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The Blair Witch Project has been back in the news big time, and this time, no one is questioning whether it’s real or not.

You may have heard that the production company Lionsgate announced that they’re teaming up with Blumhouse to reimagine (read: reboot) some of their horror classics, starting with The Blair Witch Project, and in addition to predictably mixed internet reactions about the prospect of a new/old film, the announcement also kicked up some old resentments among the original stars. Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard wrote an open letter to Lionsgate requesting residuals, input on how their images are used in the franchise going forward, and a grant for young filmmakers.

What may come as slightly more surprising is that since The Blair Witch Project came out, dozens of Blair Witch properties have come out without the direct participation of Donahue, Williams,...

In professional wrestling, the concept of “Kayfabe” refers to an unspoken agreement between fans and performers to never acknowledge the fictional aspects of the sport. In the horror genre, we have something similar with the way Found Footage movies invite audiences to play along with the scares to enhance their viewing experience. And when it comes to Found Footage, no movie handled this blending of reality and fiction better than The Blair Witch Project, which was accompanied by an ingenious viral marketing campaign featuring websites, dossiers and even missing person posters.

Among this supplemental material was an infamous mockumentary known as Curse of the Blair Witch, which premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel and was instrumental in convincing audiences that the film’s footage was meant to be taken seriously. A year later, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 had its own lesser-known tie-ins with Ben Rock‘s The Burkittsville 7...

There’s something about grocery stores. They have a sort of charm that’s currently going three for three, as far as recent horror/sci-fi entries with that setting go. Both The Mist and last year’s Splinter were excellent examples of the “trapped in a market” theme, and now comes Warner’s Raw Feed DVD release Alien Raiders (out February 17)—which, while not overly original, is nonetheless pretty awesome.

The film opens with some shaky handheld insight into our protagonists, getting ready for their next mission. Intercut between video clips and the main titles are shots of hands preparing some seriously heavy firepower. This is a risky move; it basically promises, “This flick is going to have bad-ass written all over it.” And it works. The characters we’re following are a team of operatives/mercenaries/soldiers of some sort with rad names like Ritter (Carlos Bernard), Sterling (Courtney Ford...