No Film School

‘The Blair Witch Project’ Campaign That Convinced People the Movie Was Real

The Blair Witch Project’s 1999 launch hinged on a guerrilla marketing campaign that presented the fictional disappearance of three student filmmakers as a real event. Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez built a faux‑documentary narrative, complete with missing‑person posters, a dedicated website, and an IMDb listing that marked the actors as “missing, presumed dead.” The strategy leveraged the era’s limited internet verification tools, prompting widespread belief and conversation. The viral buzz helped the ultra‑low‑budget film earn over $140 million worldwide.