The Found Footage Horror Feature That Defined The Genre Is Now Streaming

The Blair Witch Project follows the fabricated tale of a trio of young filmmakers who lean into the local urban legend of the Blair Witch to make a documentary for a student project. Going straight to the source, Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard hike out into the wilderness of Maryland and shoot their movie. During this time, the group goes missing with only their equipment, and the footage they shot recovered a handful of years later, with that footage being what audiences watch.

Crafty and clever, The Blair Witch Project was a real DIY venture for Myrick and Sánchez, who planned to shoot the production with a total cost not exceeding $60,000. By the time all was said and done and the post-production was finished, the movie cost somewhere between $200,000 and $750,000. And, sure, while the movie ended up costing way more than the directorial team had planned, it would gross a staggering $248.6 million at the box office.

Yes, the story behind The Blair Witch Project was intriguing on its own, but what really sold the film to prospective audiences was the production’s marketing. To start with, all of the leading actors used their real names, muddying the waters between fact and fiction. But through a promotional effort that drove up the hype around these supposed “missing students,” which used staged news footage as well as hired performers acting as police officers and detectives, the movie was really sold to the public. 

But the unique promotion bits didn’t stop there. At film festivals where the movie screened, attendees were handed missing person posters with the actors’ faces on them, and even The Blair Witch Project’s IMDb page noted that the actors were “missing, presumed dead” during the film’s first year in circulation. It was a genius marketing ploy that worked and convinced many that the story told in the movie was as real as it gets.

When it comes to the truth behind The Blair Witch Project, the haunting story was conceived by Myrick and Sánchez in 1993. The pair first came up with the lore of the supernatural creature before penning out a bare-bones screenplay that allowed the actors to go off script and improv for a good chunk of the movie.

Although it was far from the first found-footage movie to be created, The Blair Witch Project proved that fresh ideas (especially in marketing) can make or break your work. As is typically the case with a movie of its caliber, the horror flick was given an almost immediate sequel through 2000’s Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. While that one was a flop, the team gave it another try in 2016’s Blair Witch, which pushed the sequel to the side and served as a direct follow-up to the original film. 

Right now, you can head over to Peacock to check out the beginning of a legend as The Blair Witch is currently streaming. Should you feel so inclined, the streamer is also the current home of Book of Shadows and Blair Witch if a franchise night is in your future.