The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project is a low budget American horror film released in 1999. It tells the story of three young student filmmakers who get lost in the woods while filming a documentary about the eponymous local legend. After being terrorized by an unseen presence for several days, they mysteriously disappear, one by one. Neither the students nor their bodies are ever found, although their video and sound equipment (along with most of the footage they shot) is eventually recovered. Though the film is entirely fictional, the narrative is presented as a documentary pieced together from that footage.

Marketing and method

The film was a huge success, in part because it was marketed heavily via the World Wide Web. The teaser poster and other advertisements for the film were designed to reinforce the 'documentary' conceit, leading many people to think the film was an actual documentary, and that the three protagonists really had disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland.

Just before the general release of the film, The Sci-Fi Channel aired a mockumentary, Curse of the Blair Witch, that claimed to investigate the legend surrounding the movie. The program contains interviews with friends and relatives of the missing students, paranormal experts, and local historians (all fabricated, of course).

While attending the Cannes Film Festival, the producers put up missing posters featuring the three stars of the film (whose real names are used in the movie, further reinforcing the charade). They were removed the next day following the actual kidnapping of a television executive (who was later recovered and returned home safely).

During filming, the actors were given only vague direction, usually in the form of notes that the trio would stumble upon as they wandered through the woods (Heather discovers the map is missing, Josh and Heather get into an argument, etc). As a result, a large portion of the film's dialogue and action were essentially improvised, further contributing to the tone of realism. The townspeople interviewed near the beginning of the film were mostly real townspeople, not actors. The directors used GPS technology to move the actors from location to location, so that interaction between actors and crew would be kept to a minimum.

The filmmakers also crafted a complex, detailed backstory involving the history of the town and the 'Blair Witch' legend that was largely only hinted at in the finished film, unfolding mostly via the film's website, tie-in books, comic books, computer games, and of course, the Sci-Fi Channel mockumentary.

The estimated production cost of the film was about $25,000. The movie grossed over $248 million worldwide, making it the most profitable motion picture of all time ($7000 earned for every $1 spent) in terms of the ratio of production costs to box office proceeds. (Some believe that Deep Throat, which cost about the same to make, grossed $600 million.)

Similar films and influences

The Blair Witch Project is somewhat influenced by The Bell Witch legend, a series of disturbing and allegedly inexplicable, real events associated with the family of Adams Station, Tennessee (Robertson County) settler John Bell, between 1817 and 1821. The film may also have drawn upon the story of Moll Dyer, a Leonardtown, Maryland-based witch. Like the "Blair Witch", legend has it that Dyer was driven from her home in the middle of the winter after being accused of witchcraft. Her body was found kneeling at a boulder on the coast, which still bears her handprint to this day. ^*

The concept of incorporating the camera and crew into the film's plot is not entirely new. Other films to utilize this technique include the Danish Dogme95 movies, and most notably, the Belgian pseudodocumentary Man Bites Dog.

In addition, The Blair Witch Project bears many similarities to the film The Last Broadcast (1998), written and directed by Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler. Both are faux-documentaries dealing with characters who set off into the wilderness in search of legendary figures (in this case, the mythical Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey) and vanish; however, the endings are quite different. It is unclear whether The Blair Witch Project was inspired by The Last Broadcast, or if they were conceived separately in isolation. Cult film buffs also claim a further inspiration for the film is a notorious exploitation picture entitled Cannibal Holocaust, filmed in 1979. This fictional documentary tells the story of a filmmaking crew that journeys to the jungles of South America in search of a tribe of cannibal natives, only to end up being devoured by the cannibals themselves.

A sequel, Blair Witch 2, was released in the fall of 2000 but did very poorly at the box office.

A third installment was announced that same year, but never materialized. ^*.

Story

Film students Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard go missing in October 1994 while making a documentary about the Blair Witch, a legendary creature believed to haunt the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland. A year later, though their bodies are never found, the footage the students shot has been recovered, and the film in its entirety is composed of fragments of that footage.

Shot in a mixture of color and black and white, with shaky handheld camera movements and only natural lighting, the footage includes material that was intended to be used in the documentary, but the bulk of the film shows the experience of the three students as they wander through the woods.

Soon after setting out, they become hopelessly lost; their situation worsens when Michael, in frustration, throws their only map of the area into the river without telling the others. Over a period of several days, a number of terrifying, unnerving, and possibly supernatural events occur. In one scene, the crew hikes for more than half of the day only to end up in the same spot where they had started (some speculate that the Blair Witch had set up a sort of space-time trap).

It is implied that all three students die, and there is some internal evidence within the film as to how and why, but much of the plot is open to the viewer's interpretation, including the finale; few concrete indications are given as to the eventual fate of the three filmmakers.

