8 Surprise Horror Movie Sequels That Caught Fans Unawares

There's sneaky, and then there's this. In early 2016, it was reported that director Adam Wingard working on a found footage horror called The Woods. That spring, a trailer was released in early 2016 bearing that very title.

However, when the film premiered at San Diego Comic Con, it was revealed that this film which seemed very much in the same vein as The Blair Witch Project was in fact a direct sequel to the 1999 horror hit, simply entitled Blair Witch.

Wingard and company most definitely succeeded in catching their audience off-guard. Alas, in most other respects Blair Witch proved to be a pretty major failure.

It garnered largely negative reviews, and took only $45 million at the global box office: not bad given it only cost $5 million to make, but pretty paltry compared to the original's worldwide haul of $248 million against an even tinier budget. (Even the widely derided Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 managed $47 million.)

Still, this doesn't seem to have hurt Wingard's career any, given he hired to direct Godzilla Vs Kong; nor has it necessarily killed off the Blair Witch franchise, as it was recently confirmed that work is underway on a TV spin-off series.