EntertainmentMoviesHorror MoviesThe Blair Witch Project25 years after its release, The Blair Witch Project co-director takes a deep dive into found footage cult hit and shares an obscure Star Wars inspirationWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
EntertainmentMoviesHorror MoviesThe Blair Witch Project25 years after its release, The Blair Witch Project co-director takes a deep dive into found footage cult hit and shares an obscure Star Wars inspirationWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Lionsgate)
TOTAL FILM MAGAZINEThis article first appeared in Total Film magazine 352. You can buy a copy right here.
TOTAL FILM MAGAZINE
This article first appeared in Total Film magazine 352. You can buy a copy right here.
This article first appeared in Total Film magazine 352. You can buy a copy right here.
The faux-doc horror follows a filmmaking trio who venture into Maryland’s Black Hills Forest in pursuit of the mysterious ‘Blair Witch’; only their tapes are ever recovered. “I just remember it was all anybody wanted to talk about for, like, two weeks straight,” Deadstream co-director Vanessa Winter recalls. But no one was more terrified of the movie than co-director Eduardo Sánchez: “How do you follow The Blair Witch Project?”
Going viral
(Image credit: Lionsgate)
Although production ended, the worldbuilding did not. A year before the film’s release, Sánchez and crew set up a website documenting the disappearance of the ‘real’ filmmakers, including police evidence, crime-scene photos and extracts of Heather’s bloodied and aged diary. “It’s very exciting because it’s all based on other things that aren’t in the movie but have their own personality. That’s very powerful,” Balagueró remembers. This internet-led storytelling approach was groundbreaking at the time and was the key to Blair Witch’s phenomenon status. Sánchez remembers Jeff Johnsen, a champion of The Blair Witch Project, even appearing on an LA morning talk show and going through the website to explain it all. “The traffic for the website blew up that same month,” the director says.
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Sánchez’s idea for the website came from his love ofLucasfilm’s Shadows of the Empire, which used other forms of media – including a book, comics and a videogame – to create a story set between Episodes V and VI. “I loved this concept, that it wasn’t even centred around a movie. You had this whole universe centred around just an idea that kept expanding.” This ambitious storytelling is something Sánchez has utilised throughout his career, from 150-page story bibles on sci-fi thriller Altered to whole transmedia shooting units on Lovely Molly.
The Blair Witch Project seemed to electrify everyone who came into contact with it – except Sánchez and Myrick. “I think due to the pressures of having such a success, and also the pressures of being a duo, co-directing and essentially co-birthing this movie together, my relationship with Dan started to break down.” Sánchez even remembers a time when a former agent asked him which one of them actually had the filmmaking talent. Artisan wanted to capitalise on the phenomenon, but Sánchez and Myrick’s desire not to be pigeon-holed as the ‘found-footage guys’, alongside their eroding relationship, made them decline a follow-up. ‘Honestly, we would have probably signed on, but they had a release date before they even had an idea,’ the director says. “Everyone knows it’s not a good idea to set a release date and then come up with a movie.”
Lost and found
(Image credit: Lionsgate)
The Blair Witch… led to a lot of other projects being offered the duo’s way, including the chance to helm the J.J. Abrams-penned 2001 horror-thriller Joy Ride. ‘We went down the road a little bit,’ Sánchez says. ‘I liked it but Dan didn’t, so we passed.’ Abrams would eventually go on to create his own found-footage monster hitCloverfieldwith Matt Reeves in 2008, which Sánchez humbly cites as the true galvanisation moment for found footage: “It opened the door for everything, and it’s been really exciting to see the evolution of found-footage movies since.”
Of all the early 2000s horror movies released, Sánchez believes he read ‘90%’ of the scripts, and had offers to direct a quarter of them. But with a lack of a clear mentor, the difficulty of convincing two filmmakers to unite on one project, and the pressure of following up one of the most successful independent films of all time, Sánchez stepped away from filmmaking entirely. “Honestly, I was scared. I felt like I didn’t know how to handle a big movie.”
Sánchez retired from filmmaking for six years until sci-fi thriller Altered, in which a motley crew seek revenge on the alien that killed their friend. Despite a huge blow from a change in Altered’s release plans due to executive departures at the distributor, Sánchez powered on, his filmmaking desire rekindled. He flirted with found footage on Lovely Molly before finally returning in full to the style with Bigfoot creature feature Exists and V/H/S 2 short A Ride in the Park. “It was just so fun to get back into it, see how we could update it and have fun with it. We loved seeing how people had evolved the style, and that the emphasis was on scaring the crap out of you instead of convincing you it was real.”
“The playground is bigger and the technology is more accessible than ever. What I’ve always loved about found footage is it’s not story-based, it’s style-based,” says Sánchez. This foundation of style is why Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett boarded the V/H/S franchise as producers: “There’s the opportunity for new voices to emerge and go, ‘Oh, that’s a good point of view I haven’t seen before’,” says Bettinelli-Olpin. Chloe Okuno agrees that opportunities like the V/H/S franchise open doors for aspiring filmmakers. “It’s such a good way to allow them to deliver something that’s like their pure vision.”
This accessibility alongside a now nearendless stream of footage is something Rob Savage believes is the key to its evolution. “There’s an opportunity to do what Blair Witch did in the 90s now with live streaming and the way we digest stories.” The internet’s growing prevalence in found-footage stories – Spree, Dashcam and Deadstream being recent examples – suggest perhaps footage is no longer found, but lived. “The genre is remaking itself, there’s this consideration of what other levels we can take in terms of scares and entertainment,” Winter adds.
Recently, Blumhouse announced their own plans to resurrect The Blair Witch Project, hoping to scare a whole new generation of moviegoers with a brand-new take on the horror. The question is, how do you improve a film many believe was perfect the first time round? “It’s one of those definitive of-an-era movies,” Gillett says. “There’s a simplicity that will never be matched,” Savage adds. What does Sánchez make of his film’s legacy? “Man, just the possibility these talented filmmakers were even slightly inspired – it’s just really fun to see where it’s gone and where it’s continuing to go.”
The Blair Witch project is currently available to stream on BBC iPlayer. For more scares, here’s our guide to thebest horror moviesand all theupcoming horror moviesto add to you calendar.
You can read more from Total Film inour latest issue, which is out on shelves now.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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5
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”