After reshaping how horror stories are told on screen with The Blair Witch Project, Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale are ready to revisit found footage filmmaking. Their new project is called The Influencer Project, and instead of getting lost in the woods like they did in 1999, it plunges viewers into the hyperconnected world of social media.
The news was reported by Fangoria, which also revealed the film's first poster and announced the U.S. release date: October 2, 2026.
From Blair Witch to Social Media Nightmares
The connection to The Blair Witch Project is more than just marketing. Sánchez and Hale are returning to a story built on the idea that what we're watching might actually be real.
At the center of The Influencer Project is Chiara King, a British beauty and fashion influencer playing a fictionalized version of herself. She heads to Copenhagen with a documentary crew, intending to show her followers the less glamorous side of her life and social media success.
But the project quickly takes a sinister turn. As cameras and followers track her every move, someone else begins watching from a far more dangerous vantage point. The presence of a stalker transforms what was supposed to be a documentary about online fame into something closer to evidence. This is where the film updates Blair Witch's core idea: if 1999's terror came from finding a video of missing people, today's disturbing material could already be on our phones, in videos we've posted, and in images we share every day.
Found Footage Built for the Age of Influencers
Chiara King isn't a random choice. The influencer has over a million Instagram followers and a solid presence on TikTok. The Influencer Project marks her film debut.
This detail could become one of the most intriguing aspects of the project. The line between real person and character gets blurred even before the film starts—audiences already know King's online image, while the movie can play with the difficulty of distinguishing what belongs to her public life from what was created for the story.
In other words, Sánchez and Hale seem to understand that found footage doesn't need to stay tied to shaky cameras and discovered tapes. In 2026, "found material" can be a vlog, a livestream, a vertical video, a phone recording, or a series of seemingly harmless content.
Behind the Camera: Mike Nybroe
The Influencer Project is directed by Mike Nybroe, making his feature directorial debut. The screenplay was written by Nybroe along with Lars Ap and Anders Jon Petersen. The production involves Hades Films and Danish company Point Neuf, with Sánchez, Hale, Alex Hertzberg, and Ahmet Zappa among the producers.
Filming took place in Copenhagen, a choice that moves the project further from the forest imagery of Blair Witch while maintaining its core concept: taking an everyday setting and gradually transforming it into a trap.
The cast also includes Luca Storm, Mike Nybroe, Jazmine Summer, and Alexandre Willaume.
"Fear Is Always With You Now"
The film's conceptual heart likely rests in a reflection attributed to Sánchez and Hale during the project's presentation: thirty years ago, fear could be represented as a supernatural force hiding in the woods; today it can follow us constantly through social media.
This perspective is particularly suited to found footage. The genre works when it convinces audiences that the images aren't simply "cinema" but something an ordinary person could have recorded. And what format is closer to contemporary daily life than a video shot on a smartphone?
From this angle, The Influencer Project could represent a natural evolution of the formula tested by The Blair Witch Project. Not "we found these videotapes" anymore, but "this material was already online in front of our eyes."
A Return to Found Footage, But Not Blair Witch
It's important to note that The Influencer Project is not a new chapter in the Blair Witch saga. Sánchez and Hale are also currently working on a new Lionsgate/Blumhouse film in the franchise, serving as executive producers alongside Daniel Myrick and some original cast members.
Nybroe's project is a standalone story.
And that might be the most interesting detail. While Hollywood brings The Blair Witch Project back to screens with a new version scheduled for September 24, 2027, its creators are simultaneously experimenting with another story using the same cinematic language.
It's almost as if Sánchez and Hale want to prove that found footage doesn't belong only to 1990s nostalgia.
Why The Influencer Project Could Be Different
The real question isn't whether the film can replicate Blair Witch's effect. It probably can't: the 1999 film arrived when the internet was new enough that its marketing campaign could deliberately blur reality and fiction. Today's audiences are far more accustomed to manipulated content, ARGs, creepypasta, and social media horror.
The challenge is different: making something we see every day feel genuinely unsettling again.
A stalker who knows the victim's location through social posts. A camera always rolling. An audience watching without understanding what's really happening. Private life transformed into content.
These fears are far less supernatural than Blair Witch, but that's precisely what makes them potentially more immediate and visceral.
When Does It Release?
According to Fangoria's latest announcement, The Influencer Project arrives in U.S. theaters on October 2, 2026.
The project was previously linked to a September U.S. release, but the August 11 update now points to October 2 as the official theatrical release date.
From the forests of Maryland to smartphone screens, the formula evolves while keeping the same question: how terrifying can an image become once we stop being sure it's just fiction?
Comments