Film

Banshee Chapter

Banshee Chapter is a found-footage horror film that spirals from drug experimentation into paranoid conspiracy territory. It's deliberately disorienting—mixing archive footage, radio static, and handheld chaos into something that feels like you're watching someone's unraveling obsession. For viewers who love dread that builds through atmosphere rather than jump scares, and who aren't put off by a deliberately cheap aesthetic.

TMDb rating2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like paranoid conspiracy thrillers where the dread comes from a half-understood mystery and a drug-fuelled haze, and you don't need every thread tied off.

Skip it if you want a scare every few minutes; this is talky and murky for long stretches, and its horror leans on mood and atmosphere more than on set pieces.

What it asks of you: It runs a brisk 87 minutes but asks patience in its middle, where you piece together a conspiracy from fragments and let an unsettling mood settle over you.

If you liked this

The Blair Witch Project1999

The template for found-footage horror done right: two filmmakers, one woods, mounting dread that makes darkness itself feel malevolent. It trusts you to be frightened by what you don't see.

But The pacing is glacial and most of the runtime is just people arguing in the dark. If you need something to happen, you'll find this maddening.

The Blair Witch Project poster

Sinister2012

Found footage woven into a narrative frame, with genuine imagery that haunts you. It builds methodically from mystery to something genuinely unsettling without relying on gore.

But The slowburn approach means you're sitting with dread for a long time before payoff. Some people find that exhausting rather than engrossing.

Sinister poster

The Wailing2016

A mystery that refuses easy answers, layering paranoia and ambiguity until you can't trust what you've seen. Visually gorgeous and narratively labyrinthine in ways that reward attention.

But Nearly three hours and unapologetically unclear about what's real. Some viewers hate the ending's ambiguity; others resent the time commitment.

The Wailing poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Banshee Chapter

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Videodrome1983

Both use found footage, radio signals, and the decay of media as a pathway to something unknown. Both suggest that consuming the footage might do something to you.

Cronenberg's masterpiece about media corruption and reality breakdown. It's genuinely disorienting in ways that feel prophetic now—body horror and philosophical crisis interwoven. Looks like a fever dream transmitted through bad cables.

But Viscerally grotesque and philosophically dense. It's not fun to watch and won't explain itself. If you want clarity or comfort, you will hate this.

Videodrome poster
More like this (7)

Noroi: The Curse2005

Japanese found-footage horror that's genuinely eerie, building from internet oddities and urban legends into something genuinely unsettling. The aesthetic is deliberately cheap and that makes it worse.

But Subtitled, and the pacing assumes you're patient. The payoff is atmospheric rather than explosive, which bores some people completely.

Noroi: The Curse poster

The Tunnel2011

Australian found-footage with real claustrophobic tension. Underground, darkly lit, and the filmmakers commit fully to the premise that this was recovered footage from a disaster.

But Very slow to develop and the final act gets noisy and confusing in ways that frustrate rather than frighten. The logic of what's happening is never quite clear.

The Tunnel poster

V/H/S2012

An anthology of short found-footage horror pieces with genuine invention. Several segments are outstanding; the frame story ties them together thematically in clever ways.

But It's wildly uneven. One brilliant segment followed by two duds makes the whole thing feel scattered. Some shorts are genuinely bad.

V/H/S poster

Grave Encounters2011

Found-footage horror set in an abandoned asylum with the energy of something made on a shoestring budget but with real commitment to scares. More visceral than cerebral.

But It's silly in places where it doesn't mean to be, and the jump scares start feeling mechanical. The second act drags before things go weird.

Grave Encounters poster

The Last Exorcism2010

Found footage that plays with genre expectations, starting as a skeptical documentary and becoming something else. At its best, genuinely tense and uncomfortable.

But The ending divides people sharply. Some find it brilliant, others feel betrayed. The pacing is uneven and the found-footage conceit creaks by the third act.

The Last Exorcism poster

Unfriended2014

A haunted-Skype-call horror that could be gimmick but actually commits to its format. Fast, modern, and it understands internet culture better than it has any right to.

But The entire film is a computer screen, which some people find migraine-inducing. The scares are jump-based and if those don't work for you, there's nothing else underneath.

Unfriended poster

Altered States1980

Both are about consciousness altered through chemical means leading into something incomprehensible and governmental. Both use disorienting visuals to represent a mind coming apart.

A scientist experiments with sensory deprivation and hallucinogens and watches his consciousness splinter. It's urgent, visually bizarre, and William Hurt gives himself entirely to the role. Ken Russell directing means it never settles.

But The science is pseudoscientific nonsense and the film never pretends otherwise. If you need rigour, this will infuriate you. The ending is deliberately strange.

Altered States poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by