There’s plenty of fish in the sea, at least when it comes to found footage horror flicks on Amazon Prime. If you’re a FF fanatic like myself you’ll want to check out these currently streaming POV chillers.
Released just this year, Finding Randy is a mostly clever mystery chiller about a group of friends celebrating the return home of their buddy, Randy (Sam Meder). Things turn from fun to worrisome when Randy seemingly vanishes during an excursion into the woods, a mystery that intensifies when several of his friends start receiving cryptic text messages and photos from Randy’s phone.
Energetically directed by Greg McNichol, FR is a nice change in pace in the FF universe: instead of friends investigating a haunted house the film offers a smart group of people pulling a sorta Scooby-Doo act in order to find out why their friend disappeared. And for a lot of its running time FR manages to pull you in and envelope you in its puzzle.
Butterfly Kisses (2018) is one of the more ambitious FF flicks I’ve seen in a while. Struggling filmmaker Gavin (Seth Adam Kallick) discovers a mysterious box of videotape in his in-laws’ basement. The footage appears to be an unfinished student film about an urban legend known as the Peeping Tom. Thinking this could be the break he needs, Gavin sets out to find out if the creepy footage is real evidence of supernatural activity, or simply a prank.
BK creates a thoroughly sinister atmosphere and some genuinely chilling moments. The only weak point is Gavin who comes off as way too aggressively unlikeable. That aside, this is a worthy entry in the FF subgenre and definitely worth a look.
They’re Watching (2016) presents one of the cleverest ideas for a FF movie I’ve heard in years: what would happen if House Hunters International filmed an episode at a house once occupied by a witch? The small crew of such a reality show finds out when they fly to a small eastern European country to renovate a centuries old house. Things don’t go quite as planned when superstitious locals start getting in the way.
TW is a fun crowd-pleaser that never takes itself seriously and builds to a bat-shit crazy ending. An uninteresting subplot involving one of the characters gets in the way but that’s a small price to pay for a massively entertaining flick.
A burnt out filmmaker (Turner Clay) switches career paths and decides to venture into the world of paranormal investigation in The Blackwell Ghost (2017), a conservative Paranormal Activity-type of creepfest. His first foray into the supernatural takes him to suburban Pennsylvanian house supposedly haunted by the ghost of a child killer from the 1930s.
An enjoyable low-key slow burn, BG is fueled by the energy and likability of Clay’s character and a genuinely chilling atmosphere. It’s also nice to see a film of this kind treating the subject matter with respect and sincere interest rather than a standard cheesy, exploitative rip-off like many of the ilk.
Frazier Park Recut (2017) is the jewel in this crown. Being both a semi-parody of the FF subgenre and an authentically suspenseful tale, the film features aspiring moviemakers Tyler (Tyler Schnabel) and Sam (Sam Hanover) in their endeavor to shoot a low-budget FF film at an isolated woodsy cabin. Along for the ride is peculiar actor, Tom (David Lee Hess), cast as the film-within-the-film’s killer. Things slowly go downhill when Tayler’s and Sam’s ideas clash and Tom subtly, and actively, sabotages the production. Does Tom have other plans for the two filmmakers?
If Creep was your kind of movie then you’ll definitely get a kick out of FPR. It’s smart, funny, and memorable, especially Hess who comes off as both demented and weirdly likable.
All of these fun flicks are available on Amazon Prime and definitely worth checking out. Please watch my video review below for more details on the above films!