The Blair Witch Project sent horror movie fans into a spin after its three protagonists led viewers to believe it was all real.

Using a small Hi8 video camera and 16mm black and white film, the three paranormal investigators, Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard, filmed themselves during what was supposed to only be 10 minutes of a feature length faux-documentary film.

The vision, audio and how petrified they were led the two writers and directors, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, to use the entire footage for the film, causing cinema-goers in 1999 to believe it was non-fiction.

“I insisted that we weren’t lost … I insisted that we keep going. I insisted that we walk south. Everything had to be my way. And this is where we’ve ended up and it’s all because of me that we’re here now – hungry, cold, and hunted,” whimpers a traumatised Donahue directly into the camera.

“I love you Mum, Dad. I am so sorry.

“What is that? I’m scared to close my eyes, I’m scared to open them! We’re gonna die out here!”

Crazy with fear as they filmed their surrounds, scared to death the witch was going to pounce any moment and throw them into a hot vat of bubbling rats heads, they disappeared into the Maryland forest, and left the cameras behind on the ground.

They vanished without a trace.

It was the start of a new era of horror movie which was more authentic, less Hollywood, and it began the sub-genre of “found footage” horror.

Approved by the filmmakers, fast forward 25 years and co-producer Mike Monella is making a restored, higher resolution re-release (not so grainy).

Sharper in focus, the new edition will also include over 90 minutes of unseen, deleted footage and a two-and-a-half-hour documentary.

“The new master is scarier, sharper, and exactly how we dreamed it should be,” Monello wrote on X.

Heather Donahue turns the camera on herself during her confession scene from the horror film The Blair Witch Project. Photo: AAP

Sorting fact from fiction

The three filmmakers are on the hunt for the legend of the Blair witch, who was an Irish orphan, Elly Kedward, who lived in the 1700s and was accused of witchcraft after several children accused her of luring them into her home and drawing blood.

Banished to the forest near Burkettsville, by that winter half the town’s children had vanished.

The “woman ghost” continues her killing spree of dozens of children throughout the 1800s and 1900s until these three decide to go and find her.

Myrick and Sánchez send them off without a script and some GPS co-ordinates to follow, but within 48 hours, they become lost, panicked and spooked.

The directors later admitted to manipulating the actors’ environment, creating unsettling situations and noises including baby cries to elicit real fear and confusion, which was instrumental in capturing the raw, emotional performances that defined the film.

At one point, wooden stick figures suddenly start hanging from trees, and what was supposed to be an improvised acting gig turns into a frenzied survivor quest all the while filming what’s happening around them.

The movie ends with Leonard’s blood-stained clothes being found, Williams inside a derelict house and Donahue’s final confession to her parents.

Her camera is knocked down as she films Williams up against a wall covered in children’s hand prints, and then all is silent, the footage found under the derelict house a year later.

“Heather told me at the wrap party that there were times out there when she actually had to get away from the guys and be by herself for a little bit,” Myrick told Filmmakers Magazine in 1999.

“She said that she was getting so far into the role and the surroundings that she was about to lose it. So I think that the technique worked.”

The twist

At a time when the internet was only learning to evolve, the directors created a Blair Witch website, constructing a believable back story, even sharing crime scene photos to perpetuate the hoax.

The three actors, who improvised every word and filmed the whole thing, reportedly were asked by the movie studio to go into hiding, thereby preventing them from promoting the story on red carpets.

“People believed they were dead, then once the conceit was revealed, believed they were hacks, and a backlash swiftly followed,” wrote Indiependent UK.

The film had an original budget of $US60,000 and global box office receipts of $US248 million.

“The actors tolerated these indignities, expecting their windfall to arrive, but it never did. As the film broke the $100 million barrier at the box office, the studio sent them fruit baskets.”

As the re-release premieres to the next generation of horror fans, the three actors asked the Lionsgate studio for “retroactive residuals”.

The original filmmakers released a statement in support of their claim.

“[While we] respect Lionsgate’s right to monetise the intellectual property as it sees fit, we must highlight the significant contributions of the original cast.

“As the literal faces of what has become a franchise, their likenesses, voices, and real names are inseparably tied to The Blair Witch Project.

“Their unique contributions not only defined the film’s authenticity but continue to resonate with audiences around the world.”