8 Movies That Blurred The Line Between Our World And Theirs

The Blair Witch Project remains the poster child for viral marketing, a movie that challenged audiences to question what was real and what was fake. Most impressively, it released before any of those concepts were in the public consciousness.

While it can't claim the title of 'first found footage movie' - that honour is afforded to 1980's Cannibal Holocaust - it dragged the format into the mainstream and presented one of the greatest cases for its effectiveness. How do you market something so alien to audiences? Haxan Films' answer was to double down on the believability.

Before the movie's release, a website was created that explored the mythos of the Blair Witch, delving into the newly-fabricated urban legend's history. It hosted images of three students who had gone missing while making a documentary on the topic, fake interviews, news clippings and photos of 'police evidence' that had been collected on the case.

This site, coupled with 'missing persons' posters being handed out at screenings and 'missing, presumed dead' credits on IMDb, made The Blair Witch Project something special. A movie that was so far ahead of its time in terms of testing boundaries, that audiences were left questioning its legitimacy for years.