We Played a Game of Screen Drafts to Determine the 13 Best Found Footage Films

Screen Drafts is a popular podcast.  This is a version of the screen drafts game where 3 people chose the best (ideally) 13 films that fit into a draft topic with trivia and vetoes thrown in to keep the game interesting. My name is Dennis. My wife chose the topic for this game, found footage horror films, and played as did our friend Scott. The only real rules were it has to be 75 percent or more footage captured by cameras that the a character in the film is aware of, and the films could not veer towards mockumentary because that is its own thing. With that in mind, we spent weeks and weeks watching films and no discussing or letterbox rating them so as not to give anything away. Then I contacted radio personality and film critic (https://www.stevepulaski.com/) Steve Pulaski because We needed a person with a vast film knowledge to provide trivia to determine who got which picks. 

He asked some very good questions (about films ranging from August Underground to The Virginity Hit) and I won trivia, Scott came in second and Vanessa came in third. For clarification, veto cards allow a player to eliminate a choice on that position on the list. You can veto a pick in the hopes it gets played higher later, as happened in our game.  Veto overrides allow a vetoed pick to stay at that position so it is like the person that tried to eliminate a choice simply wasted a card. 

Option C (5 choices more towards the bottom) 13, 12, 9, 6 and 3--comes with two veto cards

Option B (4 choices) 11, 8, 5 and 2--comes with 2 veto cards and an override

Option A (4 choices all in top 10 including number one)  10, 7, 4 and 1--one veto card & one override.

Vanessa and I still had a veto and an override carried over from the last game, a Frankenstein draft we played months ago. I chose option A. Scott chose option C and Vanessa ended up with option B.

This game was played at a sports bar called The Frozen Cactus. Where Scott had Bud. Vanessa had vodka cranberries and I had shots of Bullet Whiskey, the drink that Stallone carries around with him in the Walter Hill film, Bullet to the Head, which is not a found footage film but great nevertheless. 

Scott had the first pick at thirteen. He liked the creepy pasta, myth feel of his first pick which he described as similar to The Empty Man but with a striking shout out to The Blair Witch Project. The film, Butterfly Kisses (2018) was unseen by Vanessa and I, but it sounded like a fine addition to the list.

13. Butterfly Kisses (2018)

Scott's next pick had him intrigued by both the celebrated director (Ti West) and the fact that it was made by Vice which he thought of as only a news source. He found the actor playing the cult leader in 2013's The Sacrament (Gene Jones) next level creepy. He also loved the ending. Vanessa and I both liked the film with reservations. The story was so close to Jim Jones that we thought it may as well be a docudrama. But we were fine with the film being played at twelve. 

12. The Sacrament (2013)

For Vanessa's first pick, she wanted to go other than horror. And Project X (2012) made her laugh a lot. The young security guard characters, the drug dealer and the lead's father delivered stand out stuff for her. Scott and I enjoyed it as well and put up no fight though I laughed more at The Virginity Hit.

11. Project X (2012)

For ten, I tried to be strategic. I picked a film I did not really care for but one that had a few choice scenes that made it necessary for the list. Of course the things that were creative about it in 2008 were the things that made it seem a bit like a standard reality docu series episode today. I played Lake Mungo. Scott had not seen it and Vanessa had it at ten and was somewhat indifferent. So me playing a film that I did not want to end up very high backfired because it would not have been played too high.

10. Lake Mungo (2008)

Scott chose for number nine, a film in a series that my wife and I were completely indifferent towards. V/H/S. The good news was he chose the first one which has the short "Amateur Night," and that short plus the long history of the franchise kept V from vetoing at number 9.

09. V/H/S (2012)

At eight Vanessa played a film she was worried might be left off the list. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018). She admires j horror and Scott and I were fine with this choice.

08. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)

At number seven, I did not learn my lesson and again played a film that I wanted to save from going to high on the list as I think it has its place but the reboot is just as scary and with better motivation. And that is The Blair Witch Project (1999). I also think the pick I had in mind for number one did everything BW did but did it before and better. I shouldn't have bothered since Vanessa had Blair listed low on her list and Scott did not have it at all. They offered no vetoes.

07. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Scott found his next pick to be an absolutely insane movie that he said was more vibe than film. Vanessa and I both had good feelings about this film and its placement.

06. The Outwaters (2022)

My wife is responsible for the comedy in this draft, first with Project X and then with this film that never fails to bring a smile to her face, last year's Deadstream. She laughs throughout his film. I know she was debating between this and #Chad gets the axe (2023). We discussed the film and my favorite film like it, Dashcam. Scott liked Deadstream and did not veto. We all liked how well it played with internet comments in streaming videos. No veto played.

05. Deadstream (2022)

I spent my forth turn discussing how found footage is good for shock cinema and how snuff like films exist in this space and once you see those The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a bit mellow. I am talking stuff like August Underground, but that one did not quite work for me. To honor this genre, I played American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore (2015), a film about people getting gassed and chopped into bits. It really stuck with me. My co-drafters had not seen the film and Vanessa vetoed it. I regrouped and played another harsh film that was then vetoed by Scott because he found it so annoying.  But Vanessa used her veto override and it stayed at four because Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015) is brilliant. And even if it lacks ultra violence for what I was trying to do with this pick, Adrien Tofi's constant "You need to find a solution to this problem" is as harrowing as anything.

04. Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015)

Scott loved his last pick. He loved the Dante's Inferno of it. I loved the Laura Croft of the main character. Vanessa liked it but thought it was listed high. I did too but no veto was played.

03. As Above So Below (2014)

For number two Vanessa played my number one and was promptly vetoed. The McPherson Tapes (1989) is a film that was thought to be real footage for a time. It is for me the only five star found footage film. I love the family, the tension and the way it ends where most films begin. Since Vanessa was earlier debating between picking Deadstream or #Chad gets the axe at number five, she went ahead and played Chad here. Scott had no objections and I did not want to use my last veto since i could carry it over into the next time we have a game.

02. #Chadgetstheaxe (2023)

The reason I got the number one pick is my love for McPherson Tapes which I tried to play at one and was vetoed by Scott. He found the film a bit dull and silly. I was sad for this spot at this point but all was not lost because I kept my second favorite found footage film 84 C Mopic (1989) as a backup, it is a very well observed Vietnam found footage film. It was vetoed by Vanessa because she was somewhat indifferent to it. I then tried American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore (2015) for reasons outlined earlier and Vanessa used her last veto on that, for reasons outlined earlier. At this point, I had a free choice pick but only titles I thought were enjoyable but not great. I went with a somewhat standard found footage horror that had a great setting and two well drawn characters(Ryan and Pfiefer) and even the jerk character is compelling. I like the world of theater and those old actor myth, break a leg kind of stories so I picked something I would have played at ten and no one was quite happy with. At least in the next draft (Jekyll and Hyde films) I alone will have the extra veto 

01. The Gallows (2015)