The blair witch project was one of the greatest horror hoaxes of the 20th century twenty years ago, a lowbudget film of handheld camerawork terrified early internet audiences who thought it was. The real blair witch haunting that new horror film is based on. Artisan entertainment heather donahue plays one of three filmmakers who disappear in a forest in the blair witch project. Is the footage in the blair witch project the real. What exactly happened at the end of the blair witch project. The blair witch project 1999 directed by daniel myrick. Why did the world think the blair witch project really. It is the true story of three strangers, picked to go into the woods, make a movie together, and have their lives.
The three leads believed the blair witch was a real legend during filming, though, of course, they knew the film was going to be fake. Of course the movie is very slow and the scenes of the characters getting lost in the woods can be repetitive for a lot of people, it really is a love it or hate it movie. Shocking but true facts about the blair witch project. The blair witch project simple english wikipedia, the. The real blair witch project youtube in 2008 i discovered the filming locations of the blair witch project. The blair witch project premiered on january 25, 1999 at the sundance film festival, and had a limited release on july 14 before going wide on july 30 after months of publicity, including a campaign by the studio to use the internet and suggest that the film was a record of real events. Movie scenes that terrified actors in real life duration. The blair witch project 1999 is a good example of found footage mockumentary in which a fictitious story is presented as a documentary based on lost or recovered film footage and was probably the most recent movie that led to the popularity of mockumentaries. Myrick and sanchez wrote their first draft of the blair witch project in 1993, when they were both film students in orlando, florida. Now it must sound like i didnt enjoy this film, nope i loved it, it just didnt have the same mystic and grander as the first couple time i watched it.
Heathers mother even got a letter of grief from a fan of the movie. The blair witch project is a wellexecuted unorthodox horror movie. The cursed witch used to kill children in the way that one would stood with their face towards the corner. This resulted in a score of 85% on rotten tomatoes, making it the highest rated movie ever to land a razzie nomination for worst picture. Why did so many people believe the blair witch project was. It took 19 years for the blair witch project to drag the foundfootage concept into the light, and though the movie created what is arguably the most virulent backlash in the history of. It was filmed like a home movie and the ending was convincing that the kids died. Is the blair witch project real revisiting one of the. I know this is a long shot since reddit skews younger, but im curious about anyone who watched the blair witch project when it came out in 1999 thinking it was real. The blair witch project was hardly the first horror film to try to pass off its action as real. The distribution strategy for the blair witch project was created and implemented by artisan studios. The 1999 horror movie the blair witch project was not real, until it was, much to the chagrin of a small christian town.
When the blair witch project was released in 1999, a good portion of audiences thought it was real. The blair witch project is essentially one big fake reality show. The blair witch project 88 movie clip the house 1999. It was so utterly convincing that people actually believed it was reality. Artisans dvd of the blair witch project is a dolby 2. At one point of the film my mom started watching it too and she even asked me if it was real or not. The foundfootage horror film was unique then, a surprise to audiences used to seeing traditional.
The website was all they neededespecially with their killer hook. Shot in only eight days with no real script, this little movie is a. Redditors who watched the blair witch project thinking it. The blair witch project no doubt goes down as one of the scariest horror films of all time thanks to the topnotch execution and brilliant foundfootage techniques crafted by cowriterdirectors. Parents need to know that the blair witch project is a 1999 foundfootage horror movie in which three film students attempt to film a documentary about the strange and terrifying murders that have taken place in some woods in rural maryland.
What would one expect from a movie famous for shaky camerawork. How the blair witch project made people think it was real. The blair witch project was shown at the 1999 sundance film festival, after a groundbreaking campaign by the studio to use the internet and suggest that the film was a real event. This was, apparently, the most terrifying movie ever made, and most frightening of all it might all be true. While some viewers were frustrated by the blair witch projects lessismore approach, critics applauded the film s authenticity and originality. I believed it was real the first time i saw it, but the very last credit says its all fictional. But i take a lot of interesting pictures and movie at. In 1999, the blair witch project premiered in theaters, firmly cementing the foundfootage genre as a huge horror moneymaker.
