Today, The Blair Witch Project is most recognized for kicking off mainstream horror’s fascination with found-footage movies (though it was certainly not the first motion picture to utilize the format) and ensuring that nobody can go into an abandoned sprawling forest again without looking over their shoulders to check if any supernatural forces are sneaking up on them. But the legacy of The Blair Witch Project is especially apparent in how it was marketed. This indie horror title got onto people’s radars in the first place because of an ingenious marketing campaign that provided a template on how movies could utilize the internet for promotional purposes.
It wasn’t just the in-universe Blair Witch characters gazing into the camera with this movie. The norms for 21st-century movie marketing were also staring moviegoers straight in the face, at least when it came to The Blair Witch Project’s promotional push.
What would eventually become one of the big success stories of 1999 had, like so many sleeper indie hits, humble beginnings. The Blair Witch Project had its world premiere at the 1999 edition of the Sundance Film Festival and was just the kind of unknown wild card that can take off like a shot at the festival. That’s just what happened with The Blair Witch Project, which immediately struck a chord with the moviegoers and studio executives who saw it at its first screening.
