![]() Myrick and Sánchez’s film seized on the possibilities presented by a population just getting to know the internet, a time before ubiquitous spoilers zip around social media at every step of a movie’s production. In today’s online movie culture, The Blair Witch Project’s promos would have been pored over, dissected and debated ad nauseam - and its illegitimate claims almost certainly exposed - long before it reached multiplexes. ![]() And with its footage largely hidden from previews, online-fostered rumors and innuendoes were able to be the primary driver behind its “This really happened!” hype. And in the ensuing decades, countless scary movies (from Paranormal Activity to The Fourth Kind to The Conjuring) similarly strove to enhance their scares by pushing the idea “it’s not just a movie.” Still, even if a few other films had previously employed its “Is-it-real?” gimmick, The Blair Witch Project was the first mainstream effort to fully embrace a fake-documentary style with a full internet campaign as backup. The Blair Witch Project was hardly the first horror film to try to pass off its action as “real.” Twenty-five years earlier, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre opened with narrated text claiming that its Ed Gein-inspired events had actually taken place. It gave moviegoers the sense that, far from passive viewers, they were amateur sleuths - even as the site capitalized on the fact that at that time, its phony stories couldn’t be fact-checked/debunked through a simple Google search, nor could fans at the time yet compare notes or share information via Facebook or Twitter. The site’s purpose was to legitimize the film’s story through “genuine” supporting media evidence, as well as to make intrepid web surfers who were scouring the internet for clues feel like they were discovering a true story that simply hadn’t yet received national attention. The studio set up a website, that provided articles and news-report videos about the “missing campers” and other Blair Witch-related incidents. And it’s a trick that worked to an astounding degree. The trick, as it were, was to make audiences think the film’s material - presented as recently discovered video footage shot by three fledgling filmmakers on the hunt for the “Blair Witch” - actually happened. Their strategy relied on oblique teases that revealed little about the film’s plot, all while providing copious tidbits about a “legend of the Blair Witch” in the Maryland woods (the film was shot in the state’s Seneca Creek State Park). In 1999, a year after the movie’s Sundance Film Festival premiere, Artisan purchased the film for approximately $1 million and, with the aid of Myrick and Sánchez, promptly set about using the then-fledgling internet for a totally of-the-moment marketing campaign. The films first DVD release was on October 22nd, 1999.The Blair Witch Project (Photo: Lionsgate) The film cost $60,000 to make and grossed $248 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing independent movie of all-time, until it was surpassed in 2002. However, the cameraman forgot to pan left during a running sequence and the scene was never re-shot. At one point in the film, the Blair Witch was supposed to be seen on camera. Although effective, it also caused some theatergoers to experience nausea and vomit during the screening. The film is heavily credited with popularizing the found-footage technique. They even stole the town sign a reported three times. Immediately following it's release, the town of Burkittsville, which the cemetery scene was filmed at, became overrun with fans of the film. It told more of the backstory of the three missing students. Just prior to it's theatrical release, a forty-four minute improvised documentary titled Curse of the Blair Witch was even released, to further insinuate this strategy. The film was marketed as a true story which added to it's appeal. It stars Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams as the three unfortunates who fall victim to the Blair Witch. ![]() The film took eight days to shoot, and roughly eight months to edit, due to there being roughly twenty hours of raw footage to sort through. It was directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. Filming locations include Adamstown, Beallsville, Brookville, Burkittsville, Germantown and Granite, Md. The Blair Witch Project was released into theaters on July 14th, 1999.
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