Becoming something of a popculture phenomenon soon after its release, the movie s popularity may have had something to do with the infamous rumors that the footage was real. Released in october 1999, it wasnt the first foundfootage horror movie that honour is accorded to. It has no fancy special effects or digital monsters, but its characters get lost in the woods, hear noises in the night and find disturbing stick figures hanging from trees. Heather, youre absolutely sure that to get out of this mess you go south. The blair witch project, an extraordinarily effective horror film, knows this and uses it. The blair witch project is a 1999 american independent supernatural horror movie. Blair witch was groundbreaking at the time, nothing had been done quite like it and on such a small budget. Bbc culture was the blair witch project the last great. Though it has the strong potential to bore viewers out due to its slowburn trait treatment. How the blair witch project got audiences to wonder, is.
How we made the blair witch project film the guardian. While some viewers were frustrated by the blair witch project s lessismore approach, critics applauded the film s authenticity and originality. Only after the films release did they discover that the entire mythology was made up by the films creators. Twentyfive years earlier, the texas chainsaw massacre opened with narrated text claiming that. It was an appropriate surprise for the terrifyingly realistic blair witch project, which sneaked up and spooked the nation in 1999. The blair witch project was very much an independent movie at the time, but they managed to create a website. The blair witch project isnt really about a witch, its. When most people hear about the blair witch, images come to mind of a horror film which was released in 1999 with a very low production budget. You can dismiss the blair witch project as a trick. The blair witch project was purportedly the completely real story of three young filmmakers who had gone missing in the woods of burkittsville, maryland while hunting for a local legend known as the blair witch.
The blair witch project is the kinda film that completely amazes you your first watch but after that it kinda becomes meh. More than a year before the blair witch project hit theaters and became a cultural phenomenon, its central mystery had already gone viral. The key for understanding this last scene is in the first few minutes, when the cast interviews the village near the woods. The film which is usually thanked andor blamed for this trend is the blair witch project. So people definitely believed that the film was real, blair witch star michael c. The blair witch project is a american horror film released in 1999.
So i watched the blair witch project for the first time today. Groundbreaking for its time its use of handheld cameras found one year after the disappearance of the filmmakers caused quite a buzz upon its. The only truth i know about the blair witch project is 1 yes, there is. Blair witch 2 returns to marylands black hills region in the wake of the blair witch project and the prodigious media coverage devoted to its conflation of documentary style and supernatural legend, fans and curiosityseekers have descended upon the movies reallife setting of burkittsville, maryland. The narrative is presented as a documentary pieced together from amateur footage. In october of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near burkittsville, maryland while shooting a. So i watched the blair witch project for the first time. Back in 1999, both the real world and the shadowy mirrorworld of the internet were very, very different. Theres a sequel to horror sensation the blair witch project.
According to the movie s fledgling promotional website, which presented itself as a real investigative project, three film students heather. The massive influence of the films internet marketing campaign cannot be underestimated. How the blair witch project changed horror forever youtube. Or you can give in to the treat and savor that rarest of accomplishments in a field notorious for tedium and repetition an original horror movie. Despite being released way back in 1999, there are few movies in the found footage genre or otherwise that have since managed to capture the same gnawing sense of dread and foreboding as the blair witch project. Jamie east reveals this months hottest movie and tv watches.
Predictably, plenty of the special features explore the madeup mythology of the film. While exploring the woods where the witch is believed to dwell, the intrepid filmmakers get lost and find strange wooden. Why did people think the blair witch project was real. There were fake police reports, interviews, missing posters you name it. In the blair witch project, heather, josh, and mike venture into the woods to make a documentary about the blair witch who, legend has it, once possessed a man named rustin parr and compelled him to murder children. Its not real footage, nor is it based on a true story, although the filmmakers may have gotten the idea from the legend of the bell witch. The film was produced by the haxan films production company.