A Reel 20: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

“I’m scared to close my eyes…”

This month marks the 20^thanniversary of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. 

It was the first of its kind to hit mainstream with the “found footage” technique of filmmaking. Three student filmmakers; Heather (Heather Donohue), Josh (Joshua Leonard), and Mike (Michael C. Williams), hike to the Black Hills of Maryland to film a documentary about a local legend called the Blair Witch. The three vanish, but their footage is discovered a year later…and the recovered film is the movie the audience sees. 

The idea for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was born in 1993, when student filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez were inspired by documentaries on paranormal phenomena which they found to be more scary than traditional horror films. They conceived of a film that combined documentary and fictional horror films, intending to film in wooded areas with improvised dialogue. 

Filming began in 1997 in Maryland, with local townspeople appearing in the film. Realism was the key to making it work, and the three actors were given crash-courses in hand-held-camera techniques as they would be doing all the filming themselves. Myrick and Sanchez were going for real reactions, and didn’t tell the actors about events that would be happening. For example, when one of the students vanish without a trace, it was done without the knowledge of the remaining two…earning  genuine fearful performances. The directors moved their actors a long way through the woods, harassing them by night and depriving them of food. Total filming took only eight days, with 20 hours of footage to be cut down to two-and-a-half-hours. 

Prior to release, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT had a unique marketing technique, and it is one of the first to be showcased via the internet; it was “viral” long before the term would become common. The film’s official website stuck to the realism attempt; showing “missing” posters and newsreel-style interviews….which had many people (including this Blogger), believing that the footage was real. So real that Heather Donahue’s mother received sympathy cards from people who believed her daughter was dead or missing. 

The efforts paid off. After a premiere at Sundance and plenty of buzz about “a record of real events”, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT would earn $248 million total, over 4,000 times its original budget. It would be the 10^thhighest grossing film of year and would earn the reputation as a sleeper hit. It would draw positive reviews from critics with the found-footage technique earning universal praise, and would instantly a create a new sub-genre of horror. 

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The good news about THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is that when it arrived and was met with great popularity, it instantly gave the horror genre something new to play with. It was 1999 and the genre was feeling stale, with the slashers gone out of style and not much else to look forward to. THE BLAIR WITCH began a new era of found-footage movies, and that’s where the bad news comes in. 20 years on Hollywood and indie filmmakers are still cranking out films using that style to varying degrees of success, almost to the point where it’s become stale and lazy…and many blame THE BLAIR WITCH for it all. It’s unfair to do so, because on its own it is still an effective thriller. It has convincing performances, is very scary, iconic imagery, and with the JAWS-like decision of never seeing the monster…drives our imaginations wild with terror. 

“You gonna write us a happy ending, Heather?”