The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American found-footage horror film directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. The film is presented as recovered footage from three student filmmakers — Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard, using their real names — who disappeared in the Black Hills forest near Burkittsville, Maryland while filming a documentary about the local Blair Witch legend.

Over the course of several days, the trio becomes hopelessly lost in the woods and is subjected to increasingly terrifying nocturnal events — mysterious sounds, piles of stones arranged around their tent, stick figures hanging from trees, and evidence that something is stalking them. The Blair Witch Project was a cultural phenomenon that essentially created the found-footage horror genre and demonstrated the power of internet viral marketing — the filmmakers created an elaborate website suggesting the events were real, and many audience members entered the theater genuinely believing they were watching actual found footage. Made for approximately $60,000, the film earned $248 million worldwide, one of the most extraordinary returns in cinema history.