The Blair Witch Project used the web to build word-of-mouth hype with incredible success before its release back in 1999, and since then it’s become a bit of a cliche for film studios to do the same. The usual process is to create cryptic teaser websites to whip the fans into a frenzy of chattering excitement before releasing an ultimately disappointing, prosaic film to a near-universal ‘meh’. (I’m looking at you, Cloverfield.)

But Lost Zombies is taking a much more ambitious approach to using the online community, by actually getting the community itself to make the movie.

“In 2007 the flu pandemic began. The flu strain spread quickly, mutating out of control and causing a global zombie apocalypse. Today 75% of the population has been wiped out. We want to hear your story.”

At its heart the site is an online community, with members posting messages and writing articles, but it has the potential to be much more than that – which is why it’s just picked up the Community and People’s Choice Awards at the South by Southwest Web Awards in Austin, Texas.

The key component is The Grid, a 14 x 14 mesh of ‘objectives’ which the creators will be revealing one by one over time. Each consists of a short set of instructions for a segment of footage which users can film with their friends – the 15 currently active include requests for footage of protests, shots of mocked up newspapers with specific headlines, video testimonies of witnessed events and personal video journals recounting the horrors of the zombie apocalypse. One even asks for footage of a riot, which may be a tad unwise.

At the moment the user base is quite small, but as it grows the plan is to eventually compile the best user-submitted videos into a Lost Zombies documentary, which will profile the aftermath of an undead-led collapse of society. It’s a fantastic idea and one which could harness the creativity of so many horror fans across the globe – fans who’d love to be a part of the filmmaking process but couldn’t possibly devote the time or budget to making a film themselves. This way they don’t have to – with a bit of effort and ingenuity, a quick 30-second clip could be enough to get them on to the big screen.

It’s also a fine example of using the web community in creative ways, a community that happily spends all day on Twitter but is crying out for something more useful to do. Its documentary format means every user can work independently to produce something that fits the overall scene, which does away with the organisational problems that have blighted previous community movie attempts. And by harnessing the fans, the long-term result will be a full-length movie that essentially films itself.

Check out Lost Zombies for yourself, round up some horror-loving friends and get filming!