The Blair Witch Project Just Dropped On Netflix

It's been a while since we sank our teeth into a good horror film, and the thrill-seekers among us are desperate to have a decent scare over the summer season.

Well, horror fans needn't look any further than Netflix this month for chills and spills, as the streaming platform has just added The Blair Witch Project to its impressive roster of movies.

For those of us who haven't be scared sh**less by the cult classic, The Blair Witch Project follows three student filmmakers who are looking to make a documentary about infamous local fable, the Blair Witch.

All three students disappeared, but their equipment and footage was found one year later, showing the unspeakable horrors the teens suffered by a ghostly figure.

Haxan Films/Artisan Entertainment)

To make the plot appear as realistic as possible, a large amount of the dialogue was improvised, and the marketing campaign listed the main actors as "missing" or "dead" - seeing some people in America believe the story of The Blair Witch was actually true.

Despite its tiny $300,000 budget (the equivalent of around £212,000), the film was hugely successful, grossing $248 million (around £188 million) making it the fifth highest grossing movie of all time during that period.

The Blair Witch Project is considered to be the pioneer of the now established 'found footage' genre of horror movies, which has since been popularised by horror favourites Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield.

Haxan Films/Artisan Entertainment)

Well, we know what we're going to be watching this weekend...

While The Blair Witch Project was successful, actor Heather Donahue said the film actually had a negative effect on her career.

"People thinking I was really dead really affected my career adversely," she told Vice in 2016.

"It's very hard for me to talk about the backlash because, for me, it was so directly personal.

Haxan Films/Artisan Entertainment)

"It was my mother getting sympathy cards, it was people coming up to me on the street telling me that they wished I was dead, saying they want their money back.

"It was me in my 84 Toyota Celica breaking down in LA in La Cienega underneath a billboard with my own face on it. It was a profoundly surreal experience."

The Blair Witch Project is available to stream on Netflix.

Topics: Horror, TV News, TV & Film, Netflix

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

@0xKimberley