2. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

As one of the first major found footage films, part of what made The Blair Witch Project so frightening was the marketing made audiences think it was real. The official website featured police reports, newsreel-style interviews, and missing persons posters. IMDb even listed the actors as “missing, presumed dead.” Three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard (also the names of the actors, which added to the confusion)—hike in the Black Hills Forest to film a documentary about a local myth known as the Blair Witch. Their camera was discovered a year later.

The Blair Witch Project scares are relatively simple and restrained: twigs snapping unexpectedly, stick figures hanging from trees, or the sound of children laughing. While some may seem quaint compared to the extremes the found footage genre would reach in the coming decades, they still rattle us. Even the mere image of someone standing in a corner is unsettling to this day. The Blair Witch Project is a fun time capsule, setting the standard for how the blend of truth and fiction can create unforgettable horror.