10 Movies That Ripped Up The Rule Book
2. The Blair Witch Project
Historically, horror movies from first time filmmakers with a no-name cast and a small budget can still manage to do well in theatres and/or home video. But few have done so well, nor come from such unlikely origins, as The Blair Witch Project.
Shot on basic digital camcorders by the cast themselves with largely improvised dialogue, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez's 1999 chiller garnered widespread attention after initially being presented as though it was actual recovered footage of three student filmmakers who disappeared investigating the legend of a witch.
This verisimilitude was heightened by background information made available on the Blair Witch Project website; one of the first times the internet played a key role in publicising a hit movie.
The phenomenon captured the zeitgeist, made the film one of the most talked about of its time, and - hand in hand with The Sixth Sense - spearheaded a new wave of understated supernatural horror, as well as popularising the found footage format.
Having been made for a reported $60,000, The Blair Witch Project wound up taking almost $249 million worldwide. This was the biggest office return against budget of all time, until the similar Paranormal Activity showed up a decade later ($15,000 budget, $193 million box office).