The Houses October Built movies offer a creepy new take on the crowded found footage genre. The extremely controversial Cannibal Holocaust from 1980 is one of the first found footage horror movies, which featured a documentary crew's bleak encounter with a cannibal tribe. The film proved so shocking and convincing director Ruggero Deodato later had to prove to an Italian court the actors in the film hadn't really been murdered on camera. It was The Blair Project Project from 1999 that popularised the genre, however, which became one of the most successful independent horror films ever.
Found footage has now become a horror staple due to the success of movies like Cloverfield, REC and the Paranormal Activity franchise. Unfortunately, a glut of mediocre found footage movies - which includes a few of the Paranormal Activity sequels - hurt the genre, with some producers often using it as a way to make a cheap horror flick. The 2016 Blair Witch sequel also proved to be a letdown, though there have been some solid entries in recent years like M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit and Unfriended.
The Houses October Built is a found footage series that plays around with the format, with the original film following a group of friends taking a trip to haunted house attractions across America. The group - consisting of Brandy, Bobby, Mikey, Zack, and Jeff - record the journey and interview the people running the attractions. They learn about the dark side of the industry too, such as haunts that used dubious tactics to get scares or used real bodies for props. They also learn of an extreme haunt group called the Blue Skelton, with stories suggesting they might actually torture and kill people.
The Houses October Built is a found footage movie built from the ground up to blur the line between reality and fiction, with all the characters being named after their actors and most of the interview footage being real. It can play like an odd mesh between travel log, haunted house tour, and horror movie. The first movie contains some genuine chills, however, especially in the lead up to the ending. The final scenes are the most disturbing when the crew find the Blue Skelton and are buried alive - without knowing if it's all some kind of sick joke to scare them.
The Houses October Built 2 doesn't work quite as well and is the more divisive entry. The movie picks up about a year after the original, and again plays like a road trip documentary of Halloween haunted houses, but the story doesn't fully click. It also ends on a twist that reframes the events of both movies - and one that a lot of viewers got angry about. That said, both the original The Houses October Built and its sequel are unique experiments in the found footage genre, and worth seeking out for horror fans looking for a fresh take on the concept.