American movie history is full of classic horror stories involving demonic possession. And then, there’s Hollywood.

The iconic 1999 film, “The Blair Witch Project,” the first movie to convince viewers that it was real, has been rereleased just as its filmmakers originally intended.

On Oct. 30 — just in time for Halloween — Imprint Films released a two-film, two-disc set that includes 90 minutes of previously unseen footage and a 2.5-hour making-of documentary.

“In 1999, a group of industry outsiders went into the woods in Maryland to shoot a low-budget movie called ‘The Blair Witch Project,'” the film’s producer Michael Monello wrote on the social media website X. “Twenty-five years later, that film is finally being released on home video for the first time as filmmakers originally intended.”

The movie, which was filmed mostly in Montgomery County’s Seneca Creek State Park and in the Frederick County village of Burkittsville, purported to tell the story of three students who hike into the Black Hills to film a documentary about a supposedly mythical local witch.

None of the students are ever seen again, and a year later, “found” footage appears to show how the students came to a grisly demise.

The film became closely associated with the handheld-camera technique, and was one of the most successful independent films of all time, grossing nearly $250 million worldwide on a minuscule budget.

But Monello said on X that the home video was released in the wrong format, resulting in a compromised viewing experience.

It “introduced serious motion errors,” Monello wrote, “It gave the Hi8 footage film grain and muddied all the colors with a brown overcast. The edits of that transfer became three-frame dissolves rather than hard cuts. Everything about it is wrong, but at the time, we were not in a position to demand it be redone.”

The new release retails for $69.95 on the film company website.

“Honestly,” Monello wrote, ‘I’m just thrilled the proper version is now available, and people can see our original intent for home viewing.”

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com, 1410332-6704 and x.com/@mcmccauley.