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The Blair Witch Project
Directed by	Daniel Myrick Eduardo Sánchez
Written by	Daniel Myrick Eduardo Sánchez
Starring	Heather Donahue Joshua Leonard Michael C. Williams
Distributed by	Artisan Entertainment
Release date(s)	July 14, 1999 (limited); July 30, 1999 (USA wide)
Running time	86 min.
Language	English
Budget	US$25,000
Gross revenue	$248 million est. (as of July 26, 2004)
Followed by	Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Blair Witch Project is an independent horror film. The narrative is presented as a documentary pieced together from amateur footage and has virtually no music score. The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company. The film features Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams all as themselves.

It tells the story of three young student filmmakers who get lost in the woods while filming a documentary about the eponymous local legend. After being terrorized by an unseen presence for several days, they mysteriously disappear. Neither the students nor their bodies are ever found, although their video and sound equipment (along with most of the footage they shot) is eventually recovered, several feet under a building foundation that was laid at least a century earlier.

The release of the film on July 16, 1999 came after months of publicity, including a ground-breaking campaign by the studio to use the Internet to suggest that the film described a real event. It was very positively received and went on to gross over US$ 248 million worldwide.^[1] It was followed by a sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Release and reaction 3 Cinematic and literary allusions 4 DVD release 5 In popular culture 5.1 Curse of the Blair Witch 6 References 7 External links

In October, 1994, student filmmakers Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard travel to Burkittsville, Maryland to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. According to legend, a woman named Elly Kedward was accused of witchcraft in 1785 in the Blair Township (currently known as Burkittsville). After her death, residents experienced signs of supernatural phenomena, notably the disappearance of many local children. Years later in the early 1940s, the deaths of more local children were attributed to a serial killer named Rustin Parr, a hermit living in the Black Hills woods near Burkittsville, who would kidnap two children at a time. He would then take them to his basement, force one to face the corner and kill the other. Parr claimed he was forced to kill by "an old woman ghost". It was widely believed that this ghost was that of Elly Kedward.

The filmmakers visit Burkittsville, Maryland, where they interview local citizens who relate further details of the Blair Witch legend. They then hike deep within the woods, where unusual events begin to unfold. Mysterious sounds from the woods awaken the filmmakers at night, such as twigs and branches cracking. In the morning they find that three piles of stones have been placed outside their tent. Believing the group's map to be useless, Michael kicks it into the river, causing anger and frustration among the group. They eventually agree on walking south to get out. They become lost in the woods, and discover an abundance of totems hanging from the trees, shaped like stick figures.

The next night the group wakes up to groans and children's voices. The noises continue and the tent is battered from outside, which causes the trio to flee deep into the woods. In the morning they find that Josh's possessions have been thrown around and scattered. That day, after hiking for hours, they realize that they have ended up in the exact same place they were the day before, despite traveling south the entire time by direction of a compass. The group slowly begins to realize escaping from the woods is hopeless. As the group grows increasingly paranoid, Josh disappears one night. Shortly afterwards, a bloody cloth that appears to be from the missing Josh's shirt is found, with teeth and chunks of flesh wrapped in it. Heather and Mike grow increasingly cold, worried and hungry, and in what may be the film's best-known sequence, Heather records an apology to the trio's parents, claiming responsibility for the hardships they have endured.

One night, they hear a man screaming. Thinking it to be Josh, Mike chases the voice into the woods, Heather calling for him to come back. After running blindly, they discover an abandoned, dilapidated house. The duo enters the home after hearing voices and search for Josh, but are soon overwhelmed by the sounds of screams. Mike runs downstairs to the basement. Heather flees to the basement in search of Mike, only to find him in the corner of the room, facing the wall, referencing the earlier scene in which a town local describes a similar series of murders decades before the filming. The camera falls; Heather's screams are heard before being cut short.

The teaser poster and other advertisements for the film were designed to reinforce the 'documentary' concept, leading many people to think the film was an actual documentary, and that the three protagonists really had disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland.^[2] To reinforce this idea, the Sci-Fi Channel aired a fake documentary, Curse of the Blair Witch, that claimed to investigate the legend surrounding the movie right before the film's release.^[3] The program contained "interviews" with friends and relatives of the missing students, paranormal experts, and local historians. This was done so extensively that the three main actors were listed for a time as "missing, presumed dead" on IMDb.^[4]

The film draws on several influences to create the backstory of Elly Kedward, The Blair Witch, including allusions to the Salem Witch Trials and The Crucible to play upon the themes of injustice done on those who were called witches.^{[citation needed]}

The directors were also influenced by The Shining, Alien, The Omen and Jaws for the technique of showing the antagonist as little as possible to create a compelling psychological drama.^[2]

It is also notable that the fictional film "The Navidson Record" in Mark Z. Danielewski's contemporary horror novel House of Leaves is also entirely filmed using documentary equipment, and even records the similar fearsome, shaky movements of the camera during the expeditions described in the novel.^[5] The "witch" in The Blair Witch Project has been compared to the frightening physics experienced in House of Leaves, and the similarity of the experiences by the teams from both works has also been noted. ^[6]

Jim Knipfel of the New York Press has noted the similarities between Blair Witch and the widely-banned 1980 Italian exploitation film Cannibal Holocaust. In the first part of this film, a rescue team ventures into the jungles of South America to search for a missing group of filmmakers that previously traveled there to film a documentary about cannibalistic tribes. Their footage is eventually found and viewed, which makes up the second half of the film.^[7]

The DVD was generally well received, though by the nature of the film it does not exploit the full quality of the DVD format in either video or audio; the extras, however, were thought to be extensive.^[8]

The Blair Witch Project's success led to many spoofs and references in other media. For example, a film was produced solely based on the film's title, entitled The Blair Witch Rejects^[9] and the The Tony Blair Witch Project.^[10] Also, Cartoon Network released a parody of the film entitled The Scooby-Doo Project, the film was also referenced in an episode of The Simpsons, in which Bart and Lisa become hopelessly lost, and Bart told Lisa that they will "wander in circles like the kids in the Blair Witch Project.".

One particularly frequently referenced moment from The Blair Witch Project is the scene in which Heather points the camera directly up at her face with the camera's light shining in her eyes as she apologizes and claims how frightened she is. Numerous television shows and movies have lampooned this popular scene.

Curse of the Blair Witch was a mockumentary produced for the Sci-Fi channel in 1999. Set just after the events of the original movie, the program incorporated mock interviews with the townspeople, scientists and the students' teachers, as well as mock news clips regarding the search effort for the filmmakers. Historical "evidence", including the legend of The Bell Witch, are used as background material.

• Official website
• The Making of The Blair Witch Project
• Rustin Parr - Never Given
• Elly Kedward
• Interview With BloodyGoodHorror.com