The Blair Witch Creators Are Back — And This Time, Your Phone Is the Forest
TL;DR: The Influencer Project is an upcoming found footage horror film directed by Mike Nybroe, produced by Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale (the team behind The Blair Witch Project), and starring UK beauty influencer Chiara King. Shot in Copenhagen and rooted in King's real-life stalker experience, it's targeting a U.S. theatrical release in September 2026 via Variance Films. Indian and international streaming platforms are yet to be confirmed.
Twenty-seven years after The Blair Witch Project made audiences genuinely afraid of shaky camcorder footage and rustling trees, Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale are back with something that hits closer to home. Literally. The Influencer Project trades the Maryland woods for a Copenhagen street and a ring light, swapping supernatural dread for the very real terror of being watched by someone who knows exactly where you live. Film Bridge International announced at the 2026 Cannes Market that it has acquired international sales rights to the film, with a U.S. theatrical window locked for September 2026. That's the kind of news that should make every horror fan sit up straight.
What We Know About The Influencer Project So Far
The facts are lean but punchy. The Influencer Project is a found footage horror film directed by Mike Nybroe and produced by Sánchez, Hale, Alex Hertzberg, and Ahmet Zappa. It's a Danish co-production between Hades Films and Point Neuf. The film was shot on location in Copenhagen, and according to Deadline's report from the Cannes Market, it's based on true events connected to Chiara King's real-life experience with a stalker.
Key details at a glance:
- Director: Mike Nybroe
- Producers: Eduardo Sánchez, Gregg Hale, Alex Hertzberg, Ahmet Zappa
- Lead: Chiara King (UK beauty and fashion influencer, over 1 million Instagram followers)
- Production companies: Hades Films and Point Neuf (Denmark)
- Sales: Film Bridge International
- U.S. distributor: Variance Films
- Planned U.S. release: September 2026 (theatrical)
- Filming location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Runtime and a full cast list haven't been announced yet, and Movie OTT will update its release tracker as those details come in. What we do know is that King's debut as an actress is also her most personal project imaginable — and that combination of real-life stakes and found footage craft is already raising the bar before a single frame has been publicly screened.
What Sánchez and Hale Said About Updating Fear for the Social Media Age
The Blair Witch duo didn't just lend their names to this project and walk away. Sánchez and Hale are credited as producers and have been vocal about why this story compelled them now, decades after they redefined low-budget horror.
"Thirty years ago, fear was a supernatural force in the woods. Today, it's with you constantly, in social media — the possibility of opening up your life to strangers who wish you harm. What could be more terrifying?" Sánchez and Hale said in a joint statement released at Cannes.
That quote lands differently when you consider it's coming from two filmmakers who spent the late 1990s convincing audiences that amateur footage could be the scariest thing in a cinema. They weren't wrong then. The part I'm most curious about is how Nybroe and King translate the granular reality of influencer culture — the comments, the DMs, the location tags — into the kind of sustained dread that Blair Witch achieved through negative space and imagination. Director Mike Nybroe hasn't made widely distributed international features before this, which makes The Influencer Project a genuine wildcard. That's not a knock; it's a reason to pay attention.
(For context, Movie OTT tracks where films like this land across global platforms once distribution deals are finalized — worth bookmarking if you're following this one's release path.)
How This Film Reaches Indian Audiences — and When
Here's the honest picture for Indian viewers: as of the Cannes announcement, no Indian theatrical distributor or OTT platform has been confirmed for The Influencer Project. The Variance Films deal covers U.S. theatrical only. Film Bridge International holds international sales rights, meaning India's streaming landscape — Netflix India, Amazon Prime Video India, Disney+ Hotstar, JioCinema, SonyLIV, Zee5 — is still entirely open.
That said, the pattern with found footage horror in India is fairly consistent. Films in this genre with international festival buzz and genre-friendly premises tend to land on Netflix India or Prime Video within three to six months of their U.S. theatrical run, typically without regional language dubbing unless they're expected to perform strongly in tier-2 and tier-3 markets. Hindi dubbing is possible but not guaranteed for a low-budget Danish-British co-production.
