10 Movie Franchises That Destroyed Themselves With ONE Decision
6. Actually Showing The Blair Witch - Blair Witch
Perhaps the primary reason that The Blair Witch Project proved so successful was that it revelled in its own minimalist, low-budget filmmaking style, leaving audiences to make up most of the horror in their own minds rather than forcing rickety special effects upon them.
Even the terrible first sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, was smart enough to keep the titular supernatural entity out of the frame, but when the series got a surprise threequel in 2016, director Adam Wingard made the fatal decision to actually show off the Blair Witch.
Though the creature is only seen in one brief sequence, it's enough to reduce the terrifyingly enigmatic entity to a generic, CGI-slathered ghoul. And like that, the series' signature mystery evaporated in a puff of cynical mediocrity.
Despite wildly mixed reviews, Blair Witch did turn a profit due to its mere $5 million budget, but the $45.2 million worldwide gross was ultimately a far cry from what Lionsgate was hoping for - just a fraction of the original's $248.6 million haul - and so a prospective sequel was quietly cancelled.