The Blair Witch Project
Short description
Three film students travel to the woods of Maryland to produce a documentary about a local legend involving a murderous witch. While attempting to investigate the folklore, the group becomes lost in the forest. The story is presented through footage discovered a year after their disappearance, documenting the events and the unseen forces that led to their fate.
The movie was directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, who also wrote the screenplay. This project was the first in a series of directorial works for both men; Myrick later directed Curse of the Blair Witch and Believers, while Sánchez directed Curse of the Blair Witch and Altered. The cast features Rei Hance, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams.
Produced by Artisan Entertainment and Haxan Films, the horror mystery earned 249 million USD at the worldwide box office. On IMDb, the film holds a 6.5 rating based on 315,000 votes, while on TMDB it has a score of 6.4 from 5,666 votes. Film critics gave the movie a higher rating of 7.9 based on 175 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The word "fuck" is uttered 133 times in the film.
- In February 1999, the firm "Artisan" purchased the film rights for $1 million. They launched a website dedicated to the film at www.blairwitch.com, which received approximately 110,000 visits in its first weekend. By September, the number of visits had grown to 75 million.
- The film entered the Guinness Book of Records for the best return on investment ratio. Every dollar invested in the film's production generated $10,931 in revenue.
- The close-up of Heather Donahue's face in the scene where she records a farewell message, which ultimately ended up on the film's official poster, happened by accident: Donahue had planned for her entire face to be in the frame, but accidentally zoomed in too much. Nevertheless, the directors felt that this would add realism to the film.
- The scene where Heather finds Josh's tongue and teeth is borrowed from Washington Irving's story "The Devil and Tom Walker".
- The film employs the technique of false archetypization – in reality, the "witch" is a classic "wendigo," an Indian evil spirit of winter and hunger.
- Before the film's release, the lead actors were marked on IMDB.com as "missing, presumed dead".
- Joshua Leonard eventually broke the camera he was carrying on his shoulder. As he slipped and tumbled down a hill, the camera's lenses flew out.
- The frightening crunching sounds during the heroes' nighttime gatherings in the tent were made by the director and his friends, who walked around the perimeter of the campsite, breaking twigs and throwing branch fragments in different directions.
- Filming took about eight days. To make the actors’ fatigue and irritation look natural, they were given less food each day of filming. The main actors, knowing they were shooting a fictional film, believed that the legend of the Blair Witch was real. The script only described the main plot points, and almost all of the dialogue was improvised by the actors.
- According to one of the film’s creators, he was impressed by the story of the Salem witch trials.
- The waitress who talks about the Blair town high school was played by the director Eduardo Sanchez’s sister, Sandra.
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