Why was Blair Witch made?

During the creation of the second Blair witch film, they decided that it was a risk to announce they were creating a sequel to the film. This is because they could face backlash as to why they didn't create a original film or why they were trying to recreate a film which was already good.A statement by the director stated that they planned to keep it a secret. There was also at one point a discussion at Lionsgate whether the entire film should be kept a secret. 

Their original plan was to release the film as 'The Woods' and hope that people decided to watch it. However they then decided that they would reveal it at Comic-Con to a positive reaction.

They wanted to re frame the idea that every sequel could never be as good as the original. Therefore they did this by updating the way in which the film was made. they modernised different aspects to give it a contemporary film whilst still linking to the same idea of the original with a group of vulnerable young teens. 

With the publicity of the new film, the director released a statement explaining the reason for a remake of the original successful film.

“Talking about it in 2013, it was very clear to me that the right approach was to use all the chronological changes and updates,” Barrett said. “Even of just like the camping experience. In the first film, they’re arguing over maps. It’s pre-GPS devices, cellphones, and all those other things. It’s changed a lot in those 20 years. So it definitely was part of the creative approach to take advantage of that. But [I also] don’t know how else we would have done it.”

This statement makes it clear that the remake was created with the idea that the film would give an updated idea of a horror film which had already been successful in its first release. By releasing a horror film which already had a fan base from years previous. They had a good chance of creating a box office success.