Computer games

In 2000, Gathering of Developers released a trilogy of computer games based on the Blair Witch movie, which greatly expanded on the myths first suggested in the film. The graphics engine and characters were all derived from the producer's earlier game, Nocturne.

The first game, Rustin Parr, takes place in the 1940s when a hermit named Rustin Parr who lived near the town gave himself up to police and admitted to the murders of a number of local children, claiming to have been possessed by the Blair Witch. The player takes on the role of a paranormal investigator sent to look into the bizarre circumstances surrounding the alleged child-killer and rumours of the involvement of demonic The second game, Coffin Rock, takes place further back in history, during the American Civil War; the player takes control of a soldier who has lost his memory and encounters strange visions after waking up in the forest near the town of Blair.

The third game, The Elly Kedward Tale, is set further back in time, in 1785. The player takes on the role of Jonathan Pyre, a witch-hunter who travels to Blair after hearing rumors of the disturbing activity that has recently taken place after the alleged Blair Witch has been banished to the forest.

The trilogy was not particularly well received by critics. The exception was the first game, Rustin Parr, which was criticized for being very linear but praised for its relentlessly creepy atmosphere, including audio that was faithful to the movie, such as the sound of cracking twigs and giggling children heard in the distance as the player-character treads through the forest.

Soundtrack

None of the songs featured on Josh's Blair Witch Mix actually appear in the movie. This collection of mostly goth rock and industrial tracks is supposedly from a mix tape made by ill-fated film student Joshua Leonard. The tape was found in Josh's car after his disappearance.

"Gloomy Sunday" - Lydia Lunch
"The Order of Death" - Public Image Ltd.
"Draining Faces" - Skinny Puppy
"Kingdom's Coming" - Bauhaus
"Don't Go To Sleep Without Me" - The Creatures
"God is God" - Laibach
"Beware" - The Afghan Whigs
"Laughing Pain" - Front Line Assembly
"Haunted" - Type O Negative
"She's Unreal" - Meat Beat Manifesto
"Movement of Fear" - Tones on Tail
"The Cellar" - Antonio Cora

It is interesting to note the anachronism that some of the songs featured on the soundtrack (besides the last track, which is the 'song' featuring the famous creepy, industrial-sounding noise heard in the trailers and during the credits) were released after 1994, supposedly after the events of the movie have taken place.

Trivia

The movie is one of the fastest films ever made: shooting lasted just 8 days.
The word fuck is used 133 times during the course of the movie. See also: List of films ordered by uses of the word "fuck".
Heather's trademark confessional scene has been parodied in many films due to the framing of her face used in the movie. It has been noted that Heather had accidentally filmed herself with the camera zoomed in, and her entire face was supposed to appear in the frame.
Prior to the film's release, the three main actors were listed as "missing, presumed dead" on IMDb
Though the filmmakers have since admitted that the movie is a hoax, many who have seen it are convinced that it depicts real events. They take the information in the film and on its website at face value. See true-believer syndrome.
One of the actors in the Blair Witch project submitted to an interview on Salon.com admitting to the fact that this movie was a hoax. See ^*
Because of the large amount of camera shake in the film, movie theatres had to warn people that they might experience motion sickness, which actually happened.
In 2000, the film was featured in the Guinness Book of Records as having the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture ever, surpassing the previous record held by the Australian film Mad Max.

Taglines

Scary as hell.
Everything you've heard is true.

Parodies

The Simpsons has parodied the movie twice: with Lisa re-enacting the scene where Heather apologises to the camera, and with Bart and Lisa running away from a school field trip.
In an episode of Trailer Park Boys, J-Roc (Jonathan Torrens) and his pals talk Sam Losco (Sam Tarasco) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) into starring in their amateur porno "The Bare Pimp Project".^*
Whose Line is it Anyway? also parodies Heather's apology; whenever the movie is mentioned, the performers run to a camera and say something like "There's going to be a crappy sequel".
The first episode of the second season of a TV series featuring British Pop Band S Club 7, known as LA 7 (S Club 7 in LA in the U.K.) is a spoof of the Blair Witch Project.
In the episode The Thin White Line of Family Guy, Brian is sentenced to community service and volunteers as a seeing-eye dog and tries to describe the action in the film to a blind man. He explains: "Ok they're in the woods. The camera keeps on moving. I think they're looking for some witch or something. I don't know, I wasn't listening. Nothing's happening. Nothing's happening. Something about a map. Nothing's happening... It's over. A lot of people in the audience look pissed."
The Powerpuff Girls had an episode which spoofed the movie.
The Bogus Witch Project also parodies this movie, and other horror movies.
The Blair Thumb is a short film that also parodies this film.
In Scary Movie, a parody on thriller/horror flicks, Gail Hailstorm (who is also a parody on the Scream character Gail Weathers), recreates the Heather confessional scene, and involuntarily releases large amounts of liquid mucous from her nose.

External links

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