The Blair Witch Project (1999): A Review

There are very few people familiar with the horror genre who won’t have heard of The Blair Witch Project (1999). Despite its release over 20 years ago and the cult following it has amassed, people are still asking Google if the events from the film really happened. The answer is no. It did not happen. No campers were officially declared dead after going for a camp-out in the woods. But this is not what the marketing at the time would have you believe. Potentially due to the Mandela effect, people are remembering this as a real occurrence today.

Before we go on into the main meat of the review, we have to talk about the film’s marketing strategy. First of all, this film revolutionalised movie promotion. It also was recognised for initiating interest in the found-footage genre, even though it wasn’t the first film to use this format.

Why people believed The Blair Witch Project was real

Online Presence

Long before the release of any trailers, The Blair Witch Project website was already up and running. You can still check this out today on The Wayback Machine, and despite its appearance being outdated, it still provides an immersive experience. The website looked legitimate, with no copyright indications or links to a film studio. It featured “police photos” of the tapes “recovered” from the woods, and the infamous missing poster of the filmmakers. You can even find journals that Heather wrote while exploring the woods. I still find this website, even knowing that it is only advertising a film, immersive today.

Back then, a forum was also available for people to post their theories and debate the authenticity of the film. Some shared their own experiences of exploring the Maryland woods.

Offline Guerilla Marketing

It wasn’t until the 1999 Sundance Film Festival that Artisan Entertainment bought the distribution rights for the film, paying over $1M. Until then, there was no indication that it was a Hollywood project, and even the three stars of the film stayed away from any media attention (aside from a couple of initial interviews). These interviews were only released after the scheme was uncovered.

To promote this hoax further, missing posters were put up all over America detailing the last known movements of the cast. Even on IMDB, the usual premiere posters were replaced by missing posters of the cast (“presumed dead”). The marketing continued like this until the year after the film’s release.

Ingeniously, a documentary, Curse of the Blair Witch (1999), was also released on the SYFY Channel a week before the cinema release, further endorsing the idea that this was a real occurrence. Once again, it was this exceptional marketing that established word-of-mouth for the film and optimised its anticipation before the release.

Blurb

The plot is told through found video footage of three film students (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams) who travel to a small town to gather documentary footage on the Blair Witch, a well-known local legend.

In October 1994, the students interviewed locals of Burkittsville, Maryland (previously known as Blair), and collected evidence to support the story’s veracity. However, when the students become disoriented in the woods and begin hearing horrifying noises, the investigation takes a terrifying turn.

Themes

A product of its time

The Blair Witch film’s success was built on an in-depth understanding of consumer technology and the then-current horror zeitgeist. It combined the success of the decade’s trend of making horror ‘smart’ with psychological horror; the fascination with witches and witchcraft at the time; and the knowledge that – if carefully managed – there was little chance of the hoax being leaked.

There was no chance of someone whipping out their phone and recording the premiere at Sundance, as the first camera phone was released in Japan months later in May. Also, this was before the hyper-connectivity we live in today – minimising the chance of a script being leaked, theories being debunked, or people releasing photos on the internet of the actors alive and well.

The creators understood that the limited technology available at the time worked in their favour, making The Blair Witch Project stand as a testament to the unique blend of storytelling and cultural context.

Found footage

Despite being very much of its time, the film bucks the trend with its shaky and non-polished camera work. This again adds to the authenticity and realism of the film. Some viewers complained that this left them feeling a little nauseated, but I can imagine that these people were few and far between.

When we talk about found footage, it’s hard not to draw parallels with the epistolary novel. The epistolary novel is crafted with either correspondence or diary entries. These are all supposedly written by a character deeply entwined in the unfolding events. It’s a format that allows readers to immerse themselves in the story through the eyes of those experiencing it firsthand. Three classics of horror fiction, Dracula (1897), The Call of Cthulhu (1928) and Frankenstein (1818), all employed the epistolary technique. So if you enjoyed these works, you may enjoy The Blair Witch Project, if you haven’t watched it before.

Many other found footage films came before, such as Man Bites Dog (1993) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Yet none of these films contributed to the success of the sub-genre like Blair Witch did. It was a truly ground-breaking film. Hollywood has since replicated this format successfully with the creation of the V/H/S, Paranormal Activity and Hell House L.L.C franchises.

Summary

The Blair Witch Project won’t be the scariest film you’ll ever watch. The majority of the scares are only inferred – with nothing terrifying actually being visible to viewers. I feel that the modern audience is too desensitised for all that tension to be cumulated throughout the film, without the satisfaction of seeing a “monster”. You might come to realise that there isn’t actually anything to fear at all… which could possibly spoil your enjoyment of the film before the end is even in sight!

Despite its downfalls, what this film lacks in scares it makes up for in originality. Whilst the subgenre was nothing new, no other film until that point showed anything close to how a found footage film should look and feel. So at the very least, you should watch this film simply because it’s a unique film. It has, after all, an important place in the history of cinema. It might not be to everyone’s taste. However, I must admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for the film! So I will always recommend giving it a watch if you’re one of the few horror fans who haven’t already seen it!