10 Great Films That Are Ugly On Purpose

While it's absolutely fair to say that The Blair Witch Project's found footage style was primarily a budgetary concern - given that it was shot for a mere $60,000 - it's important to remember that the film's grounded grottiness was also a major reason for its breakout success.

The movie was shot on consumer-grade cameras, lending it an aesthetic which, combined with its minimalistic approach to scares, just screamed "realism!" at the audience.

Even outside of the film's groundbreaking viral marketing campaign, The Blair Witch Project expertly exploited its low-fi visual style to assume a veneer of "authenticity," such that many actually believed that they were truly watching footage discovered in the woods by the police.

Though this style has been truly run into the ground over the last 20 years with a slew of uninspired imitators - and the occasional neat innovator - back in 1999, its purposefully un-cinematic style is exactly what made it such a success.