10 Horror Movies That Are All Too Real

The film that popularised the found-footage subgenre and made millions terrified to set foot in the woods, The Blair Witch Project’s eerie tale of a group of student filmmakers who become lost in the woods while making a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch said to inhabit the area has gone down in horror history for tricking audiences into believing that what they saw was real.

Framed as consisting of the actual footage captured by the students recovered after their disappearance, The Blair Witch Project’s deployment of clever filmmaking techniques and transmedia marketing has become the stuff of legend.

Not only did filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez create a believable sense of realism through ultra-low-budget techniques like having the actors shoot the film themselves, they also capitalised on the emergence of the internet by creating a fake website containing newsreel-style videos and interviews about the students and supposed investigation to blur the line between fact and fiction. Missing posters were also posted prior to the film’s Sundance premiere.

The plan worked so well, in fact, that the actors’ families received sympathy cards from those who watched the film. Even today some people still believe the footage to be genuine.