blair witch

Lionsgate’s 2016 attempt at a surprise Blair Witch revival didn’t exactly reignite the franchise, but there’s always TV! Reports indicate that the newly-branded Studio L is working on a small-screen iteration of The Blair Witch Project, along with a number of other adaptations.

Inspired by several of the films in multiplexes this holiday season, here’s a list of some of our favorite films - that became some of our least favorite film series.

Released in 1999, The Blair Witch Project quickly became one of the most profitable independent films of all time. It wasn’t technically the first found footage horror film, but it’s still the most famous of the bunch. Everyone knows the Blair Witch name (and the names Heather, Josh and Mike), but did you know that directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick’s wildly successful horror flick didn’t even have a script? That’s just one of the facts featured in the last episode of You Think You Know Movies!

The Blair Witch Project was such a success partly because of the film’s marketing-- even though we all know it’s not, a lot of it’s popularity came about because of the insistence that it was all real. Now it looks like the surprise sequel Blair Witch might be capitalizing on that phenomenon with a new viral marketing plan.

Y’know those back to school ads for Staples? The ones that repurpose the Christmas standard “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” to celebrate children going back class? I always hated those ads as a kid. Going back to school was not a time to celebrate. It was a time for grief and mourning.

It’s back to the woods we go in the newest trailer for ‘Blair Witch,’ the surprise sequel to The Blair Witch Project that had one of the coolest reveals in recent memory. Marketed as simply ‘The Woods,’ the film had an early screening at San Diego Comic Con, at which the real title and connection to the original film was announced. When the audience exited the theater after it was over, they saw that during the screening the big poster advertising ‘The Woods’ had been swapped for a ‘Blair Witch’ poster.

2016 has been the year of pop culture surprise releases — some, like Lemonade and 10 Cloverfield Lane, have been pretty great, which makes us even more hopeful for Blair Witch. Originally marketed as The Woods, the sneaky sequel to the found footage horror classic is set to hit theaters next month, taking audiences back to where it all began…but judging by these new TV spots, heading back into the woods of Burkittsville seems like a pretty terrible idea (in a good, spooky way, of course).