Blumhouse's Blair Witch Project remake taps a YouTuber to direct

It's the latest in a wave of successful horror YouTube creators getting bumped up to helm studio work

At CinemaCon 2024, Lionsgate and Blumhouse announced a planned remake of 1999's viral breakout horror movie The Blair Witch Project, the film that launched a mega-wave of found-footage horror movies and redefined viral marketing. The announcement came with few details, apart from promising a "new take" on the franchise. Two years later, the studios have announced who'll be helming that new take: first-time feature filmmaker Dylan Clark, who's earned a huge following for his short horror films on YouTube.

Clark is the latest in a wave of popular YouTubers stepping up to make theatrical releases. Earlier this year, game streamer Mark Fischbach bypassed the studio system entirely with his creepy feature debut Iron Lung. A24 backed Undertone, the feature debut of VR filmmaker Ian Tuason, who's going on to reboot the Paranormal Activity franchise for Blumhouse. A24's upcoming Backrooms, based on a popular creepypasta series, was directed by 17-year-old Kane Parsons, known for his Backrooms web videos.

The trend mimics what traditional book publishing houses have been doing for decades now: cherry-picking particularly popular online work like Andy Weir's The Martian and Hugh Howey's Silo series and re-releasing it in print form. A24 and Blumhouse in particular have been keeping an eye on content creators who've demonstrated their talent both by creating unique work and by building their own audiences organically.

Clark was already working on another feature film for a different studio: Universal signed him to produce a full-length version of his seven-minute short horror movie Portrait of God, which has amassed more than 9 million views on YouTube. Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele are producing the project.

More significantly for longtime Blair Witch Project fans, Lionsgate announced that two of the 1999 movie's original stars, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams, and the original filmmakers, Eduardo Sánchez, Daniel Myrick, and Gregg Hale, will all be executive producers on the new Blair Witch film. That's notable because Myrick and Sánchez spoke out against the remake in 2024, expressing frustration that Lionsgate was continuing the franchise they created without consulting them, or soliciting their involvement. It's unclear what input they might have into the planned remake, but at least they aren't being shut out of it altogether.

No timeline was announced for the new Blair Witch movie, which is still being developed.