![]() The Blair Witch Blu-ray is a surprisingly lavish affair for a low budget horror flick made these days. They like the phenomenon that it became and that was impossible to replicate. Most folks don’t actually remember or adore The Blair Witch Project for the film it is. They made a sequel for fans who truly felt the same way. The duo adored the original movie for the unconventional storytelling techniques, unique mythology, and subtle scares that Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez and co. That was a shame because as the recently released Blair Witch Blu-ray proves, the film was made with love and care and a passion for the original Blair Witch Project by super fans Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett (the directing/writing team behind You’re Next, The Guest, and the V/H/S series). That’s a long winded introduction that’s been written (and hopefully read) to get to the actual content of this article, the recent threequel Blair Witch that was lambasted by critics last fall after being hyped up as a franchise’s second coming. If you’re listening, I presume you’re not one of the people who hated this film, so we’ll try to address your interests as well.” So we’re in the perfect headspace to do this commentary track. “I actually really am sad, because our movie was kind of critically panned and got a D+ Cinema Score and people are still tweeting mean things at us. It’s become a classic, but only off-beat low-key horror loving weirdos actually appreciate it as a film. It was the hype, style, poster and behind-the-scenes story of The Blair Witch Project that became iconic in the summer of 1999. Night Shyamalan delivered an iconic twist ending starring Bruce Willis. In the summer of 1999 The Blair Witch Project was something everyone wanted to talk about until M. The burgeoning internet culture was a perfect place to make claims that the film was real and have people believe the hype. Thanks to Scream horror was making a mainstream genre comeback after a fallow decade. Indie movies could be sold as low budget success stories after the Sundance revolution. Found footage horror was ready to become mainstream now that most families had a personal video camera. The reason The Blair Witch Project hit the zeitgeist so hard was due to timing, form, and marketing more than content. It’s an experimental movie that somehow played as mainstream horror. The performers shot the movie themselves as they slowly went insane and starved, while the filmmakers treated them to a private prank/spook show. The actors had no idea what might happen to them. They took risks grander than the Dogme 95 collective. It’s an art house experiment that worked beyond what Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez ever could have imagined. The aesthetic is 90s grunge, complete with flannel, smokes, dirty facial hair, and production values stitched together with duct tape. The performances are incredibly low key (despite all the screaming). ![]() The scares are subtle, mostly situational and psychological. ![]() Looking back on the film now, it’s actually weird to think it became such a success in the first place. Its actors mostly disappeared into obscurity.Ī sequel was rushed out that was promptly loathed by all and the franchise disappeared as quickly as it burst out of Sundance and into box office glory. Its directors never helmed a high profile follow-up. The movie ended up getting Razzie nominations and parodied. The most visceral reaction wasn’t terror, but motion sickness from all the shaky-cam and irritation towards the “whiny” characters. Sure, it made an absurd sum of money and got great reviews, but most viewers claimed that they were underwhelmed by the experience. ![]() The thing is that back in the summer of 1999 when The Blair Witch Project came out, it wasn’t as universally beloved as we remember. Write a list of the greatest or most important horror films ever produced and The Blair Witch Project has to be on there, if only for the pop culture iconography and influence. The Blair Witch Project is one of the most iconic indie horror movies of all time, with a legion of production and marketing backstories that are almost more fondly remembered than the film itself. ![]()
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