What works in the film's favor for Indian audiences is the subject matter. India had an estimated 302 million Instagram users as of early 2025, making it the platform's single largest national market worldwide, and the anxiety around parasocial obsession, online stalking, and creator safety is a conversation that's been running loudly across Indian media for years — just look at how Faraaz (2023) and the true-crime wave on JioCinema primed audiences for real-event horror with digital-age stakes. A horror film that takes those fears seriously and wraps them in credible craft? That premise travels.
Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker will carry region-specific streaming availability for India, the UK, the US, and Spain as deals are confirmed. Set a reminder for September 2026 as the first likely trigger point.
The Blair Witch Legacy and Why It Still Matters Here
You can't discuss The Influencer Project without spending a moment on what Sánchez and Hale actually built. The Blair Witch Project (1999) was made on a production budget of approximately $60,000 and grossed over $248 million worldwide (per Box Office Mojo), making it one of the most profitable films ever made relative to its cost. It didn't just perform — it restructured how studios thought about horror marketing and the found footage format.
Gregg Hale, speaking about the original film's legacy over the years, has consistently pointed to the internet as the secret weapon of Blair Witch's release campaign. The film's website and early viral marketing blurred the line between fiction and reality in a way that felt genuinely new in 1999. The irony is that social media has now made that blurring a permanent condition of everyday life, which is precisely what The Influencer Project seems designed to exploit.
Chiara King is not a trained actress. That's a feature, not a bug. Her authenticity as an actual influencer, playing a version of herself in a situation drawn from her real experience, is the kind of casting choice that either becomes the film's greatest strength or its most discussed risk. Blair Witch worked because the performances felt unpolished and real. King's presence promises exactly that quality.
The Markiplier Blueprint and What It Means for Theatrical Strategy
The producers have publicly pointed to Markiplier's theatrical rollout for Iron Lung as their distribution model. Smart and specific. Iron Lung (2025) was a micro-budget horror film released theatrically through the YouTuber's direct fanbase activation — no traditional studio push, just creator-to-audience trust and a limited theatrical window that generated genuine event-film energy. (Markiplier's version pulled $32 million worldwide against a reported budget under $1 million, per The Numbers — a ratio that would make any distributor's ears perk up.)
With King holding over 1 million Instagram followers, the producers are betting that her audience will show up for a theatrical experience the same way Markiplier's did. It's a model that bypasses traditional marketing spend and leans on parasocial loyalty. Hard to say if it scales the same way across a UK-based fashion audience versus a gaming community, but the instinct is sound. Most coverage frames The Influencer Project as a Blair Witch spiritual sequel, and that's the easy angle; the more revealing read is that this is a stress test for whether beauty and lifestyle influencers can convert followers into opening-weekend ticket buyers the way gaming creators already have. If King can't move that needle, the entire influencer-to-theatrical pipeline stalls before it starts.
Variance Films, which handles U.S. specialty theatrical distribution, is a credible partner for exactly this kind of release. They know how to build a limited theatrical run that creates demand rather than just filling seats.
What to Watch For Before and After September
The film doesn't have a trailer as of the Cannes announcement. That's the first domino. Expect a teaser cut specifically for social media — almost certainly featuring King's own channels as the primary distribution vector, which would itself be a piece of found footage marketing that extends the film's premise into real life.
The editorial take worth making here is this: The Influencer Project is being framed in most coverage as a Blair Witch revival story, but the more interesting read is that it's a test case for whether influencer-native horror can own its own theatrical moment the way gaming-native horror briefly did with Iron Lung. If it works, the model gets copied fast.
Watch for UK theatrical announcements, a likely festival premiere before the September U.S. window, and any movement on streaming deals in Europe and Asia.
Closing Update: Where Things Stand as of Cannes 2026
The Influencer Project is actively in sales at the 2026 Cannes Market, with Film Bridge International fielding offers across territories. The U.S. theatrical release through Variance Films is locked for September 2026. No streaming platform, Indian distributor, runtime, or trailer has been confirmed publicly. Chiara King's involvement marks her film debut. Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale's producer credits give the project instant genre credibility.
Should you watch it? If found footage horror is anywhere in your wheelhouse — yes, absolutely. The creative lineage alone earns a look. For the most current streaming availability across Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar, and other platforms once deals drop, Movie OTT has the live picture.
