THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is a 1999 American horror film pieced together from amateur footage, filmed in real time.
The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company. The film relates the story of three student filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams)
who hiked into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch, and disappeared.
The viewers are told that the three were never seen or heard from again, although their video and sound equipment (along with most of the footage they shot)
was discovered a year later. This "recovered footage" is presented as the film the viewer is watching.
The Blair Witch Project was shown at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, and released by Artisan on 30 July 1999 after months of publicity, including a ground-breaking campaign
by the studio to use the internet and suggest that the film was a record of real events. The movie was positively received by critics and went on to gross over US$248
million worldwide, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time.