy. A brilliant script is used to perfection by Jones, who crafts a very grounded and silently menacing character, and delivers the deeply humanistic quality that such a story requires in order to succeed. This unsettling psychological horror certainly leaves an impression.

Creep

Silhouette of Mark Duplass in Creep 2014
Image via The Orchard

The lesser explored concept of non-supernatural stalking is brought into frighteningly sharp focus in Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice’s two-hander, Creep. A freelance cinematographer is hired by a strange terminally ill man to record a video diary for him to leave to his unborn child but comes to realize that he has been lured into a maddening ordeal. Captured on a single camera, the picture is remarkably clear without sacrificing the organic feel of the action and never seems flat or one-dimensional.

Duplass as the titular creep creates a truly unnerving character who feels dangerous without ever displaying violent tendencies. It is an uncomfortably raw look at etiquette versus survival instinct, and how people react to increasingly threatening scenarios. An inescapable sense of dread rooted in the nuances of human interaction is what makes Creep such an imposing viewing experience, leaving the audience looking at the world around them in a slightly more uncertain way.

Crowsnest

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Image Via IFC Midnight 

A slow-starter that picks up surprisingly well, Crowsnest is your basic lost-in-the-woods horror about a group of young friends on a road trip who are targeted by two largely-unseen assailants in an RV. Although dialog and acting leave something to be desired, what Crowsnest does so well is create a sense of foreboding with its cold, grey atmosphere and strategic framing that keeps the villains and the violence mostly off-screen.

Dialog seems largely improvised, leading to some stilted moments, but when the action gets going, it never lets up, and the final moments leave a cold, almost nihilistic feeling behind. There are a few standout scenes of unbearable tension that play with the arrival of the inevitable which make Crowsnest a memorable if unassuming watch.

Afflicted

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Image Via Entertainment One

Afflicted embraces all the deeper complexities of vampires: the worth of human existence, the moral dilemma of killing to survive, what to do with an eternity. A man with a terminal brain condition travels the world with his friend as part of their docuseries and begins to show superhuman traits following an attack by a mysterious woman. Sure enough, he realizes he has become a vampire, and once the life he knew has unraveled as a result, he decides to do something meaningful with his endless time on earth.

A well-acted passion project by writer/directors Clif Prowse and Derek Lee, this gritty little movie takes a less romantic look at the life of a vampire, and all the inherent tragedies he must live through over and over again. The dash of vigilante justice mixed in with a harrowing horror story makes for an unexpectedly satisfying and engaging POV movie.

Devil’s Pass

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Image Via Anchor Bay Entertainment

The camera plays an integral role in Renny Harlin’s Devil’s Pass. A group of students venture out to the site of the Dyatlov Pass incident, hoping to find some answers to the real-life unsolved mystery and document their progress. When an avalanche puts them in a desperate situation, they seek shelter in a creepy military facility built into the side of the mountain and uncover a terrifying secret, and perhaps the answers they went looking for.

While somewhat derailed by a questionable creature feature turn, it does a great job of building a bleak, inescapable environment and drops a few very compelling revelations throughout its course, including an unexpectedly disquieting ending. The camera ends up being the only credible witness to a series of incredible events, allowing the movie to exploit the found footage format more creatively than the average horror.

Hell House LLC

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Image Via Terror Films

This gripping horror mockumentary presents a compelling mystery story with a ghostly backdrop. Starting at the end, an incident at a walk-through horror attraction has left people dead, injured and missing, and authorities seem to be covering up what exactly went on. Flashing back, the group who created and operated the attraction are introduced, and the increasingly sinister events of the six week countdown to opening night are relayed through recovered videotapes.

The documentary framing allows for a well-paced narrative that holds the audience’s attention up to the last second, adding key information and new sources to thicken the plot and ultimately lead to the truth of what went on. Hell House LLC is a creepy, engrossing and at times truly chilling viewing experience that is sure to freak out even the bravest of horror fans.

All Hallows’ Eve

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Image Via Image Entertainment

Despite battling time and financial constraints when making his first feature, Damien Leone’s All Hallows’ Eve builds to a truly startling finale that gets under your skin. It is an anthology piece, held together by a plot involving a babysitter and two kids on Halloween night, who find and watch a VHS tape left in one of their candy bags. It contains three scary shorts - the third of which is unforgettably horrifying - which lead to an unexpectedly brutal and mind-bending conclusion that blurs the line between reality and fiction.

While two of the shorts are fairly mediocre, they play an integral part in tying the whole thing together and are clearly the work of an enthusiastic director trying his best with the rushed schedule he was given to both write and shoot them. The ending is where the movie truly shines, and justifies the sequels it later received.