In 2026, it is difficult to understand how of-the-moment The Blair Witch Project was when it was released in 1999. Between the found footage elements within the film and the revolutionary online marketing campaign that was run in the lead-up to the film’s release, Blair Witch was a scrappy little horror film that was perfectly positioned to revolutionize the industry in unprecedented ways, in no small part because of how it was transgressively utilizing the mediums of the era.
That film was famously directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, who have remained stalwarts of the indie horror space ever since. There have been many imitators of the Blair Witch Project style over the years, with the film directly inspiring the whole subgenre of found footage horror in direct ways. However, Myrick and Sánchez are now bringing a bold new kind of vision to the screen, producing the new film The Influencer Project, which looks to seize upon distinctly modern fears and technology in much the same way that Blair Witch did in ’99.
The Influencer Project is an upcoming found footage film produced by Myrick and Sánchez, directed by Mike Nybroe, and starring real-life content creator Chiara King as a fictionalized version of herself. In real life, King is a specialist in the fields of beauty products, dating advice, and overall lifestyle content on social media platforms, something that looks to be mimicked by the fictional version of herself within the film’s narrative.
Fascinatingly, not only does The Influencer Project feel as if it directly harkens back to The Blair Witch Project through its use of the found footage format and the cadence of its title, but also through its blurring of the lines between fact and fiction. When Blair Witch was gearing up for release in 1999, it infamously refused to have the cast or crew do any press to preserve the idea that the film was ‘real’ and that there were no surviving cast or crew; this was simply video footage that was found from a real-life incident.
While it would certainly be far more difficult to pull off this kind of marketing stunt in a post-internet world, The Influencer Project is clearly tapping into many of these same ideas and tactics through the casting of King and hijacking of her online persona.
The Influencer Project is set for release on October 2, 2026, where audiences will get to see for themselves the true horrors that lie behind making content for mass consumption in the modern age
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